To ask about the worst ingredient substitution you've had the misfortune to taste?

[BackInBits]

I've come across a few.

My brother made a roast lamb and had no red currant jelly. Strawberry jam it was.

I've an aunt who put sour cream in the trifle. Not quite as bad as Rachel and the beef, but it did not work well.

I've an ex who was making chickpea patties that called for cumin, turmeric and coriander. In case you were wondering, oregano does not make up for a lack of cumin.

A friend of mine made some what were supposed to be yummy, sticky flapjacks for her grandson who was coming to stay. Sadly, she used Lurpack Garlic Butter. not great.

Icing sugar instead of cornflour for thickening a sauce

At a serve yourself place DH lovingly poured gravy over the mushroom Wellington. Except it was cherry strudel. We've never let him live it down.

@BarbaraofSeville
"OhGiveUp
Margarine instead of butter. Absolutely disgusting.
I agree, and there's a special place in hell for people who call all spreads 'butter' especially when questioned about whether the muck they are transferring from the giant white tub behind the counter onto my crumpets in a cafe is real actual butter and not margarine.

When I'm in charge anyone who does that will be banned for life from operating any sort of food service establishment. I'm not joking.

They can't even claim it's a cost issue, because it would be cheaper to add a thin spread of butter than the great wedge of margarine that most places use. Really puts me off eating out anywhere I don't know, because I have to ask every time and many people simply don't get it. confused."

Its also an allergy issue

@Sippingonginandjuice77

I use mint when making spag Bol, however we ran out and I didn’t realise until it was already cooking. I therefore decided to put mint sauce in it! Hubby was not happy as the vinegar overpowered the whole meal 😃 😃😃

Wait. What?

Mint in Spag Bol?

Is this usual? Am I missing something? This sounds utterly awful?
Why would you put mint in?

Asking genuinely as it truly does sound horrible, but Im aware sometimes weird combinations can be wonderful together and Im wondering if this is one of those things everyone knows about except me?!!

A friend tried to make a "floater" coffee with yogurt because they didn't have any cream. The yogurt did not float, it looked too vile to even taste.

Loving these!

@StellaGibson118

Baked beans in a chilli instead of kidney beans.

@StellaGibson118, baked beans instead of kidney beans is pretty much Sloppy Joes. Very stodgy and super tasty if poured over a big fat white roll with butter. Comfort food extraordinaire.

Strawberry Fromage Frais instead of Creme Fraiche in a chicken dish. To date its still the worst thing I have ever tasted.

@rrhuth

Fish stock in place of coffee, I wasn't the one to eat the subsequent dessert

Didn't cross my mind at the time but typing that I felt about shellfish allergies.

This has tickled me!! How?? And why?

Another mum and I made a huge pot of chilli for our DS's sports team after a competition. It was delicious and sitting waiting for them when they got home. Then the boys rang to ask if they could invite some friends who had been watching. No problem, my friend went off to pick up another pack of mince to add to the pot and some sides like nachos, garlic bread etc to make it stretch.

We quickly cooked up the extra portions and added them to the pot... except it wasn't beef mince, it was lamb. The overpowering muttoniness of the chilli was rank. We tried adding oxo cubes. It was even more vile. Like eating roast lamb with beef gravy. We added Jack Daniels (a Heston Blumenthal recommendation). Nope. It added a weird fruity, banana penicillin aftertaste to it. We ended up chucking a load of potatoes in the microwave and crisping the skins in the oven.

Thank god for all the extra sides. It's the only time I have had any leftovers after feeding a horde of hungry teenage boys. Not just leftovers, food left on plates and the pot of chilli barely touched.

When I was about 14 at a fairly posh BBC lunch with my Dad. The lights were strangely low and I was vain about wearing glasses at the time. I took some apple pie for pudding and put a big dollop of whipped cream on top. It was mayonnaise. I ate it, too, being completely mortified and hoping that noone would notice.

At a restaurant for a valentines meal with dh. Apparently someone didn't think there were enough scampi being prepared so added more- I'd ordered deep fried mushrooms.
Definitely the worst substitute I've had, although another pub served my vegetarian meal with beef gravy as they didn't have any vegetarian so a pretty close second.

I wonder why I'm on edge when I eat out..

@MrsClatterbuck

Out for a really nice meal at a posh restaurant and at the end of the meal I ordered a calypso coffee. When tasting it I nearly spat it out. They had put salt in the cream instead of sugar. They did give me a proper one.

Reminds me of eating in a very nice restaurant. Our doughnut dessert came but it had been sprinkled with salt rather than sugar 😂 The staff were mortified, we thought it was funny.

This wasn't a substitution , it was the actual recipe but I once made a loaf of grain free bread with tahini . It was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted. Nobody liked it. We binned it.

Patatas bravas in the slow cooker.

I think it required 3 fresh chillies for the whole pot.
I added 3 tablespoons of dried chillies.
Inedible. Went to the chippy instead.
Usually things I substitute work ok if not really well, but that was my worst mistake.

Margarine instead of butter in anything.

Dbro on first solo trip abroad, self catering. It's his turn to cook and he made a curry, very nice except chillis in that country are significantly hotter than ones we get in the U.K. He used his precious phone card (remember those?!) to call DMum and ask her what he can put in it to cool it down to non-combustible levels.

Plain yoghurt, she says.

Oh great, says DBro, I have some yoghurt. Thanks Mum!

Unfortunately it wasn't plain. It was strawberry 🤢

DH made slow cooked oxtail in a rich sauce which required a small block of dark chocolate, he added the whole bar. It was horrendous and inedible. Had taken me ages to track down a bloody oxtail for said recip too! He’s usually a fantastic cook.

Visiting my mum, she stir fried a load of veg (spring onions, peppers, beansprouts etc - a stir fry mix you buy in a pack) then added... pesto. "Nigel Slater says you can mix all sorts" apparently.

I didn't look when picking the 'thyme' jar to make onion gravy. Ended up with cumin seeds.

Not great with toad in the hole it must be said

I ordered a carbonara at a restaurant and sprinkling a whole jar of dried italian seasoning into the jar, does not transform the dish into an authentic italian one.

It was absolutely inedible, and it was a take out during covid and I decided against returning it for a refund.

I'm going to win this. Cream and mustard sauce. Made with "mustard style burger relish". And Dream Topping. Don't try it at home folks.

Invited to someone's house for a meal. Spaghetti with seafood. She'd emptied a whole jar of cockles in vinegar in. Vinegar and all.
Don't know how I ate it.

@Lily019

My son, aged about 20,fancied himself as a bit of a budding chef cos he worked in a restaurant kitchen. Making spaghetti bolognaise he decided the tomato sauce was too acidic so added copious amounts of honey to resolve the issue. Possibly the most puke inducing meal I've ever had.

OMG!