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Original poster

Grim kitchen discoveries?

32 replies

DrMadelineMaxwell · 04/04/2021 20:56

Mine today was getting out the waffle maker to make a treat breakfast, only to find that whomever had used it last time probably me had neglected to check that the last lot of waffles had been removed before it was packed back away. I remove them as they are made, obviously and clean the machine there and then, but often we then heat a serving back up by putting it back in the machine for a minute just before serving so they are crisp. One clearly got forgotten in the machine.

A rather unpleasant 'one I prepared earlier' was waiting for me. Its been bloody months since I last used it, and it wouldn't clean off - the machine had to go in the bin!

OP posts:
GappyValley · 04/04/2021 21:00

A few months ago, there was a really grim smell in the kitchen.
Cleaned everything, ran the dishwasher through on several hot cycles, scrubbed the bin, couldn’t work it out.

Then realised it was from the Nespresso machine...
The milk frother had overflowed at some point, depositing milk through the slats underneath the machine.
The heat of the machine in daily use had made some sort of home brew Stilton under there was stank to high heaven

It was touch and go whether I needed to hoy the whole thing in the bin but managed to souse it in enough Rhubarb Method spray to clean and salvage it

sqirrelfriends · 04/04/2021 21:21

Last summer I made chicken tikka on skewers over an oven tray. To help "tidy up" DH put the tray with all the chicken drippings back in the oven (the one I never use).

We didn't use that oven for about 2 weeks and couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from. We thought under the dishwasher and even took off some of the base boards to check. When I eventually found the cause I was almost sick, it was hideous.

Glitterkitten24 · 04/04/2021 21:26

I have one that is just waiting for me....
I was making French toast months ago, and accidentally flipped a slice of bread out of the frying pan and down the microscopic gap at the back of the cooker.
I’m too scared of breaking the gas supply to try and move the cooker out to retrieve it, fortunately it doesn’t smell but I cant bare to think what it must look like by now!

ArmchairTraveller · 04/04/2021 21:33

All the gas cookers I’ve ever had have a chain that prevents them being pulled out too far and putting stress on the pipe.

Glitterkitten24 · 04/04/2021 21:36

@ArmchairTraveller that’s good to know! I might give it a go then, I do think of it relatively frequently and it bugs me! 😂😂

RandomUsernameHere · 04/04/2021 21:41

Mice! In our old house thankfully

MargaretThursday · 04/04/2021 21:41

Worse I remember was gone off kidney, but I was pregnant at the time so anything the least bit smelly made me vomit.

wheresmymojo · 04/04/2021 21:47

A couple of years ago I got the gas BBQ out of the garage ready for the first BBQ of the summer.

Someone DH had put it away without cleaning it.

The level of mould growth all over the 'coals' where fat had dripped and over the wire trays and even up into the lid was Envy

Plump82 · 04/04/2021 21:52

Long story short but I was visiting my mum and texted my husband to take chicken out the freezer, meaning chicken breasts. Ended up coming down with some sort of bug and had to stay at my mums as was too ill to travel home. Chicken promptly forgotten about.
Once I was home, for about a week later we couldn't work out where this horrendous smell was coming from...till i opened the microwave!!! My husband in his wisdom had put the chicken in there to defrost at room temperature but had taken a whole chicken out the freezer. The whole thing had swollen up and was purple!!! It was the most horrendous thing I've ever had to deal with. The chicken and fridge were binned!

TrainspottingWelsh · 04/04/2021 21:53

One of our kitchen cupboards is for items we only occasionally use, ice cream machine, blender, spares etc. We got out an old giant pressure cooker to lend mil and found a dead magpie inside. Going by the swift interference of dcat 2, it's safe to say it was being used as a personal cool box.

brokengate · 04/04/2021 21:55

We had a BBQ with friends a few summers ago.

Fairly nice summer, kitchen started to smell. Cleaned everywhere I use.

Woke up in the middle of the night one night and though microwave? Never use it. Went and opened it, wish I hadn't. Friends dh had put the warm leftover meat in there to keep it away from dogs and never said. It was moving. Straight in outside bin, God the smell was horrific.

Original poster
DrMadelineMaxwell · 04/04/2021 22:10

I feel a dead magpie trumps grey/green powdery waffle remains, even if they did manage to corrode the non stick coating somehow.

OP posts:
TrainspottingWelsh · 04/04/2021 22:19

The magpie was relatively fresh, rather than decomposing, dcat is more particular about use by dates than we are. Although it is highly likely she'd been using it for weeks, if not months, and the magpie was only the most recent occupant.

DidgeDoolittle · 04/04/2021 22:35

Years ago, pre kids, I made a tuna and pasta casserole. Didn't eat it all and put the dish with half left back in the oven. Forgot all about it.
Didn't use oven for several weeks, and being pre kids, was out after work most nights.
However, this disgusting smell emanated from the kitchen. When we eventually opened the oven door, the smell was appalling. The tuna was bubbling with a life of its own.
We threw it in the garden and hosed it down. I've never put anything back in the oven again.

Original poster
DrMadelineMaxwell · 05/04/2021 09:27

That reminds me of the state of dd1's uni kitchen when we took her back after the Christmas break last year. Upon opening the fridge we were met with a 5 week old vegan dish that was now just a tray of soupy mould.

Every time we take her back I end up cleaning the fridge before she puts her stuff in there...uni fridges are definitely grim!

OP posts:
Mydogisagentleman · 05/04/2021 09:33

When we moved into a property in the Middle East, I discovered a kitchen cupboard that had been used to house live chickens

whereiwanttobe · 05/04/2021 10:02

My ex husband used to turn off the electricity supply into the garage while we were away on holiday (I have no idea why). One year he got the wrong switch and turned off the kitchen power instead. Two weeks later we returned to a fully defrosted freezer that had a drawer full of meat. The smell was indescribable. I handed him the roll of bin bags and walked straight back out again. He never did again.

Dilbertian · 05/04/2021 10:34

The kitchen starting smelling musty to me, but nobody else could smell it. Not damp musty, not quite mouldy smelling either. Made me think of a garden shed. I could not track down the source of the smell, and all week it was getting worse. Still, nobody else could smell it. Dh started asking me if I could be pregnant! But after a week or so, the others starting smelling it, too.

I was making a cake and I started cracking the eggs, which we keep on the counter. As I cracked one of them I was overwhelmed by the most revolting smell and I instinctively chucked it into the sink. The yolk was black and the white was grey. The smell was unbelievable. Worse than the stink bombs we called 'rotten eggs'. I never want to smell that again!

JensonsAcolyte · 05/04/2021 10:38

We had a lamb shoulder, from Waitrose of all places, that looked fine until we cooked it. It smelled a bit wrong while it was cooking but lamb sometimes does so I carried on.

It came out of the oven and the middle of it was black. I made dh taste a bit just to see and he said it was the worst thing he’d ever tasted. Once I’d cut into it the whole thing just sort of shrivelled in on itself, and the most god awful smell leeched out.

I still have flashbacks.

Waitrose refunded us but I still wonder just what had happened to it.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 05/04/2021 10:44

Coming back from holiday and discovering my cat had decided pooping outside was for chumps and our kitchen floor was covered. Ungrateful animal, we'd spent ££ on an automated food dispenser full of her favourite food. Water dispensers too.
We've not been on holiday since.
Friend of mine found a dead rat in the warming oven at church. Typically, the last person to use the oven hadn't cleaned it or made sure the thing was empty. Rat had got on, feasted on elderly quiche and then expired. Twas a dried out corpse when it sprang out, "Revenge of the Mummy" style.

traumaticconversations · 05/04/2021 10:44

Years and years ago cleaning out my great granny’s house . She had dementia, had moved into a nursing home that spring and had probably had it for years by that point .

Mum clearing out her cupboards - amongst dozens and dozens of brown bottles of morphine, there was a full pan of soup . Massive soup pan at the far back of one cupboard . It was bubbling and would have been there eighteen months .

She also had crates of stuff for fly fishing . That was interesting until we found stuffed mice ... and stoat’s tails ... Think they’re in my grandmother’s stuff now .

HighlandCowbag · 05/04/2021 10:53

In the big 2010 freeze I was washing pots and the water wouldn't drain away (frozen pipe). The sink then leaked onto a plug socket beneath it (rented house that Jack built) and tripped the electrics.

Rummaging under sink to find source of leak and cloths to soak up water, at the time I had minky brown microfiber dusters. Grabbed 2 and soaked up water, grabbed third and was like why is this one clumpy and not soaking water up?

Was a fucking dead rat 🐀. I always kept poison under the washing machine due to house backing onto fields and woodland and being 120 years old, was prone to the odd mouse family moving in during winter but not fucking rats.

Turns out they were gettin via the water outlet pipe. I was absolutely horrified. Very nearly moved out.

Dilbertian · 05/04/2021 11:33

@JensonsAcolyte

We had a lamb shoulder, from Waitrose of all places, that looked fine until we cooked it. It smelled a bit wrong while it was cooking but lamb sometimes does so I carried on.

It came out of the oven and the middle of it was black. I made dh taste a bit just to see and he said it was the worst thing he’d ever tasted. Once I’d cut into it the whole thing just sort of shrivelled in on itself, and the most god awful smell leeched out.

I still have flashbacks.

Waitrose refunded us but I still wonder just what had happened to it.

Years ago I bought a lamb joint in Tesco. I had wanted a boned joint, but they didn't have one, so I thought I'd have a go at boning one myself.

When I cut into the raw meat I discovered a cyst in the middle. I had cut right through it. It was almost spherical, about 1" diameter, slightly greenish hue, and filled with what looked like thick pus.

No way was I feeding that to anybody! I took photos, binned the meat, and emailed the photos to Tesco. They refunded me and graces me an extra voucher, too.

callthevet · 05/04/2021 11:49

My friend had a range cooker with vents at the back. Her cat decided it was a litter tray..

Watto1 · 05/04/2021 11:57

I came downstairs one morning and flipped the kettle on. As I waited for it to boil, I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. The waste food caddy was covered in a moving black carpet of thousands of ants. I put my oven gloves on and threw it out of the window. I feel queasy just thinking about it.