Accidental Recipe Discoveries That Taste Amazing
Sometimes the best cullinary discoveries are entirely unplanned. Redditor Njdevils11 asked, "What cooking decision have you made in desperation only to find out it's frickin' delicious?" Here's what people said.
"I was out of sour cream when making funeral potatoes but I decided to use leftover French onion chip dip. It's the only way I make them now."
—FleetwoodSacks
"I was desperate for breakfast potatoes with a protein. The problem: I only had sesame oil and pepperoni. Well, how bad could it be? I thought. Turns out, not bad at all. In fact, it was outstanding. I've been honing that recipe. I've cooked it like every weekend since, and it's a new personal favorite."
—Njdevils11
"I was making a burger, but I didn't have Mayo or even ketchup. I just had tobasco and peanut butter. So I mixed Tobasco and peanut butter, and I slathered it on the buns. The hot patty melted the peanut butter so the consistency was perfect, and it was reminiscent of satay sauce."
—Zumar92
"Once I was snowed in for four straight days and only had chicken breast, plain yogurt, roasted peanuts, overripe bananas, and honey. I decided to throw them all together, and to this day, it's still one of my favorite mistakes for dinner. FYI, I put a bowl of yogurt, honey, and crushed peanuts on the side and sauteed the chicken with the bananas (both marinated in honey, salt, black pepper, and a bit of brown sugar)."
—fiorebianca
"I was trying to use leftovers, so I stuffed peppers with roast chicken, onions, potatoes that'd soon go bad, and a chilli-lime rub, topped with cheese. Added tomato sauce, and it was GOOD."
"Egg roll wrappers for fried ravioli. It was the holidays some years back, and some friends ended up having to stay over longer than we planned because of a snowstorm. I was in the kitchen hunting for extra party snack ideas, and found that we had the ingredients for cheese ravioli filling and jarred sauce, but not enough flour to make pasta. I did have egg roll wrappers, which are similar, right? They fried up beautifully and were basically like a flat Rangoon. I intentionally make them this way now, and they're always a hit."
—Alaylaria
"Years ago, when I was still kind of a baby cook, I bought soba noodles from a Thai supermarket. I used the back of the package for instructions, but they were written in somewhat broken English, and the word thyme ended up in there. When I realized the mistake, it was too late, and I already had a pot of soba noodles sprinkled with dry thyme. I thought, 'screw it,' and just threw some butter in there. It was DELICIOUS, and I still make it occasionally."
—allie06nd
"Yogurt instead of milk in boxed mac 'n' cheese. Tangy and so good!"
—hedgecase
"I didn't want to go through the hassle of making ramen broth, so I decided to just use what I had. I added Thai red curry paste, some chilis, and onions to a pot. Added coconut milk, soy sauce, and water. Cooked the ramen noodles in that. The result was basically ramen in a Thai red curry broth. It was absolute fire. I prefer it to any ramen I've eaten at restaurants."
—95Smokey
"I wanted chicken parm. I thought I had everything for chicken parm. I didn't check the kitchen. Boiled pasta, started to fry chicken cutlets... Turned out, I was missing some crucial ingredients. I had cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce. Eventually, we started to call the dish cowboy chicken pasta. It's noodles, cheddar cheese on top of the fried chicken, and BBQ sauce. Maybe I will meal prep it this week. And when I'm feeling really lazy, I resort to a frozen chicken tender."
"Not cooking, but while making an Old Fashioned cocktail, I didn't have any oranges to muddle. I looked in the fridge and bam! Orange marmalade to the rescue. Delicious!"
—Funnygumby
"I was making a protein bowl and mixed leftover white rice with tuna salad (canned tuna, mayo, Dijon mustard) and mashed in a couple of hard-boiled eggs. It might sound pretty off-putting. But the eggs and rice kind of make it this really soft, pillowy texture, and the flavor of the tuna overpowers any egginess. It's honestly good."
"I discovered that if you panfry tinned pineapple rings with extra firm tofu, then make a sauce with the juice, peanut butter, soy sauce, and chili flakes, you get pure deliciousness on rice."
—Mixtrix_of_delicioux
"Years ago, I only had one banana while making banana bread so it tossed it in along with some crushed strawberries and made some delicious strawberry banana bread that I can't recreate to this day."
—namu24
"I was. making a pot roast and didn't realize I was out of salt. In its place I dumped cheap grated parmesan cheese on top. Never going back."
—NaPaCo88
"I tried adding savory ingredients to oatmeal instead of rice... Turns out, savory oatmeal goes hard."
—TanisHalfElven77
"Years ago, I started making pancakes without realizing the only milk I had was spoiled. So I used sour cream. The rest is history."
—chileheadd
"I slathered a whole chicken in plain mayo because it was literally the only condiment available. After 40 minutes in the oven, it shattered my whole entire world view."
—Erenito
"Once I was grilling and I really wanted to grill zucchini to go with my chicken, but I only had fresh cucumbers. So I sliced them long-ways, seasoned them, and threw them on the grill anyway. Holy moly, they were SO good! I still love grilled cucumbers, and they are a delicious addition to salads and other things too."
"A friend of mine decided to make chocolate chip cookies before realizing he didn't have shortening, so he substituted bacon grease. He said they tasted amazing, not to mention how delicious the aroma smelled while baking."
—Normal-While917
Tell us yours! What is a delicious cooking discovery you made entirely by accident or because you were out of an ingredient? Add it in the comments or in this anonymous form.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Researchers horrified by disturbing discovery captured in trendy cafes: 'There's a lot more … than we previously thought'
Asian small-clawed otters have a cult following on the internet, particularly in Japan. However, researchers recently found evidence of extensive, behind-the-scenes poaching driven by their popularity. Mongabay looked at new research published in Conservation Science and Practice, focused on Asian small-clawed otters in Japan's controversial otter cafes. Concerns about the species aren't new — in 2019, published an exhaustive piece questioning the ethics of Japan's otter cafes, documenting unsuitable conditions and visibly distressed otters. Researchers from France, Thailand, and Japan suspected poaching played a role in the bustling otter trade. They obtained DNA samples from 81 Asian small-clawed otters in Japan, 43 of which were from zoos, 33 from animal cafes, and five from otters intercepted at the border. Using genetic markers, the team contrasted the samples with those of otters from "the southern region of Thailand, which is a suspected poaching hotspot." Their suspicions were validated, and their findings were striking. "Based on the identical haplotypes, most otters (94%) kept at cafes originated from Thailand, compared to around 60% from those kept at zoos and aquariums," researchers determined, per Conservation Science and Practice. "Actually, there's a lot more Thai otters in Japan than we previously thought," said conservation biologist and study co-author Worata Klinsawat, per Mongabay. "Poaching and illegal wildlife trade are among the key drivers of biodiversity loss and biosecurity crises worldwide," the team said, per Conservation Science and Practice. The practice of poaching — defined by National Geographic as "the illegal trafficking and killing of wildlife" — is a global problem with far-reaching consequences in terms of conservation and habitat, both human and animal. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Researchers said in Conservation Science and Practice that poaching "threatens the species' survival and population viability of otters." The Asian small-clawed otter was designated "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Japanese river otter was officially deemed "extinct" in 2012. Dwindling populations of native flora and fauna wreak havoc on local ecosystems, creating a domino effect on habitats and disrupting the food chain. Donating to conservation and wildlife protection organizations is one way to directly mitigate harmful behaviors like animal poaching. However, the most effective approach is a simple one, according to one researcher. "It's natural to feel affectionate toward otters, but we need to leave them in the wild so that they can fulfill their ecological role, for them and for us," Klinsawat said, per Mongabay. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Los Angeles Times
13 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Where Jonathan Gold found spicy comfort food in Koreatown
Sun Nong Dan is a specialist in sullungtang, a gentle broth made by boiling beef bones for hours, even days, until the liquid turns a shimmering, pearlescent white that is pretty much the opposite of what French chefs are taught in cooking school. The soup is fatless and softly fragrant, not quite as rich as the soup at fellow specialist Han Bat, but with a sturdy mineral spine and a sensation that you are getting healthier with each sip. When you first sip sullungtang, you may recoil at its blandness until somebody remembers to tell you that you are supposed to add sea salt and chopped scallions from canisters on the table. A sullungtang restaurant will always have vivid radish pickles on the table; I think it may be a law. If you are so inclined you can dribble some of the tart, spicy brining liquid into the broth, although I never quite think the lovely, beefy version at Sun Nong Dan quite needs it. You can supplement the dish with sliced brisket, the chewy boiled cartilage from ox knees or soft chunks of beef-cheek meat. You can also get a clear, milder broth or order the meats on a separate, nicely arranged platter. Sullungtang has a reputation as a soothing morning-after restorative, perfect both after an evening of hard drinking and as an early-morning palliative. It is not an accident that the restaurant, whose name derives from a historic name for sullungtang, is open 24 hours each day. But the throng in that Koreatown strip mall — it's not there for the ox bone soup. Ox bone soup is not why you stand patiently outside while the excellent noodle shops, stew merchants and seafood parlors that surround it are half-empty. (The hosts seem to take special glee in crossing out the names of supplicants who are not present when their parties are called.) It is not ox-bone soup that New York chef David Chang posts to the zillion followers of his Instagram feed or has been known to eat twice a day when he's in town. When you finally straggle into the cramped dining room, possibly 90 minutes after you first scrawled your name on a clipboard, it is not ox bone soup that you see on every table, not ox bone soup at the center of awkward first dates and not ox bone soup that causes everyone to whip out their phones when the food comes. The waiter will stand patiently at the table while you try to decipher the menu printed on your paper place mat, trying to figure out if a place that offers a choice between boiled ox knee and boiled cow head was really what you had in mind. Because he knows that you are going to settle on the same short rib stew that everybody else in the restaurant is eating, at least everybody under the age of 50. Sullungtang has a definite place in the ecosystem, and you should definitely order a pot to kill time until the main dish comes, but that short rib stew, galbi jjim, is just killer. So you nibble on the side dishes, which include that turnip kimchi, a rather wonderful plate of bristly Korean chives with chile, and an extremely pungent traditional cabbage kimchi. You will be asked if you'd like white or brown rice: Go for the latter, which is steamed with purple beans. The one listed appetizer is steamed dumplings, which aren't bad when the kitchen hasn't run out of them. The sullungtang is light and nourishing; I suggest the one with brisket unless you really like the chaw of kneecap. A bit of time elapses — the restaurant is temporarily without an alcohol license, although the walls are decorated with ads for beer and soju. And then the galbi jjim hits the table, hissing and sputtering in a heavy stone pot nearly the size and heft of your emergency spare, a mountain of meat and vegetables rising out of a violently red lagoon of broth, enveloped in its own small universe of steam. Galbi jjim is one of the standards of refined Korean cuisine, a favorite in the old royal courts and often served on Chuseok, which is more or less the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving. If your grandmother loves you, she might prepare galbi jjim on a Sunday afternoon, and the house will smell wonderful, of meat, soy and sweetness. Galbi jjim is a symbol of prosperity — the cut of beef is not inexpensive, and the dish takes several hours to prepare. I am quite fond of the traditional versions in Koreatown restaurants like Soban and Seongbukdong. Well-made galbi jjim is robust yet delicate, fragile but spoon-tender, flavored with pine nuts and jujube dates. The galbi jjim at Sun Nong Dan is Hendrix shredding a Bob Dylan song or David Choe slapping paint onto a wall, all the sensations of the dish run through a distortion pedal and cranked up to 10. You'll be getting the dish extra-spicy (although the waiter will try to talk you out of it), and the amount of garlic that will seep out of your pores afterward is almost surreal. The pot that it comes in is hot enough and thick enough to crisp the cylinders of rice noodles, tteok, put a light char on the meat and keep the scarlet braising sauce bubbling long enough to reduce to a thick, insanely flavorful sludge that both coats and saturates the turned carrots and potatoes. If you have ordered it with cheese — you have to order it with cheese — a waiter scoops a big handful of white gratings over the top and bazookas it with a torch, creating several small fireballs along the way for effect until the mass breaks down into oozing, char-flecked rivulets that stretch from your chopsticks like pizza goo. 'What kind of cheese is this?'' I asked. 'Cheese,'' the waiter replied.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Guilford Woods protected by Piedmont Land Conservancy
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — The last-standing underdeveloped woods in Greensboro will be saved. Guilford Woods is packed with rich history from the Revolutionary War to the Underground Railroad and is an oasis of ecology. Guilford Woods is where the revolutionary soldiers once walked,and the freedom seekers hid. It's a home to many ecologies. Through the Piedmont Land Conservancy and Guilford College's partnership, the area will be officially protected. To Jim Hood, a retired English professor from Guilford College and a former interim president of Guilford College, Guilford Woods is a special place. 'I spent a lot of time walking around here and learning the names of the plants and animals that lived here,' Hood said. He said in a rapidly developing suburban area, Guilford Woods is the last remaining forest that is untouched, and that is important. 'These trees clean the air. This forest cleans the water for Greensboro,' Hood said. The memories, meaning, and legacy are rooted in nature. Hood highlighted the witness tree, which is approximately 350 years old. It's a silent witness to the operation of the Underground Railroad. 'Freedom seekers hiding out in these woods on their ways to Indiana or other parts of the north to get away from the evils of slavery,' he said. Guilford College and the Piedmont Land Conservancy have teamed up to preserve 120 acres of the most valuable areas of the woods. Now, Guilford Woods can continue to be used as an outdoor classroom and financially benefit the college. 'It's a way for the college to withdraw some money from an asset that was increasing in value not in a tangible kind of way, but this makes it more tangible,' he said. For Kevin Redding, the executive director of the Piedmont Land Conservancy, retracing the steps of the revolutionary soldiers made preserving the land a cause worth fighting for. 'Hundreds of years old forest. It has the history component to it. It has the educational component to it. It has a public available recreation part of it. It has everything we would wish in a conservation property,' Redding said. The Piedmont Land Conservancy plans on raising $8.5 million through private donations. In total, they will be preserving about 245 acres of land in the area, including Price Park. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
