In the last few posts, we’ve been discussing the process of making your own meals at home.
When you first start trying to cook your own food, there are plenty of times when things won’t turn out exactly as planned. I know, because I’ve had a lot of successes and a lot of failures in the kitchen!
Most people think of “failure” as bad, but in the kitchen (and in life) there are two kinds of failures – happy and sad. Oddly enough, they both have their good points.
A Story Of A Happy Failure
I was making a box of corn muffin mix one day, and I wasn’t paying good enough attention to the directions on the box. It turns out I was reading the alternate directions for making corn pancakes, rather than the main directions for making corn muffins – and I didn’t realize the mistake until it was too late to fix it.
This meant that instead of a thick, mildly lumpy batter, I had something that was a lot closer to a soup.
At this point I had nothing to lose, so I took the entire thing of batter and poured it into an 8×8 cake pan. I then baked it according to the cornbread directions.
It turned out very good, and my wife and I even noted that we liked it better than the corn muffins I’d been trying to make in the first place.
I learned something, and dinner wasn’t ruined – that’s always a good outcome!
A Story Of A Sad Failure
One day I saw a cooking show where the guy was making these awesome cheese biscuits. This was the sort of show that doesn’t give you the ingredient amounts, and sends you to their website for the recipe.
A few days later I got the recipe up on my laptop screen, and set out to make the biscuits.
I measured everything properly, exactly according to the recipe, and mixed things up in the bowl. My mix didn’t appear to be anywhere near as dry as his was on the show. Regardless, I turned it out onto the floured counter, dusted the dough with a bit of flour, and floured my hands (per the directions).
Long story short, it didn’t just need a light dusting of flour. The flour to water ratio in the recipe had to have been off by at least 50%. This was the stickiest, messiest stuff I’d ever had my hands in.
Of course now my hands, the counter, the flour spoon, and half the stuff in the kitchen are covered in this goopy proto-biscuit stuff, and I’ve got a situation with a pretty simple summary.
The recipe was clearly wrong, and I had no idea how to fix it.
Not that I couldn’t have tried, but baking recipes are much more finicky than, say, a pot of chili. Since all I had invested were some cheap baking ingredients, I made my decision – into the garbage it went.
Want To Learn Quick? Take Notes!
Whenever something goes sideways, you want to learn as much as you can from the experience. In order to learn, you need to analyze what happened. While it’s fresh in your memory, make a few notes. If it’s a happy failure, note what happened so you can do it again! If it’s a sad failure, and if you can think of a potential solution to the problem, note that too.
- Prepared biscuit dough according to recipe.
- Dough was much, much too wet. Dough needs to be firm enough to knead.
- Look for a recipe with more flour, or less liquid.
The next step here might be a recipe search on Google. Or maybe you show it to a friend who’s good at baking, and they could give some input.
If handled correctly, your failures will teach you as much (or more) as your successes. Even more importantly, the more experience you get with failures, the less likely you are to have a failure in the future.
Relax, It Happens To All Of Us
These aren’t isolated incidents for me; I’ve got plenty more stories in both columns. For now though, let me leave you with a couple of thoughts.
I’ve met people that will insist that throwing away food because something went wrong is a horrible, terrible thing.
I say “hogwash”.
No, you don’t want to throw away perfectly good food. But when your bread comes out with a completely uncooked center, or the outside of the roast is so tough your $50, freshly-sharpened chef’s knife won’t penetrate it (yes, I’ve seen it – no, I wasn’t the one responsible), the food ceases to be “perfectly good” – throw it out.
Whatever you do, don’t force yourself to eat something that’s thoroughly unpalatable.
Forcing yourself to eat burned or otherwise ruined food only reinforces the notion that you can’t cook – which is the opposite of what we’re going for. This is, in fact, why we have the “backup” plan (as detailed in the last post); don’t be afraid to use it!
Got Some Stories?
I know I can’t be the only person with a few stories about recipes gone awry. Got some to share? Alternatively, got something that went awry that you’d like some help with? Let me know in the comments!