Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

At the moment I can't think but I will say this PumpkinBear: Don't be so hard on yourself! You obviously don't eat like that all the time and I will always give someone props for using up leftovers instead of throwing them out! : ))

As an adult, I started cooking to 'get healthy.' HOWEVER--as a kid/teen..ohmy...I recall lots of butter sandwiches on really sweet bread (like, practically cake--think brioche), sometimes drizzled with honey. Ridiculous amounts of Paula Deen-like butter. Pepperoni and provolone sandwiches on rye bread. Peanut butter on plain chocolate bars. I'm probably still dieting away some of the fat cells I got from about age 9-15, the 'bad weight' years.

Probably the worst has to be the peanut butter cheesecake with a brownie top I made when I was 19 and could eat that kind of thing without going to the emergency room. It were goooood though.

Paula Deen's already been name-dropped twice!

caramel peanut-butter truffle pecan ice cream. it was a Barefoot Contessa recipe, originally just with chocolate chips, but we decided to add Lindt peanut butter truffles, because why not? it was already made with screaming amounts of heavy cream (no milk or 1/2 & 1/2), eggs, butter, and sugar. it was SOOOOOO good, but no one would eat it because it was so fattening and we couldn't give it away.

my mom and i had to eat it all by ourselves... :)

Regulars around here are chili with fritos and cheese, eggs scrambled in peppered bacon grease and served with the eggs with a side of cinnamon toast. I won't mention Martha Stewart's mac and cheese. I live in Texas and we eat Tex Mex and barbeque. Everything is incredibly bad for us but we eat small amounts and work out like fiends.

let's see ... bagel with chicken salad, cheese and bacon ... that was a gnarly hangover day. In college, we'd come home late night and make nachos out of doritos .... not ideal.

Most recently, a chicken and leek pie ... butter, cream, puff pastry ... delicious but not so much heart friendly!

Has to be the shrimp scampi I made for my fiance a year and a half ago -- used two sticks of butter, I think, and big pile of cheese. Did I mention dessert was a cake that also called for two sticks of butter? Mmmm, butter.

Just this weekend I had a taste for biscuits & gravy, so I researched onine for what I felt would be an appropriate recipe. Well, not to bring her name up again, but I figured an authentic source would indeed be Ms. Dean.

All I can say is thank goodness I cut the black pepper in half and I wished I had not added any salt, let alone 1 tsp. And we won't discuss the pound of bulk sausage, half pound of bacon, pint of half & half, white flour, and 2 TB of butter.

I can't even say if it was any good because the salt ruined it for me.

@shoneyjoe -"interstitial bbq sauce" may be the best phrase I've ever read on SE.

The meatcake wins. Wow. Your mind and your cooking works in very mysterious ways.

How could I forget?! This summer there was an incident with some lobster alfredo. White pasta, copious butter, free flowing cream and a pile of cheese. Aaaaahhhhhhhh, delicious!

Given that research clearly shows a diet high in sat. fat and low in sugar/simple carbs actually lowers cholesterol and lowers risk for heart disease, I doubt there's a consensus on what "unhealthy" means. The conventional wisdom dies hard. (Disclosure: I eat everything and am not a low carb acolyte.)

Better than Sex Cake -- bake a devil's food cake, poke holes all over it, pour a mixture of condensed milk and caramel all over it, cover with crushed Heath Bar, cover THAT with cool whip and then sprinkle MORE crushed Heath Bar all over the cake. It's so sick, but so good!

Also, Oreo truffles -- put a whole package of oreo cookies in the food processor and crush, then put in an 8 oz. package of cream cheese -- blend it all together, make little balls with the mixture, and dip each ball in melted chocolate, drizzle white chocolate on top. Total sugar coma.

Wow, semarr, you have a really good mom.

The worst thing I have made, I think, is this cake that had 1.5 sticks of butter, 3 eggs, and 1 cup of sour cream among other things, and then a frosting of almost a pound of melted chocolate, a pound of confectioners sugar, and FIVE STICKS OF BUTTER.

No, it was not a Paula Deen recipe.

@shoneyjoe wow...lol

Back in college, before I really got into cooking at all...I had a radio show to do on Thanksgiving. So...I don't remember everything about the brownies that I made...but I do know it required three layers of stuff on top and while each layer might have been acceptable on its own, it did not work all together. I'm pretty sure there were about 400 calories per bite.

I can't believe I or anyone else ate that thing.

I do a spoon bread that takes 6 whole eggs, plus 4 egg yolks, 1 quart heavy cream, 16 Oz's. stale cornbread broken up and heated on the stove top with 2 sticks of butter (unsalted), diced sauteed onion, green/ red bell pepper (think stuffing), 16 Oz's. of cooked spicy sausage (could use breakfast, Linguica, Chorizo, merguez or andouille out of the casing and broken up) some sage, thyme and chives chopped fine and mix all the S#!% together, season it and throw into a large buttered casserole dish and bake @ 250-275 in a water bath until set. (knife inserted comes out fairly clean)

Needless to say, I only do it once a year....

@BobbieAnne I love those!!

I remember seeing a recipe for Krispy Kreme bread pudding with some sauce (that must have butter in it) on F&W. I was intrigued but didn't try.

Heart attack chicken - chicken breasts split in half and stuffed with grated cheddar, hot peppers, mayo and mustard. Wrapped in bacon and baked.

You all have made me laugh so hard!!! Don't you just loooovvveee being naughty?!
If you have not yet looked at Why You Are Fat - Where Dreams Become Heart Attacks (thanks to avaryne), you MUST. What goes on in the mind of someone who would even dream up a burger with peanut butter AND mayonaise?!

@pavlov:

holy poo! that sounds f'in delish! and insanely naughty,naughty!

Y'all need to relax. Just becuase you're not eating quinoa and steamed kale everyday doesn't make everything else "naughty".

ohh I just remember I've had tempura ice cream! I didn't make it, so it may not count- but deep fried ice cream is, in fact, yummy

@Joyyy: You made me feel nervous and re-think my concept of what I consider "healhty." I use a stick of butter a lot when cooking, especially when making a bechamel or baking.

SailorDave on the other hand, made me feel better about my bad ways. Thanks, SailorDave.

@lizzie3 -- that reminds me, last month we made oxtail stew twice. So good, so cringeworthy. I once saw a recipe where it was recommended you stew the meat the day before, so you could scoop out the hardened fat the next day. And of course, now I want to make more oxtail stew...

actually @sailordave, you know the restaurant.... Portsmouth Brewery...

There's the chowder I made last Thursday with 1/4lb of bacon, a stick of butter and 1 1/2 cups of half and half. Come to think of it, I've gone through a pound of butter in the past week and a half and it's just two of us.

I just don't worry too much about animal fats though and it seems to be working out, as we're both in good health. I don't eat fast food, I cook most of what we eat from whole ingredients and avoid trans fats and artificial sweeteners. Bring on the butter!

Wow. This thread is giving me a heart-attack! (in addition to making me super hungry)

I don't know if I have one thing in particular I've made that was the most unhealthy: but I make baby potatoes with a extra heavy cream sauce and extra butter and dill when I'm having a rough day.
Butter always makes things better! (or temporarily anyway LOL)

@baker212 - omg I know that recipe! Is it in this book? When my ex and I were leaving (both foodies) this was a must-have souvenir.

It's a book I definitly recommend.

Hands-down: Deluxe Dining Package is worth EVERY PENNY when vacationing in Disney World. I would do it over and over again.

Anything I've ever made with phyllo dough because of the butter content. I love how the phyllo box says, "no cholesterol!!" Yeah but the sixteen pounds of butter you use between the layers pretty much nukes the "health benefit."

Another artery clogger - Chat n Chew Mac & Cheese. Worth every gram of fat and every calorie.

One more, when I was a kid we made these snacks by stir frying sugar in butter. Eventually it would form lumps which would be scraped up and put into a paper cone which immediately went transparent from the grease. Kinda reminds me of the butter-sugar sandwiches above. And I can still eat sweetened condensed milk straight from the can.

How about a bag of potato chips with dip, for dinner.

Most of the things here seem to me unhealthy only if eaten in great quantities, and it's good to remember that butter is probably healthier than the margarine lots of people thought they were eating for their health for so long.

I bet the most truly unhealthy things I've made or eaten are the ones I didn't enjoy but went ahead and ate anyway.

I've made a cheeseburger with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. Hell yes, it was good!

Mayo and sugar sammie on white bread (when I was 7)

I so want to make Paula Deen's Lady's Brunch Burger. It's just so over the top! We don't have a krispie kreme near us though, so I may have to make my own glazed donuts. The whole thing is over the top, but the thing about it that makes it just daffy is that she uses a whole donut on either side for the bun. Not split, as you would with a bun, but a full two donuts on either side. Blows my mind every time I see it.

Deep-fried oreos.

tonight my boyfriend said he was going to make us some meatloaf, i got really excited.
then he pulled out the springform pan, put a layer down, doused it in cheese and then another meat layer. reminds me of the meat pie mentioned earlier.

and then i just ate about 2 pounds of mashed potatoes and gravy WITH the meat pie. i'm on the couch for the rest of the night....

at a recent bbq, cooked a variation on paula deen's "ladies who brunch" burger: grilled a hefty beef burger filled with blue cheese, topped with american cheese, between two grilled glazed donuts. between 4 people we could only manage 2 bites...

here's the evidence...

oh and how could i forget.. the 4 slices of cheese on each burger patty!

It's a toss up between fat balls and bacon-wrapped sausage. The fat balls are a ball of cream cheese and chives, wrapped in croissant dough, wrapped in bacon and baked. So good. In college we joked it was healthy because it hit almost all the food groups.
Bacon-wrapped sausage is pretty much self explanatory, except it's also rolled in brown sugar and drizzled with maple syrup and baked. It's a once-a-year, Christmas morning treat.

I am well know for my concoctions and buttery baked goods. (My family is all about eating what you want in small amounts and exercising, so we're not the size of dainty elephants). But I have a few things to mention. They're all lovely and terrible for you, so I won't decide. You can.

Firstly, there's the butter cake my boyfriend requested for his birthday. There were two sticks of butter in the cake, and pecans, and this beautiful sour cream chocolate frosting, also requested by my beau. It was four, thin layers tall and took forever to eat. But it was lovely, and everyone raved about it. I think it was a Maida Heatter recipe. (Is that how you spell her name?)

Next, comes from Pioneer Woman. At my boyfriend's request, I was looking for a breakfast pastry/dessert for us to eat while I was in town. Pioneer Woman's dumplings won. Apples, wrapped in crescent rolls, and covered in two sticks of butter, mountain dew, and sugar. And a little cinnamon. They were right good.

Lastly, is a fun food from my roommate and I. You take a tostino's pizza (the cheap ones, from the freezer) and bake it on cardboard so the crust is soft. When it's done baking, put bacon and fritos on it and roll it up. (Or fold it, if the pizza is still hot and you're lazy and afraid of being burned). Lastly, cover the mess in chili and cheese. We made two of these for both of us and two rather strapping lads, and there were almost leftovers, but the gents bellied up to the challenge. These are also delicious.

The rest of the time, I'm basically a happy-go-lucky healthy flexitarian with a fondness for swimming and yoga. That's why I'm not ashamed to admit about the lovely food I eat.

Love all the wonderful ideas.

My childhood 'bad' food was Wonder bread slathered with mayo and then sprinkled with a tablespoon of sugar. Yummy! Any wonder why my mom took me to the chubby section for clothes?

When I feel really bad, I make my biscuits and sausage gravy: Grands biscuits, lots of heavy cream, good quality sausage, a bit of flour to thicken, lots and lots of pepper. No butter, but the cream will kill you. Be sure to eat two of these and make an appointment with your cardiologist immediately.

This is a toss up....

- 1/2 lb. burger, stuffed with blue cheese and chives, topped with more cheese on foccacia (we ate them and then felt as though we had a "meat hangover")

- enchillada casserole (lasagna style) that contained 4 layers of corn tortillas. In between was about 1 lb of pepper jack cheese, 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 lb. shredded chicken and 2 cups of bottled salsa verde

Once, when I was in high school (this was around 1967), I decided to make the Sweetest Milkshake Ever. I went through the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets searching for every sweet thing. I put a little bit of each into the blender -- brown sugar, confectioner's sugar, regular sugar, maple syrup, Karo, chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream. I turned the blender on, poured the results into a glass, and drank it. As I recall, it didn't stay in my stomach longer than 10 seconds. At least I made it to the bathroom in time. World-class dumb!

Baklava. Seeing all those cups of sugar (it's an old Bosnian version) go in is a bit bewildering. But the end result: so worth it.

I have the winner right here. The taste is fantastic and you can feel your arteries harden as you eat. Start with a boiled egg crumbled over a small bowl of lettuce. Fry 4 slices of bacon and set aside, save the bacon grease. In the skillet mix 3 tablespoons of bacon grease, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of sugar. Get them hot and bubbly for about 1 minute, then pour over the lettuce and boiled egg. It is a kind of sweet and sour taste. This is an old Okie dish called Wilted Lettuce. I think I am going to have some right now.

Just thought of one more--cake with butter and honey on top. Or peanut butter and honey and/or jelly.

Kielbasa, wrapped in thick-cut bacon and fried, on a toasted bun with melted cheese, sauerkraut and mustard. Double-fried chips on the side, with garlic mayo for dipping. And it was good.

I also frequently make very thick grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, sometimes with pepperoni or salami, which I dip into mayo before each bite.

@dbcurrie -- I'm with you. I've been chuckling at what people call unhealthy. All I could think of was what Michael Pollan wrote in Our National Eating Disorder:

"They found that of the four populations surveyed (the U.S., France, Flemish Belgium and Japan), Americans associated food with health the most and pleasure the least. Asked what comes to mind upon hearing the phrase ''chocolate cake,'' Americans were more apt to say ''guilt,'' while the French said ''celebration''; ''heavy cream'' elicited ''unhealthy'' from Americans, ''whipped'' from the French. The researchers found that Americans worry more about food and derive less pleasure from eating than people in any other nation they surveyed."

Several years ago at holiday time there was a request in Cooking Light magazine's "Recipe Redux" to "lighten up" a dessert recipe. The reader said that it was so high in calories, fat and cholesterol that she couldn't possibly serve it to her guests at the holiday. It was, but I thought, "this is something you have a serving or two of once a year -- what's the problem?

My brothers and I make "The Diabetic Coma" every New Year's Day for our family. It's a glorious sandwich- peanut butter, Nutella, banana, and marshmallow fluff on white bread, then buttered up and thrown in the panini press. You have to have a glass of milk to go with it to protect you from sugar shock.

fried Chinese scallion pancake with a slice of melted cheddar cheese on top

Oh yes...it has to be the "Hillbilly Special" devised by a family member to remain nameless. I only cooked it it because when this family member visited, he wanted it...and would be insulted if we all didn't enjoy his recipe.

Cook a pound of bacon in a cast iron skillet. Remove the bacon and fill the bottom of the skillet with pancake batter - of course do NOT remove the grease first. While the batter is still soft, put the bacon back on top. When the pancake is three quarters cooked, place about 3-5 eggs atop the whole thing and wait until the eggs are cooked. Serve.

There has probably never been a greasier, uglier dish made in the world. YUK!

When I worked at McDonald's we used to invent sandwiches and mine were worse for you than most.

One time I cooked up a quarter pound burger, deep fried a grilled chicken patty (instead of cooking it the "right" way), fried an egg, cooked a sausage patty, and some bacon. Add it to a toasted bun with mayo, arch deluxe sauce (remember that? Well it was bad for you!) and fries (yes the fries are a condiment). For a garnish a chicken nugget on top. Modifications could have been adding a mcrib (in season) or swapping the breaded chicken for the grilled variety.

Also a big mac made with quarter pound burgers and extra sauce is about the simplest way to go really unhealthy.

Sailor Dave - I actually DID make quinoa and kale for dinner one time, and then melted about a half pound of butter to pour over it. Oh, yes, and grated another half pound of extra sharp cheddar to go over the top of that. Ironically, in this discussion, the two ladies whose cooking ALWAYS makes me drool (Ina and Paula) are mentioned several times. Paula dropped the information the other day that her husband is now on a diet. OMG! Who is going to cook for him?

My mother makes waffles by partially cooking bacon on the waffle iron, then pouring the waffle batter over the bacon and bacon grease.

The most unhealthy thing I make would have to be either frozen custard, which is egg yolks, cream, sugar and whatever flavor, or duck confit, which is duck leg quarters slowly cooked in duck fat.

King Ranch chicken casserole, followed by tater tot casserole (traditional recipe) and then by Paula Deen's tomato pie (third in line because it actually has tomatoes in it, as well as two cups of cheese and a cup of mayo, plus whatever goes into the crust). All so good, yet so bad that they only are allowed to be cooked once a year in my house.

Grilled fresh foie gras (with diced mango, port soaked prunes and sherry wine vinegar) over brioche toasts, with duck fat fried potatoes [and green beans to assuage the guilt some]. Quite delicious.

@BobbieAnne I make that with matzoh for Passover every year. I got the recipe from Gourmet - it's called Caramel Matzoh Crunch, and peopel just devour it.

The 'most unhealthy' thing I have made recently was a jelly doughnut bread pudding from the New York Times - 14 jelly doughnuts, heavy cream, eggs, sugar, and it disappeared in seconds.

I also make brownies that have granulated sugar, brown sugar and Karo syrup, 6 oz. chocolate, 1/2 # butter and 7 eggs in each batch.

@IndyGal I agree - I don't make this stuff for myself, but I bring it to parties and events where there will be lots of people. So you eat 1 or 2 pieces, once in a while, no problem.

A black olive sandwich!
A can of chopped black olives mixed with far too much mayo spread on 2 pieces of white bread slathered with too much mayo, for the ultimate olive/mayo sandwich with a large spoonful of mayo au naturale as the appetizer before the sandwich. The first 3/4 was great and by the end my hunger for it was fullfilled. Not to be eatten again for at least a month or twenty-two.

It's a tossup among three for me:

As a child I LOVED white bread and mayonnaise sandwiches with my Pepsi... luckily, Grandma wouldn't let me have them - I had to sneak them. ~Shudder~

With holidays/Winter approaching, time to break out the fudge, too. My fave is basically sweetened condensed milk and choccolate chips. Mmmm, sugar, fat and chocolate - what's not to love?

And, I hate to admit that lately I've had a hankering for college food, specifically Chili Casserole: Canned chili (my favorite rhymes with 'Shtennison's Not') layered with oodles of cheddar cheese and corn tortillas and baked. Doesn't seem that bad until you read the ingredients on the can (what IS 'textured protein'?!) and realise the cheese is basically about a pound of hydrolised fat... The only healthy thing in it is the 6 corn tortillas.

But then, nowadays opening a can of anything but organic tomatoes feels sinful, so who am I to judge?

@betteirene -- I'm afraid that regional American cooking is going to disappear. Between chain restaurants, cookbooks and magazines, eating and cooking is getting much more homogenized.

I'm a fan of sugar cream pie, I just don't eat it daily -- or even monthly. I had the butter and sugar sandwiches when I was a youngster -- also peanut butter and brown sugar. I'm not sure that a butter/sugar sandwich is any worse than grilled cheese made with processed cheese food.

There's also some evidence that by adding the bacon or bacon grease to greens, for instance, you make them taste better and people eat more of the greens. The fat makes some of the nutrients in the greens more accessible.

@MarvinDog -- I think the French might be surprised to find out that duck confit is unhealthy.

@tacoo -- It's all about moderation. Unfortunately, over the last 30 years or so we've been taught that if a lot of something is bad, then none is best.

@butterfingers -

oh
my
gosh.

my sister used to eat that!
you two are two in a million i would assume LOL

in compliance with my low-carb diet...
low carb "nachos"
layer deep fried pork rinds in a pan,* sprinkle on some hot sauce, then smother with an assortment of sliced cheeses (pre-shredded will not do!)
place in broiler until cheese is bubbly.
*best when using the ultra large pork rinds found in Mexican groceries
eat immediately. keep a cell phone within reach to dial 911!

Just had this one, recipe follows for all of you seriously in need of upping your cholesterol levels:

Boil or bake a potato and keep hot. Soft boil an egg: The white should just be set and the yolk still runny. Cut a cross in the potato and squeeze to expose inside and create a hollow. Add salt and a generous dollop of butter. Slice the top off the egg and dribble/scoop the yolk into the potato. Top with grated Tusser's or Cheddar cheese and shredded pepper ham. Pig out.

French toast made from doughnuts, filled with ice cream and gingered mangos and topped with hot caramel sauce. Since I do not foresee making this again (blessedly my beau does not have a sweet tooth), no regrets for this one-time splurge.