What was your worst kitchen accident? My worst kitchen accident happened in my mid 20s – baking pecan pie for the annual family gathering. Everyone in my family was assigned to bring their specialty to Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad’s house, and my specialty was pecan pie.
I look forward to making pecan pie, and I only do it once a year. Pecan pie is limited to
Thanksgiving time, in the season when pecans are being harvested and we aren’t counting
calories. I follow the exact recipe on the back of the Karo corn syrup bottle and I used to pride
myself on my home-made crust – which my Grandma raved over how light and flaky it was (of
course, she taught me, sooooo……)
This one particular night before Thanksgiving, after working a long shift all day, I picked up the
ingredients from the store and made my way home. After dinner, I prepared the crust, mixed
up the filling and I loaded my pie shell with said filling. It was getting late, and I was tired…..
but all I had left to do was stay up another hour until the pie was finished baking.
Now, If you have made pecan pie yourself, you will know that the filling is pure sticky liquid
(sugar, Karo syrup, eggs and vanilla) with pecans floating on the top. The liquid pie is placed
on a cookie sheet, then both are placed in the preheated oven. The cookie sheet catches any
drips from the pie that might happen during the cooking process, and it also helps to remove a
hot pie safely once it’s done cooking. Pro tip (and ultimate irony): I cover my cookie sheet
with aluminum foil to make cleanup a breeze.
As I was lowering my liquid pie into the oven, it suddenly slid forward on the aluminum-foil
covered cookie sheet until it hit the edge – and before I could stop it – the entire contents of
liquid pie poured out into my preheated oven. What a mess!! The syrupy, sugary filling
immediately started to hiss and burn on the bottom of the hot oven, the grills were covered
with sticky goo and pecans. The liquid syrup poured into the bottom vents of the oven (where
does that go?) and smoke began billowing into the kitchen.
I don’t exactly remember what happened after. I think there was some crying….
I do remember, my darling husband Jim came to my rescue and did most of the cleanup and
none of the crying.
Nothing was salvaged. The stores were closed for Thanksgiving Day (remember when they
did that?) so no pecan pie for Thanksgiving that year. All in all, a distant memory and a
lesson learned. Now it’s time to make another pecan pie for this year, WISH ME LUCK!
And…….HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
What was YOUR worst cooking disaster? Share in the comment section below:
Oh my goodness that sounds messy. Thank goodness for Jim to the rescue. I think one year I did all the prep work because I only have Thanksgiving at my house with my kids and and thought everything was great let’s go for a walk while the turkey cooks and I’ll come back and finish since I had no more cutting and slicing and all that stuff to do well as you can guess it forgot to turn the oven on Happy Thanksgiving everyone
What a surprise, thinking you would be coming into the house with the wonderful smell of cooking turkey wafting all around you!! That’s one for the books! Have a Happy Thanksgiving Suzanne!!
My most Memorable Thanksgiving Disaster came the very first Thanksgiving I prepared for Jerry. The Turkey had been thawing for several days. I came home from work, excited to start cooking my very first Turkey all by my self.
I carefully lifted the Turkey out of the Fridge onto the sink to cut the wrapping off. As I cut the wrapping off, I noticed something not quite right. Whomever had wrapped up this bird had left the head attached! Those little beady eyes were looking back up at me! First I called my mother at work to ask if the head should still be attached. As she was saying “No”I could hear the laughter in her voice. Then I calmed down before calling Jerry at work to tell him. He couldn’t believe it either. I finally pulled myself together enough to chop its head off and separate the neck and throw it into the pot with the heart and Gizzards. The head went into the garbage.
After that I called Alpha Beta where I bought the Turkey and told them about the incident. They couldn’t believe it either, but all they did was apologize.
The rest of the preparations went smooth and the Turkey came out really moist and tender. Everybody ate it up and all was well.
Happy Thanksgiving One and All!
Good one Carol! You handled it like a pro! Happy Thanksgiving to you and Jerry!!
Not Thanksgiving, but I had put eggs on to boil. I went out to get the mail. Decided to pull a weed, or two. Got carried away and forgot about the eggs until they exploded! They sounded like a gun firing. There were egg bits ALL OVER the kitchen. Not as hard a clean up as pecan pie though! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Jeanine! I JUST did that in a microwave, with an egg that was already hard boiled and peeled (I wanted to warm it up) KA-BOOM!
In 2009, we were in process of moving between houses on Thanksgiving. I had just wired our new(to us) house for Electric Stove because we didn’t have a gas range. Thanksgiving morning, I decided to go to old house and move our range to the new house so my wife could cook for her visiting parents at new place. Halfway out of the house, my appliance cart rocked on front door sill and shattered oven door. I thought I was going to be divorced that day when I called her to break the news. There were no stores open on Thanksgiving Day! The vibe I got from her and her parents was rough. Luckily, I had talked my wife into buying a Nesco the evening before at Farm and Fleet on a whim.
I talked her into trying a turkey in the Nesco Roaster. And my Father In Law helped me move the range (this time) so she had a stove top. Thanksgiving was salvaged.
We have now used the Nesco for the last 15 years to prepare the Turkey.
We still talk about that stressful day. We’ve had 35 Thanksgivings together as a couple.
Hi Todd! Now I’m going to have to look up Nesco and see what that is! The last 2 years Jim has smoked a turkey breast in our smoker and that is my new favorite!! So, the road was rough getting there, but you found a new way to prep turkey. Congrats on 35 years of Thanksgivings!
Before retiring, I would bake 12-15 pecan pies, 2 at a time, over the weekend after Thanksgiving to be given out to co-workers. My family recipe has no Karo: it uses brown sugar but still makes a horrid mess when the raw filling mix dumps itself all over a hot oven door!! It’s a hard lesson to be learned.
Hi Charlotte! Yes! It’s the same, sugary, sticky mess burning onto your stove faster than you can clean it up! I’m sorry you’ve had that experience.. I’m thinking for most of us it only happens once.
I made a London Broil in the broiler which caught fire. I had to grab the fire extinguisher and put it out before the kitchen or house caught fire. Of course I had to throw it out afterwards. I also had exploding eggs on the stovetop which I forgot I wanted to hard boil and had left to go shopping in the next town. I had to scrape eggs bits off the ceiling and everywhere in the kitchen. Plus when I got home the entire house was filled with smoke. That was it though, when I’m paying attention most everything I have ever cooked or baked has turned out great.
Oh no!! I’m glad you were able to put the fire out Christina! And, more exploding eggs, how fun (NOT)! I REALLY hate when things are so bad you have to clean the ceiling….I have a couple stories like that, but I will save those for another blog someday!
OMG….I love all the stories and disasters that have happened in the kitchen….what a wonderful way to start our day….thanks for the stories and my husband Denny and I wish you a Merry Christmas after surviving those blessed Thanksgivings. We start November with blessings and head into the Reason for the Season.
Dennis and Carol Devlin, Leesburg, FL
Thank you Carolyn and Denny for the warm Christmas wishes and we wish the same for you! Yes, I’m enjoying the Kitchen disasters too!! At least I know I’m not alone!
Morning Jim and Anne;
Not sure if these two were my worst disasters but they both involved pies. When my brother Ed and I were about 10 and 12 (I am the older), our parents had gone to town so Ed and I decided to make a lemon meringue pie. Carrying it from the kitchen to the table, we dropped it on the floor. When my parents arrived back home, they were greeted by two boys sitting on the floor with spoons eating the pie. Still tasted good. The second pie incident occurred when I was cooking for my Lions club dinner. I made a berry pie with glazed berries on the top – a beautiful creation if I do say so myself. It slid off the carrier I was carrying it on and came to rest upside down on the top of the snow. Upon hearing what had happened, one of the other Lions immediately grabbed an eating utensil and headed out to eat it off the snow. Waste not – want not, I guess.
Harvey! Knowing you are and excellent chef, I was hoping you would share a disaster experience with us! You didn’t disappoint. Thank you!