I don't remember using the wrong spice or condiment before although I probably have. I have picked up Scrubbing Bubbles cleaner and sprayed it on my hair. :)

My partner put cinnamon in tuna noodle casserole, he doesn't have a good sense of smell and thought it was a herb seasoning. Even the dogs wouldn't eat it.

A couple of us were at a restaurant in Baltimore recently and the waitress brought cinnamon rather than Old Bay seasoning for the crab soup! It was not good.

Oh yes, I've accidently did the cinnamon instead of cumin thing in a batch of chili, didn't taste to bad considering around here alot of people eat cinnamon rolls with their chili.

Yep! Just last week I accidently sprinkled cayenne pepper on my buttered corn on the cob instead of the paprika!
:-O LOL

My pumpkin pie recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsps cinnamom, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cloves for 2 pies.
Thursday I was "palming out" the spices and added 1 1/2 tsps of cloves....and didn't realize it until I picked up the cinnamom....and realized what i had done.
Fortunatly I hadn't stirred yet and skimmed enough out and no one knew any different.
Linda C

Ah ha..I've been known to skim too Linda! LOL

Bobby, the first thing I would have done is washed it!

I did that many moons ago at a breakfast place where I was working as a waitress. I was REALLY in the mood for cinnamon toast (it was a lull) and grabbed a big pinch from the cooks "mis en place". What a rude surprise to find that it wasn't cinnamon sugar at all - it was pre-mixed salt and pepper for the home fries!

He laughed at me for a week about that!

Alexa

oh i remember using (unknowingly) salt instead of sugar in a sweet relish i was canning. what a waste of every ingredient and all my time. i cried for a quick minute on that one!

i have either screwed on to begin with and then unscrewed jars not realizing the little shaker part wasn't attached anymore and have dumped almost whole bottles of spices into things. that sucks.

my father (GRHS) one time reached down into the cabinet and pulled out what he thought was a bottle of vinegar (never looking at it) and made his salad dressing. he was so pi$$ed off because when we sat down to eat, it wasn't vinegar after all but vanilla! we laughed so hard but he was furious - his beautiful salad ruined. (my father was not only a phenomenal cook, but everything he made was a work of art and the presentation always amazing).

does this count? thanksgiving i perked a pot of coffee. i only use the type of pot that perks on the stove. well, i hear it perking, i wasn't smelling it and i look at the little glass lid and i'm thinking boy that's light. a little while goes by and it built up a good strong perk and still it's light. DUH -- i never put coffee in the pot! nice freshly perked water LOL

maryanne

Once when we were out having pizza, I grabbed a shaker of bacon bits and covered my salad, only to find out when I took a bite that they were red pepper flakes.

I've also hair sprayed my underarms. Many times.

Nothing spice-wise comes to mind. But this triggered a memory of the time my Godmother came to visit, searched around our bathroom for toothpaste and the brand she found was Desitin...

Yeah, Bobby, BTDT. By the way, how ridiculously similiar do these two look? (Fortunately, Balsamic vinegar went unnoticed in chocolate cookies.).
J0

Put red pepper instead of Chili powder in my chili. Son nearly croaked with first bite cause he didn't have anything to drink. I had added about 3T. to a small batch.

I've skimmed a few times when I put in too much of something. I don't recall grabbing the wrong thing but I could be having selective memory loss!

On Thanksgiving day I made an Asian-style Napa cabbage salad and the dressing called for a bit of soy. I didn't measure and just did a shake. I'd forgotten that my "soy" bottle also contains the dregs of a tamari bottle which is more potent. We are mostly salt free here so it tasted VERY salty. I kept adding more and more of the other ingredients to get the balance right. I could have dressed quite a few salads.

Great stories. A friend that moved away told me that her little old grandmother used Glade air freshener instead of Pam in the skillet for her hamburger! My friend witnessed the Glade incident. Apparently, this same little grandmother also mixed up the bug spray and black spray paint one day. Her grandmother lives alone so when my friend went to visit one day, she noticed a black streak across the kitchen cupboards. She asked what happened and her grandmother said, "Iuz chasin' a spider with the Raid." Too funny! Whenever we speak on the phone I ask for new "granny" updates... nothing else as of late.

Funny you should ask....

When I was making my pies on Wednesday, I reached into the spice cabinet and grabbed what I thought was the cinnamon. (Luckily) I have this habit or uncapping coffee or spices and usually putting it up to my nose to take a big whiff. Except this time I ended up with a snootful of chipotle pepper. The sneezes that ensued were certainly better then what that pie would have tasted like. LOL

Years ago when my husband and I were first married, I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for my parents in our apartment. Everything was perfect until I pulled the cranberry muffins out of the oven -- they were little gooey clumps in the bottom of the tin. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong until weeks later I was refilling my Tupperware canister of flour and noticed two different levels of 'white'. I'd mistakenly poured 10x sugar into the flour canister and that is what I'd used for the muffins.

Ah, good memories! LOL

Early on I used to add cinnamon to the coffee grounds before brewing (now I gag to think about it, then it was quite tasty). One morning instead of cinnamon I added cayenne. Talk about hot coffee!

In my defense I'm the sort of person that needs a cup of coffee in order to be able to make a cup of coffee so I should never be allowed anywhere near the kitchen before I've had that first cup.

Nina

Not wrong ingredient, but missing...........

I don't think I'll EVER live down the year I totally forgot the sugar in my pumpkin pies. Now, at every family gathering, SOMEBODY has to ask "Is there sugar is these?"

Sigh...

Great thread!

Deanna