what cooking mistake bums you out the most? mine is....

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boomchakabowwow

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over salting.

man! i tried to cook my wifes favorite dish last night. 3 cup chicken. Sam Bei Chi..arguably Taiwan's signature dish..

discovered to my horror that 3 cup chicken is probably really 2.5 cup chicken..it was so salty!!

it was so bad, i want "do-overs". i am gonna make it again this weekend, and follow my gut instincts instead of an internet recipe.
i've burned food, i've over cooked food, i've used salt in chocalate chip cookies instead of sugar..(dont say anything..i know)..really flubbed some dishes. but for some reason, over salting bums me out, when the rest i can kinda laugh about.

i'm weird. i get it.

you have any memorable eff ups? :D
 
I made a platter of clams casino last month for my dinner. Shucked the clams and all but did not rinse them out well enough. Had grit and sand throughout. They were inedible and had to be tossed. I then proceeded to have the rest of my dinner in 101 Wild Turkey
 
Overcooking vegetables or pasta. I instantly lose all enthusiasm.

Sand in shellfish bums me out. It seems that no matter how well I rinse my mussels, there will be sand.

Being too impatient and not reducing a sauce enough will also yield disappointment in spades.
 
Overcooking fish, though everything else mentioned so far is annoying as well.
 
Making a whole meal that comes out great only to blow the sauce in the last 20 min is a big let down for me.
 
It really bugs me when people overcook eggs. Fried, poached, boiled, scrambled - none of it is difficult. If a cook can't do eggs, they are not a cook.
 
I have difficulty managing seasoning, as many of us do. I also have minor issues with temp control.... Someday I'm gonna buy a thermometer and not have that issue. I also suprisingly enough have cut myself a few times.... Not with my razor sharp knives like youd think. Last week I got cut three times two of which were the dishwasher boogles my mind. Mainly seasoning management and temp control, too a lesser degree plating is also a weakness. I ordered the french laundry and modetinist cuisine book to try and nick that out.
 
overcooked fish is horrible especially when people say its underdone, no its not its PERFECT
 
Smoking things too hard so all you taste is smoke. Maybe not the most. Maybe not on purpose broken vinaigrettes. That's just laziness and an unwillingness to fix mistakes.

Really any of the attention to detail problems that prevent a good dish from being great.
 
I currently work at a fancy, neighborhood butcher shop, where I spend a lot of time explaining to people how to cook this protein or that, and reassuring them that everyone makes mistakes and that mistakes ARE OKAY. Enough so I almost have come to believe it. That said, if I overcook beef or duck, I just stop wanting to live anymore. It's an infrequent enough event, but it's happened and I was freaking inconsolable.
 
damn..you guys have some awesome answers!! every one..i'm saying.."oh yea!" too. haha

thanks..bad rice. woof! that is a good one!!
 
Bill13 said:
:plus1:

This was the main reason I was desperate to get a sous vide set up. Still tweaking temps, but worrying about a degree or two is a relief!
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Get close with the grill. Make it your buddy. Circulators have their uses, but with practice nailing temps with just coals is far more satisfying.
 
boomchakabowwow said:
damn..you guys have some awesome answers!! every one..i'm saying.."oh yea!" too. haha

thanks..bad rice. woof! that is a good one!!
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Yeah, rice might be the first thing I learned to cook, and after 15+ years of professional cooking and knowing a bunch of different ways to do it, and being able to to cook rice well every time I still can't do it perfectly.
 
****** up pie crust in the prebaking. Missing otherwise perfect custard timing.
 
now that i think of it, fish butchery. i never got enough practice and pretty much suck at breaking fish. that stresses me out of my mind. it's not inherently difficult but requires complete grace and confidence. watching someone do it really well is beautiful.
 
TheDispossessed said:
now that i think of it, fish butchery. i never got enough practice and pretty much suck at breaking fish. that stresses me out of my mind. it's not inherently difficult but requires complete grace and confidence. watching someone do it really well is beautiful.
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Buy one or two small whole fish once a week and get to it. I had the same feeling, was not comfortable with it. I struggled a bit at the beginning, taking too much time to do it right, it got better and now I can do it in a reasonable delay and I can feel pretty good about it. I still have to learn more fish dishes.

Any error that ends up messing with my tastebuds really pisses me off. I remember that stuff for a long time, like a trauma. Last year I burnt the whole batch of jam after a hard day picking the fruits in the summer heat, so pissed I cried the next day. Or that time I let someone else put the sugar and it tasted like sugar covered ****. The whole batch was ****** and I had to wait next year for a good one.. Terrible. I like to fool proof my processes. As an example I use two scales, one to weigh the whole dish and another to weigh the salt at 0.01g precision and I use a range of percentages to fit any dish perfectly every time. I cook my jams in very small batches (1kg), never on the heat more than 15 minutes and never leave for a second. It keeps the natural fruit taste, no caramel no burnt, extra crispy clean.
 
Breaking sauces. Working saute, busting your ass to get that protein all nice and sexy......only to have your ala minute sauce break time after time....more liquid......It's almost ready and properly reduced and emulsified...then Bam! A fraction of a second too long on the heat and Damn! It's broken again.
And again and again....aaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!
 
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