This Reddit Thread of Accidental Cooking Fails Is So Heartbreaking, but We Can’t Look Away

updated Oct 9, 2019

Page URL

We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.

As a food writer, I’ve long referenced a piece by Fuchsia Dunlop regarding how Chinese chefs reacted to fine cheese, describing it as “rotted thousand layers,” with a “bitter aftertaste,” that “affect the sweat that comes out of your skin.”To me it’s an example of the many cultural differences that exist when it comes to food, and usually I bring it up in an effort to encourage compassion and understanding around certain ingrained differences. Our food choices are not inherently good or bad, but instead are products of longstanding, learned preferences — and thus you should not yuck someone else’s yum.

In a recent Reddit thread that’s making the rounds, people’s parents, roommates, and friends have gone beyond just yucking their yum and have actually ruined people’s beloved foodstuffs thinking that it was damaged, destroyed, or gone off just because they weren’t familiar with it. The results are truly heartbreaking. “My Asian mum threw away my single-origin kalamata extra virgin olive oil because it tasted bitter,” is the confession that kicks off the heartbreaking conversation.

From there, the comments rolled in. One person grieved the perfectly ripe mango tossed as a “slimy thing in a bag.” Another lamented 14 hours worth of simmering stock that was deemed “dirty water” and poured down the drain. Another remembered the blueberry pierogi that were thrown away because of the blue spots.

The theme continued with dry-aged beef getting the boot because it was presumably “forgotten about,” and Greek-stye yogurt tossed for being “too sour and thick,” and a mom who changed the temperature on some slow-roasting ribs “to help them cook faster.”

The entire thread is heartbreaking not just because of the fact that fancy and treasured foods were destroyed, but also because it demonstrates just how many great food items people are missing out on simply because of a little misunderstanding.

BRB, going to go put my pink radicchio in a fire-proof safe!