Pinterest myth #423...the instructions are ALWAYS 100% correct.
Okay, I know...our number one suggestion is to follow the instructions when trying out a pin, but Lyndsey is here to tell us that sometimes the instructions can be way off.
"I am a newly wed. My husband and I had been married and in our new home for all of two weeks when I decided to surprise him with a pinterest inspired meal when he got off work. Bear in mind, I am no Paula Dean. I have no hesitation admitting I am not a great cook, but if you give me directions, I can usually pull off whatever recipe it is... Enter Chick-fil-a inspired chicken."
The Original Pin
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| http://www.domesticfrugalista.com/2011/09/15/recipe-home-made-chic-fil-a/ |
"Things went fine until it was time to fry the chicken. The directions tell you to heat the oil for 20 minutes. Now, most of you would automatically say 'No way!'. I, however, thought, 'Far be it from me, a lowly novice cook, to judge these super women Pinterest people...' and continued to heat my oil on the stove top (on 5) for 15 minutes..."
The Pinstrosity
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| http://www.clintondailynews.com/photoarchives2.htm |
Okay...that's not really Lyndsey's house...but you get the idea.
She tells us that she ended up with "a grease fire in which the fire department was called, and my husband and I were out of our home for close to a month while is was being cleaned of smoke damage.... Lesson learned, take everything with a grain of salt."
"P.S. no picture of burning skillet, though flames went to the ceiling..."
Lyndsey, I hope you don't mind I was chuckling through your story. I think that most of us have these early cooking stories (or if you're like me...still making these cooking stories). I was at a sleep over and my friend and I got up early to make breakfast for the family and pulled out their pancake recipe and mixed it up...only we didn't know there's a difference between baking soda and baking powder. We didn't end up with a kitchen on fire but those were some pretty weird and nasty pancakes. Or like when I decided to make potpourri as a kid and put some grass which I had pulled form the lawn into the microwave to dry. I was sure I was going to get a great smelling plate of awesomeness and that mom would be so proud of me. That microwave made everything taste very..."organic" for the next few weeks. So, we all have these moments that to some might seem like, "Well, duh!" moments, but really we all do things like this every now and then. I'm glad the house didn't burn and that everything turned out alright in the end. But yes...20 minutes is way too long to heat your oil on high...but you know that now.
I tried to set our kitchen on fire a couple weeks ago. But, to be fair, it was not my fault. My husband had spilled bacon grease into the drip pan under the burner and didn't clean it up. It hardened and then when I used the stove, it liquefied again and then got hot enough to start a little fire.
ReplyDeleteTurning off the burner helped.
Putting water on it did not.
Luckily, the worst thing that happened was a singe on the microwave that (mostly) came off with water. ::sigh::
FYI - now that you already know...... water on a grease fire makes the fire spread!!! If small enough, a very wet towel will choke out the oxygen. If not, use an extinguisher!!
DeleteRegards -
Your friendly fireman
i seriously did that 9 years ago when i was just a newlywed. it was at our apartment and i was trying to make fried cinnamon tortillas. my husband received 3rd degree burns on his arms trying to take the skillet out of the apartment. the fireman gave us directions to a very nice mexican restaurant and we never tried that again!
ReplyDeletewow that was one pricey pin
ReplyDeleteI was cooking-resistant until I was older and haven't created any full-blown disasters. My parents, though, were given a counter-top deep-fryer (as a wedding gift, maybe? I'm not sure; this was before my time). Dad loves fried calamari. Well, it turns out that they did . . . something wrong. No fires, but they spent hours cleaning oil and squid bits off of the floor, walls, and, yes, ceiling of their small apartment kitchen.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! That is so SCARY! I'm so sorry to Lyndsey and anyone else who has fallen victim to a miswritten recipe! That's what really frightens me about the age or Blogs when everyone has a platform to hand out recipes. It's so easy to have a typo or worse and SO easy to screw up the readers' work... even leading to a house fire?!
ReplyDeleteEvery single one of us needs to remember that people who write cookbooks have their recipes tested and tested to for accuracy. You won't always find that on Pinterest, so be CAREFUL!
Oh man, sorry to hear that Lyndsey! I've had the fire department show up before too, so I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteWhen deep frying put a few kernels of popcorn in the oil...when it pops the oil is ready (pops at about 350 degrees)
ReplyDeleteAnd as a side note: you should never use water to put out a grease fire. It only splatters the grease and spreads the fire. For any fire that potentially has grease in it (most kitchen fires) you need to use a smothering agent. Flour or baking soda work beautifully--I've used both at different times. They don't smell too nice, but its better than letting it burn. :)
ReplyDeleteNEVER walk away from a pan with hot oil. NEVER. That's a cooking rule that isn't taught often enough.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you want to learn good cooking technique, watch some old reruns of "Good Eats" with Alton Brown. He's kind of like Bill Nye the Science Guy...with food.
My husband tried a "pin" on his own once--he turned the toaster on its side to make quick grilled cheese. UM, the toaster caught on fire! I don't know if it was just because it was on its side or because it was older than Methusaleh, but I am glad we got a new toaster out of the Pinstrosity!
ReplyDeleteAshley, we know that pin well. That was one of the pins that started this whole site and gave us our fail scale. http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/02/not-so-grilled-cheese.html Yea for new toasters!
DeleteWould you believe we had those for dinner last night? They came out very yummy -but then again they were not burnt. :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like the time I assumed an oven-safe ceramic dish meant it was safe on *top* of the oven, like on a burner. I am extremely lucky that no one fell victim to the flying shrapnel when it exploded.
ReplyDeleteIf you use regular or extra-virgin olive oil, it will catch fire sooner than something like peanut oil because it has a low smoke point. Perhaps the original pin used a high-smoke oil. Just for reference, extra *light* olive oil has a very high smoke point. :-)
Level 5, quite literally.
ReplyDeleteI totally did the baking soda/baking powder mix up while making pancakes. It was terrible! My family still won't let me live it down.
ReplyDeleteI tried this pin a few weeks ago and had to throw out the first few pieces of chicken because I followed the directions. Um, my chicken burned within seconds. I turned the heat down to low and the rest came out fine.
ReplyDeleteTotally understand. My second year of college I tried making the stew my mom used to make. She gave me directions over the phone (I think as she was driving) and told me to let it boil for 3 hours. After the first hour, most of the water was gone, so I just replaced it, and then left with my roommates to go somewhere, since it has such a long time left. We came back to our smoke alarms going off and half the building outside trying to figure out what was burning. Our apartment smelled like smoke for months!
ReplyDelete