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**Texas Larry** · February 25, 2020, 09:57 PM

First grill pizza attempt, some time back. More like an amoeba, or an amoezza? Still tasty.

**Attjack** · February 26, 2020, 01:09 AM

I killed this lamb leg steak over my sear burner. It was well overdone. I even took a picture of me doing it.

**troymeister** · March 23, 2020, 09:52 AM

Epic Instant Pot Stupidity....

So I use the Instant Pot often for making yogurt. The normal process is to pre-boil the milk, let cool, add starter, let sit for 8-10 hours or so.

Last week It was time to make some yogurt but I had something in the Instant Pot stainless steel liner in the refrigerator.

So I boiled the gallon of milk in a separate pot. The idea being while the milk was cooling, I would wash out the stainless steel liner and continue the process in the Instant Pot. I did that but got distracted and forgot to put the liner back into the Instant Pot.

When the milk cooled, I dumped the entire gallon into the Instant Pot without the liner....Oops....Milk all over, inside the cabinet, drawers, silverware, big giant mess. It also tripped the GFCI outlet. So I unplugged immediately, shook it out as best as I could and set it aside. Cleaned the mess as best as possible and wondered if I ruined an $89.00 appliance. The Instant Pot electronics were already wet so I took the sink sprayer and washed out the milk and shook it out again. I set it in the pantry to dry for several days just to see if it was ruined or not.

Meanwhile, even though my wife and I cleaned all the milk mess thoroughly, the spoiled smell has been persisting. We are like on our third clean trying to get rid go that spoiled milk smell..

The good thing is it seems the Instant Pot is working fine and we think we killed the smell.

Cosas que pasa....Things that happen...

**fzxdoc** · March 24, 2020, 07:26 AM

Oh, gosh, troymeister , that's awful. What a mess. I've read on several occasions on the interwebs about that happening to IP users. In fact, there are several comments about how to fix the IP if it gets wonky. Here's one link for that:

What to Do if I Dump Liquid Into My Instant Pot Without the Pot Liner

https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/what-to-do-if-i-dump-liquid-into-my-instant-pot-without-the-pot-liner/

All might not be lost...unplug it, dry it out, wait 72 hours...

Hope you get the smell out of the cabinetry too.

Best wishes,
Kathryn

**JCGrill** · May 15, 2020, 06:12 PM

I'm calling this a fail, although I learned a few things and the next one should be better.

I have wanted to try making octopus, either on the grill or smoker. I've had it in restaurants more than once and I've been impressed. So, seeing smoked tako poke made on TV, I tried to do a little research. You can find some information, but I wouldn't call it comprehensive instructions. My butcher also sells seafood, and he had baby octopus frozen. So....

Thawed it out, and then put it in a bowl with a lot of salt, and massaged the salt in. Then rinsed. This is supposed to remove the slime. Then laid it out on a rack and sheet pan and stuck it in the fridge to get a pellicle.

Onto the smoker at 225. I had it there for about 3.5 hours.

OK, the obvious problem here is they are overdone. Some were harder than jerky. I think a larger beast might have handled it better, but small means less time. Also, I needed to do a better job of getting them rinsed. Too much salt. Maybe even a soak, like pastrami.

Chopped them up.

Cut up some green onion and mixed up a spicy mayo, and mixed in.

It's edible. There are a few more tender pieces in there. Awfully salty. Fairly fishy too. Next time should be better.

**scottranda** · August 4, 2020, 06:58 PM

Bowl of raw chicken slipped through my hands and shattered. I salvaged what I could of the salvageable chicken. Figured insane heat in wok will kill anything. The fried rice was still really good!! Big bowl of it because the kids like it too!! Makes me happy!

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**willxfmr** · August 5, 2020, 12:06 AM

First time I tried to deep fry a Prime Rib, I guessed at about 10 degrees of carry over after it came out of the oil. Turns out 50 degrees is probably a better guess. There was a very small part in the very center that was just grossly overcooked. The rest was trim.

Not long ago I had prime brisket turn to leather on me. Cooked it no different than I usually do, but for some reason, when I cut into it, all the moisture was just gone. Even the point was dry. Still don't know how or why, but there were some disappointed looks when the pizza delivery gal showed up with supper that night.

I'm pretty sure I've had more rib cooks go wrong than I have gotten right, but I cooked a lot of ribs before I had ever heard of The Pit, so that's more Meatheads fault for not inventing the internet, and creating this site sooner.

I've started enough kitchen/oven fires, that they barely cause any excitement these days. Everyone in the house knows of to put them out quickly and usually without wrecking the food, but at the same time, we all know where the fire extinguisher is, and how to use it. On the plus side, I no longer automatically keep 2 extinguishers on hand, you know just because we'll be making dinner again tomorrow.

In many ways I think it's great that I have soooooooo many disaster stories about trying to make a meal. Everyone of them has help get to where I am now, and at least in the words of the folks eating what I'm making, I'm in a pretty good spot.

Almost forget the banana coal I made last week! It started out wanting to be banana bread, but I stuck it in the oven, washed my hands, and SQUIRREL! Forgot to set the timer before heading out to the shop. After getting home from work the girlfriend brought out the still smoldering pan of blackness, and informed me that even if we have always agreed the one who cooks doesn't have to clean, she is NOT cleaning up this one. She did not buy the explanation that it was a new recipe for blackened Cajun banana bread..

**gmascolo51** · August 6, 2020, 08:02 AM

First time I went to make guacamole bought rock hard avocados got home cut them and realized what I did, such a dummy. Live and learn I guess. Cooking wise I’ve messed up a few dishes in my day photo wise you wouldn’t of know more so taste and or texture.

**BFlynn** · August 7, 2020, 08:52 PM

Well - short version is its almost 10 pm and the ribs I thought I'd have by 6 are still cooking

Tried to do pork butt and PB burnt ends and ribs all in one cook.

The PB burnt ends were fantastic.

The pulled pork came out great. Sorry. No pics.

But mid cook my buddy stopped by and beers a were had, and it rained on my charcoal and my Fireboard ran out of juice and Yada Yada Yada....

I took my eye off the ball and my ribs have been smoking at 150 instead of 250......so they still have a ways to go
â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹.

The food done has been good but I have over promised and under delivered.

We did have some tasty bourbon though

**BFlynn** · August 8, 2020, 06:46 PM

"Fail" ribs

**FireMan** · August 8, 2020, 07:02 PM

BFlynn , back in my early AR days I did the opposite. There might even be pics in the archives somewhere, just not on this thread. I was doin my third or fourth cook on my Napoleon, chickie I think, and I was tryin like a son of a pup to get the temp up to 350 and was really struggling with my thermoworks gadget cuz my readin was 275 or somethin. Smoke was pourin out of the grill from my pouch of wood chips, which went up in no time at’all. Then more smoke from the 2nd bag of chips instantly, oh well. I waited it out til more smoke, t’was the chickie pieces this time. But, but how can that be, I dunna understand, then I saw the big C on my thermo-meter. Oops! Never again says I.

**FireMan** · August 13, 2020, 08:50 PM

This happened a few days ago. In all my desire to be efficient, I decided to roast some beans in a 12â€ Griz. Well, I thought I’d sneak in a few brats & 2 burgers before I cooked the coffee. Mistake! Instead of 8 to 10 minute it took 40 to 50 due to dying coals. Lesson learned.

**STEbbq** · September 13, 2020, 05:46 PM

Cooked some burgers and zucchini on the grill Friday.

For some reason I thought the burgers were beef but as you can see they were pork. My wife hates pork and promptly gagged when taking a bite. Oops. I just had it fixed in my mind that burgers = beef.

The zucchini tasted good with the seasonings (garlic, salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, bbq rub) but I used too much oil and they were too greasy. Couldn’t really eat more than a few.

FAIL.

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**STEbbq** · October 21, 2021, 11:35 AM

No pics, because, well the end result was plain white chicken breasts.

I wanted to fry fried chicken in the deep fryer for the first time this weekend. So, I breaded and battered all my wonderful chicken breasts (about 1.5 pds) with this lovely Nashville hot batter. Dumped it all into my frying basket, and lowered it into my 400 degree oil on the smoker in the Dutch oven.

And.....because all of the chicken was bunched together, all of the batter promptly fell off. Sigh.

When I did the Pioneer chicken batch (another 1.5 pds) a few minutes later, I dropped them in there one by one, and they turned out great. I only did a single layer of about 4 pieces to cover the bottom of the basket though. Is it not possible to layer the chicken in the basket if you drop them in one by one? Seems to defeat the purpose of having a big Dutch oven and basket if you can only do four strips at a time, but maybe I will try layering in a few more pieces one by one next time.

Also, loaded up the basket to the brim with my French fries, only to be surprised the double frying didn't lead to perfectly crispy French fries. Clearly using about 1/3 to 1/2 of the amount of fries next time will keep the oil hotter and cook them to crispy.

Still, not too bad for the first-time fryer.

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