Cooking Disasters FAQs

Macaroni and cheese fell on the floor? Half your apple tort stick to the pan? It happens. Sometimes, it happens more than we care to admit, but it’s important to give yourself grace here. Cooking disasters happen all the time (trust me, I’d know!), but when we slow down and look at why it happened, it will help you learn not to make the same mistake.

Below is a list of some common cooking mistakes that I’ve made, and what to do about it so you don’t have the same experience:

Half my cake stuck to the pan… even though I buttered it!

There is nothing more frustrating than baking a perfectly delicious cake only to have half of it stick to your pan. Yes, it is possible for cake to still stick to a pan even after buttering it thoroughly.

For best results, butter and line your pans. Butter your cake pans thoroughly, especially around the sides. Then take some baking paper and cut circular shapes. Place on the bottom of the pan. It doesn’t need to be a perfect circle, or even fit the entirety of your pan. You just need it to coat some of the bottom. The next cakes you bake using this method will come out completely without leaving any residue.

All my pasta stuck together. Now what?

This one is annoying, but simple to fix. Most pasta recipes just say, ‘cook your pasta’, but leave out the all-important step of ‘then stir your pasta’ after. If your pasta just sits there, the noodles will start adhering to each other. I’ve had this happen with lasagna noodles more times than I’d care to admit. By stirring the pasta just a little after you dump it into boiling water, your pasta will come out beautifully after it’s done cooking.

My soup/curry/sauce is too runny. How can I thicken it?

Sometimes, even when a recipe insists your sauce should thicken on its own with a little more cooking, it just doesn’t happen. In the interest of saving time and heartache, there are several things you can use as a thickening agent:

·      My favorite option here is flour. You probably won’t need a lot. Even a tablespoon’s worth can thicken a curry for 6 people. While it might change the texture ever so slightly, it typically isn’t noticeable and certainly won’t change the flavor of your dish.

·      The cornstarch option is another fine method. With this, it’s important to add a little of your liquid to the cornstarch; just enough to make a paste. Then pour the paste into your dish.

My dough isn’t rising…..at all.

This one is annoying, and slightly tricky to diagnose.

On the one hand, the problem could be as simple as the temperature of the room. Most dough need heat to rise effectively (75º at the very least). If you believe the temperature to be the culprit, turn on your oven ever so briefly, just enough to raise the temperature. Turn it off, and put your dough in the oven, and close the door. I also like to keep the oven light on, just to add a touch more heat.

On the other hand, it’s possible you’ve killed the yeast in your dough. This happens if it was never activated, if there are other yeast-killing agents in your dough, or if you didn’t knead your dough enough to activate the gluten.

At the end of the day, if nothing is working, you can’t bake a dough that didn’t rise. Chances are it will come out as dough and be inedible. You’re better off starting over or trying a different recipe that works better for you.

My yogurt mixture became lumpy when I put it in my soup/curry!

Of all the cooking disasters, this one is quite possibly the grossest. It’s important to remember that whenever you’re adding something cold to your curry, sauce, or soup, you must temper it first. That is to say, you should bring the cold mixture as close as possible to the temperature of whatever it is you’re cooking. Once you have your cold mixture prepared, add a tablespoon or so of your hot liquid, and stir into the mixture. Don’t be afraid to add a little more than you think is necessary and test the temperature multiple times. If it isn’t ice cold, then it’s probably okay to put into your dish.

My curry/dish isn’t spicy enough.

This one is simple to fix right away. Remember that most recipes are written according to how the author likes their spiciness, not how the general population will appreciate it. Everyone has a different spice-tolerance level, and chances are you’ll want to play around with what works and what doesn’t. To add additional spice right away, the simplest way is to add in an ingredient that will provide that for you immediately:

·      Jalapeño, habanero pepper, or serrano pepper if you’re still cooking and if you believe the flavors will fit well into your dish.

·      Red hot pepper flakes work with just about any dish for adding spiciness.

·      The same can be said for cayenne pepper.

·      Sriracha sauce, gochujang, or another hot chili sauce can be used either as you’re cooking or as a condiment.

Whatever you do, make sure the flavor of what you add in fits the nature of the dish. Also make sure not to add too much of it! You may think adding four more jalapeños makes sense, but then when you taste it, you’ve reached another state of consciousness. Start small, and taste often!