Non-fail fudge? My recipes guaranteed great results. As newlyweds, when we owned only one cooking pot, my Canadian husband requested boiled cod. (I don’t know why.) Next he wanted chocolate fudge. It looked great, just the right consistency. Although I had scrubbed the pot until it was sparkling clean, we couldn’t stand the fish flavor.
Non-fail Christmas fruit bread? I followed a special Eastern European recipe faithfully, except my yeast mixture got several degrees too hot. Result? My yeast died and my fruit bread was so dense, we hammered it from the pan with a chisel. The birds who ate most of it on our deck could barely fly.
Sometimes accidents create recipes. President George Washington’s cook’s quickly put her baked custard on the back steps in snow to cool before serving it to the British Ambassador and forgot it She invented frozen custard and repeated that process off during other winters.
Charles Lamb’s essay, A Dissertation on Roast Pig, describes a dull boy left alone at home in China. During his watch, the family home burned down with piglets inside. The smelled a tantalizing aroma, touched the hot meat and burned his fingers. Of course, he put his stinging fingers in his mouth to cool them and tasted something wonderful. So did his family members when they came home. Each spring after that their family’s home burned down again with piglets inside, and they feasted.
Library shelves hold many books on subjects for Dummies, and more will be written. What accidental discovery do you think is wonderful? Or what product do you think should be tried or invented?
Have a great month!
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