Your Thanksgiving DISASTERS

In My Humble Opinion
21

Just a small mishap this year. I saw a Good Eats where Alton warmed the dairy (cream and buttermilk) and garlic for his mashed potatoes on the stove while the potatoes were cooking. Seemed like a good idea, so I tried it out. Before the mixture had even gotten warm, it separated out into small lumps and water (curds and whey?), and smelled kind of funny. Luckily I had more dairy stuff, so I just used that and didn’t heat it up and we had some fine mashed potatoes.

I’m still not sure why that first batch turned out so poorly.

That was the only mishap because we decided to grill up some steaks, shrimp, and veggie kabobs instead of a turkey. Last year’s turkey was … unfortunate.

22

Aw, c’mon! We won’t tell anybody!

23

The buttermilk is acidic. Cream or milk curdles with acid, and heat makes it happen faster.

Pour 1/2 acup milk into a pan, heat the milk and add vinegar. Watch it curdle. Wee. Oooo. Ahhhh.

24

So, I read it. Became so engrossed that I forgot it was last year’s thread and posted to it :smack: .

Sheesh.

Was a scary thread, though- 12 hours of cooking? egads.

25

I was making chocolate mousse for the dessert. Melt the chocolate with water: okay. Beat the egg yolks and add to chocolate: done. Whip the egg whites with sugar and add to mixture in saucepan: okeley dokely. Then, abruptly, I had a total brain fart and poured more than half the unwhipped cream into the saucepan before I realized what I was doing. :smack: It still tasted great, but was runnier than it should have been. Chocolate mousse is supposed to be so dense that you carve it, and this was only slightly thicker than pudding. Still, nobody complained!

Everything else turned out great, though. Well, the mashed potatoes were a bit lumpy, and in fact, I missed most of one potato. But I didn’t discover this until said potato was on my own plate. I think I’ll get one of those potato ricers. We sell them where I work, and I used to think they were the ultimate in unnecessary gadgets, until I saw one demonstrated (and had a spoonful of the results).

26

Everything about the food was great, the two turkey breasts I cooked were fine. I was allowed to make the dressing this year, it was great.

It was only after the gala affair ( first time this house had holiday guests in my Hubby’s remembrance) that I noticed we left the portable air compressor out. In th living room. :smack:

Oh well. Fiddle-dee-dee, tomorrow’s another day. :slight_smile: At least, I think we moved up from “heathens” to “ignoramuses” in the family’s book.

27

About 12 years ago had a power outage at 10 in the morning. By the time power was restored at 4 pm, the turkey was ruined. I made a big pot of spaghetti for dinner, we had our turkey dinner on Friday.

28

Due to family obligations, we had our family Thanksgiving at my MIL’s house on Friday.

We drove up, and there’s my MIL, rather tight-lipped, saying she has to run out for a bit with my SIL. She wouldn’t say anything.

We figured my SIL had had a fight with her husband and needed to calm down, so we park the car and head into the house through the garage.

I notice a godawful stench in the garage, so bad I start gagging. I’d heard my SIL was planning to cook a duck along with the turkey and ham, and I thought with dismay that this was the smell of cooking duck.

I go into the house, drop off my purse, and had to immediately exit the house because the stench was overpowering. I stood gagging and coughing in the garage, wondering with dismay if I was going to have to pretend to enjoy whatever they were going to feed us, or if I would have to spend the entire Thanksgiving out in the garage.

Shortly after that, my son comes out bearing the turkey, which he dumps into a garbage bag held by my other BIL, also gagging and coughing. It immediately goes into the garbage can.

Much Febreze and open windows and fans later, we got the smell out of the house. We still do not know what happened to the turkey. It was thawed in the fridge and put directly into the roasting pan. My SIL had turned the turkey over, to let the juices flow down into the breast meat, and that’s when it started stenching.

Her husband, bless his heart, was not very tactful. She’s crying in the kitchen, trying to call Publix to get a fully smoked turkey to serve everyone, and he tries to cheer her up by saying, “What are you crying for? It’s just a turkey!” :smack:

To his credit, he did realize his faux pas and apologize later.

29

It wasn’t like it was an engine on the floor and parts laying about, so no big deal. When someone hosts a party and the people have to walk around engine parts, it’s time to cancel the shindig.

30

Well, we didn’t have any food catastrophies thankfully (except the marchmallows on the sweet potatoes burned a little - must learn to use broiler). In fact, this being my first Holiday dinner I hosted, I got rave reviews.

Our mishap was thinking our garbage disposal could handle more than it could chew. A little flooding, a couple buckets of nasty water, and a trip to the store to buy a monkey wrench solved that issue. I’m glad nothng worse happened.

More of our issues were the drama leading up to the day. A family divorce and a bithcy older sister made for a lot of uncomfortable moments leading up to and during the event.

But my food turned out really good! :smiley:

31

(Bolding mine.)

On Wednesday, NPR had a short story on how Thanksgiving and the day after are two of the busiest days of the year for plumbers and drain cleaners, because people overestimate the power of the garbage disposal. Just throw it away, folks!

Our only food-related mishap was my MIL not telling us she planned on making instant mashed potatos. I would have gladly made some at home and brought them, but she never even mentioned it! (I think she secretly likes the boxed ones better.)

32

I lost my grip on the turkey as I was lowering it into the brine.
SPLASH! right into the brine, all over me, all over the counter, all over the wall, all over the side of the fridge.

Salty brine water into the eyes, with contacts, is not fun. My eyes still hurt.

33

Instant mashed potatoes at a Thanksgiving dinner, Avarie? Now, that will get you a “heathen” rating in my house (I’m commiserating, by the way - I understand it wasn’t your choice). Why not serve turkey franks and canned gravy to go with them?

You guys are some serious cooks, here. All kinds of interesting recipe ideas in this thread.

34

Were you at my house? Every year I follow this recipe, and my turkey has always turned out very good (and moist), but for some reason this year, I forgot to clean out the oven, and like you, the house was awash in a smokey haze. The smoke detectors on the THIRD FLOOR were sounding off (the batteries in the ones on the first and second floor having been removed).

35

a couple of minor ones this year, unfortunately both perpetrated by my wife:
clogged the garbage disposal in the morning, after trying to shove an entire bag’s worth of potato peels down the disposal. It stayed clogged all day, but mercifully opened up late that evening. Second: the mashed sweet potatoes I made the day before, and baked that morning were dropped full on the kitchen floor on their way from oven to table. My chef friend who joined us scooped up a fingerfull from the floor and pronounced them delicious. They were a total loss otherwise.

36

LOL! :smiley:

It was as bad as the thread indicated…

This year, dinner was at the In-laws… they KNOW how to cook. :smiley:

37

My Alton Brown Turkey came out nearly perfect. I say nearly, because there were two minor issues:

1.) I suspect my mother’s old oven couldn’t quite hit 500 degrees, so the skin on the breast never reached that delicious dark golden/reddish color as the rest of the skin.

2.) I had the same smoke issue during the 500 for 30 mins portion. We had to open windows, doors, and pull the batteries out of the smoke alarms. It was about 29 degrees F that day so it was not a comfortable exeperience! My mom blamed it on my turkey cooking method, I told her she needs to clean out the drip pan of her oven. All that smoke was NOT coming from the turkey!

Alas, the turkey was still excellent. Everybody raved about the crispyness of the skin and the juicyness of the meat. A couple of people even thought that I fried it again this year (I did the fried turkey thing the previous two years). If i do it again next year, I will probably just cook the turkey in my own oven at home and then rush it over to my folks afterwards. My oven is new, clean and can reach/hold whichever temp i desire with ease :smiley:

38

I made the mistake of following the cooking instructions that came with the turkey (450 for half hour, then 325 and 10-15 minutes per pound, and add a little water to the pan, and stick the thermometer into the meaty part of the thigh). The thermometer (and an instant-read thermometer) both confirmed the turkey was beyond done. We carved it. It bled.

We put all the meat back into a roasting pan, covered it with foil, and baked it another 45 minutes. Which meant the meat was safe to eat, but it didn’t get that megayummy flavor it always has before when I’ve brined it :frowning: The gravy was oddly bitter, too.

I’ve had crappy luck every time I’ve followed the cooking instructions printed with the turkey. Back to straight 325 and the thermometer in the turkey-breast for me!

The mashed potatoes were made with a new recipe that allows for making in advance, then you bake in a casserole dish. There was plenty of room in the dish for the double-recipe even though the instructions called for that size for a single recipe. Well, when you whip potatoes, I guess a lot of air gets whipped in. So it expanded and overflowed, and never got nice browned peaks. Oh well, it tasted good.

I got 3 or 4 burns on my hands, usually I wind up with zero burns.

Oh well, the food was good and the company was great.

Many years ago, when roasting bags first came out, my mother tried to use one. She wound up dropping the entire turkey on the floor. We ate it anyway :slight_smile:

39

Pretty common first-timer disaster.
Bought a frozen turkey and waited until T-day to read the instuctions on the label. Thaw.

40

I’ve used the roasting bags for years, as does my mother. I swear by them. I think they’re very easy to use, and cut down on cooking time. I’m wondering what happened that caused her to drop it - she didn’t try to take it out of the roasting pan still in the bag, did she? You have to cut the bag open before taking it out. Actually, I cut the bag open towards the end of the cooking time to get the skin nice and crispy.