26 Bizarre Kitchen Habits People Have Witnessed
We probably all develop our own quirks and habits in the kitchen over time, ranging from innocently leaving cabinet doors open to not so innocently refusing to toss expired foods. And because I love some good ol' kitchen drama, when redditor u/beetlebloop asked the r/AskReddit community to share the weirdest habit they've seen in a friend's kitchen, I dug right in. Here are some of the horrifying, confusing, and just plain weird things people have witnessed.
"Knew a guy who kept his chef's knives stabbed into the wall."
"I opened a friend's fridge and it contained 30–40 cans of whipped cream and NOTHING ELSE. Family of three."
"The dad of a guy I went out with in high school had, I swear to god, an entire wall stacked with Coca-Cola 12-packs. Must have been 8 by 8 feet. No one was allowed to drink any of the cans except for him. If we wanted Coke, we had to drink from the stale 2-liter bottle in the fridge."
"My ex-father-in-law thought traditional spaghetti with meat sauce was too 'spicy,' so he would make noodles and top them with ground beef and ketchup."
"I worked with someone who told me that if she ever cooks and bakes for other people, she will strip down to her underwear to avoid cross-contamination of dog hair or other linty bits from her clothes."
"Their dishcloth was used only once: They did the dishes; wiped down the stove top, counters, and cupboard fronts; then threw it in the bin and got a new one. Must cost a lot."
"After college, I had a roommate who said the best way to boil water was a 'slow boil.' He insisted on using low heat."
"She cut up raw meat using her bare hands, then opened drawers, cabinets, and the fridge before washing her hands. When she asked if I wanted to do weekly meal prep with her, I politely declined."
"My childhood dog would poop inside, and if it was...not solid, my dad would use a spoon to clean it up. Not a designated spoon that was the dog-shit spoon, just a regular spoon from the cutlery drawer. I did not discover this until he had been doing this for years. I was HORRIFIED and furious. When I told him it was disgusting, he got so defensive and said, 'Well, how would you like me to clean it up?' I then listed many different ways to clean dog shit. My mom also didn't seem too concerned with it."
"A friend of mine when I was growing up had me over for family dinner. We were served spaghetti. When everyone (five or six of us) was done, the mom scraped all of the uneaten spaghetti on everyone's plate back into the big pot."
"My old roommate would take a coffee cup from the night before with old coffee and milk in it and make a new one in the morning without dumping the old coffee out first."
"My uncle left raw chicken out on the counter for who knows how long, and it was covered in ants. I let him know. He rinsed the ants off and put the chicken back in the fridge."
"I was friends with a family who had six kids. The parents made everyone drink a full glass of milk with every meal, including guests. They would set out a gallon of milk on the table at each meal, and it would just sit there until it was all gone, even if it took longer than one meal. I've always hated drinking milk, but those experiences really finished it off for me."
"My husband's old roommate used to take a new dish every time he ate something and then leave it behind in his room instead of putting it in the dishwasher. One day, it occurred to my husband that there were like five dishes left in the kitchen, and the rest were nowhere to be found until he looked in said roommate's room and found his moldy hoard."
"Growing up, I used to go to this one friend's house almost every day after school. This was a middle-class family who made a decent amount of money. Her parents let us have however much soda we wanted, but it was always the off-brand cola ONLY that was stored in the garage. I live in the desert, so imagine walking home in 110 degrees in the summer and cracking a 90-degree cola. YUCK."
"I know someone who throws away almost nothing. This wouldn't be a terrible habit if it didn't mean offering you the moldy lemon that has been sitting on the counter for god only knows how long because god forbid she just cuts a new lemon. Also tomatoes, peppers — anything. I try not to eat there. She is very well off but has this hoarder mindset, especially around food. Also, she refuses to use chef's knives and cooks exclusively with steak knives."
"Taking raw chicken and putting it directly in her flour canister to cover with flour to fry. I am still horrified years later."
"I watched my coworker wash his potatoes with dish soap. He squirted the soap straight onto the potato, rubbed it all over with his bare hands, rinsed it, and started chopping it. Then he threw the chopped, unpeeled, and soapy potatoes into a pot. He boiled them, mashed them without adding anything to them, then, for some reason, picked the skin out of the pot of mashed potatoes with his bare hands. No milk, cream, butter, salt, or anything. Tasted like a sad, soapy pile of compost."
"I had an acquaintance whose place I went to a couple of times for parties. On both occasions, they brought out a blender to blend wine. I think one time I just saw them blend a single bottle, but another time they blended two bottles together. I think they fundamentally misunderstood what it meant to 'blend wines' and thought that it involved the appliance. I was absolutely gobsmacked but didn't know them well enough to feel comfortable asking them why they did it."
"I have this friend — a grown adult male — who doesn't wash his dishes with soap. I realized this after I had already eaten at his house several times. We were talking in his kitchen one day, and I watched him start washing a pan. He rinsed the food off with water and just put it up to dry?? Then, later on, he was at my house and yelled at me for washing a pan he had given me with soap. He was apparently scared I was going to take off the finish or something."
"I knew a guy who thought you were meant to throw out wooden spoons after each use. He'd spend so much money on them. When we told him you could reuse them, his mind was blown."
"I had a roommate I didn't know well. We kind of ignored each other, and I didn't want to ask too many questions. She kept six peach yogurt cups in a drawer in the kitchen (not in the fridge). I never saw her use any of them. One day, her boyfriend came over and found them. He asked why she had yogurt in a drawer, and she got kind of upset and told him to just put them back and leave them alone. After that, I was even more curious but even more afraid to ask."
"My husband has a habit of just putting used utensils in the freezer. Not washed, just licked clean (sometimes). He says the freezer 'kills' the bacteria and he can reuse them as many times as he wants."
"I knew a family who had two full kitchens, yet they used the dishwasher to store bakeware. Everyone had to wash dishes by hand instead. I get it if you're short on storage or don't have a dishwasher, but space was not an issue here."
"My mother-in-law insists on keeping cabinet doors above the microwave open. Why, you ask? So the heat doesn't build up in the cabinet and start a fire."
"My neighbors had to finish their plates completely, and I mean licked clean, because the dessert yogurt would be poured onto the used plates. It was so gross having yogurt with a bite of potato. It is still a running gag with my family."
Are there any bizarre kitchen habits you've witnessed from friends or family? Let us know in the comments or fill out this anonymous form!
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4 hours ago
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Tasting 100-year-old food: The good, the bad and the dusty
I gathered some of the most iconic unopened food items on the planet — some over a hundred years old. From a 1940s Coke to a 1990s petrified Twinkie, I spent over $16,000 collecting forgotten snacks and canned chaos from every decade of the past century. My friend Parsa joined me for the taste test, though there were moments he probably regretted that decision. Based on our experience, definitely don't try this at home. We kicked things off with food from the 1920s — an era when canned goods and preserved items were everywhere, mainly because fresh produce was limited. Cars were still new, and shelf-stable food was revolutionary. The almond paste required a small battle to open, and chunks of it shot out like a sticky grenade. It smelled like molasses, not almonds. The can was practically disintegrated, so it was clear that it had not been fully sealed shut in years. Too unsafe to eat, but it smelled nice and the packaging was eye-catching. The honey, on the other hand, looked well-aged and tasted incredible — until it numbed my mouth. That freaked Parsa out. He started panicking about flushing it out with water, which made me more nervous than I wanted to admit. While it tasted great and nothing bad happened to me, I definitely won't be eating this again. If I were in the 1920s, this honey would hate to see me coming. I also purchased cloves, a popular spice during this era. The cloves still smelled like Christmas, and to the bare eye, looked brand new. The wheat-based supplement called Imperial Granum that I also found came with instructions inside of it, with some pretty outdated information. It was wild holding paper that old — and even crazier reading the directions on how to feed it to a baby. In the 1930s, the Great Depression reshaped America's diet. People leaned heavily on affordable, shelf-stable items like crackers, porridge and syrup powders to survive. The penny drink, similar to a modern-day Kool-Aid, turned water into a suspiciously purple hue, while giving it a slight fizz. It tasted like something brewed in a chemistry lab, not a soda shop. There were also chunks of the powder that wouldn't dissolve, no matter how much stirring I did. I'm one of what seems to be the few people who love Grape Nuts. The 1930s version of Grape Nuts smelled like an old attic and looked like mouse food, leaving me thankful to be in the 2020s. Surprisingly, the Quaker Grits and Jiffy Porridge looked totally fine but unleashed a wave of dust when opened. Most of the food here wasn't scary — it was just bland and ancient. The 1940s were defined by World War II and food rationing. People got creative, substituting sweet vegetables like carrots for sugar since it was so hard to find and used powdered eggs for breakfast just to stretch meals a little further and save fresh animal products for important, special occasion meals. I wanted to know if an 80-year-old Coke would still be fizzy. To my disbelief, it was. I lost a bet with Parsa and had to admit defeat. As for the flavor, well, we both immediately spit it out. It tasted nothing like the Coke we have today, but it's probably from sitting in a bottle for 80 years. The vintage Kool-Aid from this era dissolved and came alive with color — until I tasted it. It was seriously sour. I tried to find Kool-Aid from every decade to compare the evolution, and this was the oldest package I could get my hands on. In the 1950s, convenience food exploded. TV dinners, casseroles and neon-colored desserts became staples in post-war America. Jell-O completely ruled this decade. We also saw a rise in fast food chains during this decade, including the start of McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut and more. Confetti popcorn was a popular item, looking like a circus in a jar. Once popped, it was plain white and totally stale. The colored shells were just marketing. 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I loved to see the transition in marketing and packaging for Grape Nuts since we last tried them in the 1930s category. Just in this example, you can see how brands began to use more eye-catching packaging as a way to bring in new consumers. The red color also popped on television more than a lighter hue of yellow and blue would, grabbing the attention of viewers better. This was just the beginning of the revolution in food marketing. In the 1970s, branding became everything. Characters like Mr. Peanut, the Kool-Aid Man and colorful cereal mascots dominated packaging. Microwaves and canned goods ruled the kitchen. This decade felt like food entered its first real marketing boom. Bright labels, mascots with catchphrases and the promise of "instant everything" defined the experience. We started with an old-school Coke bottle that only cost five cents in its day, but I paid $200 for it. It fizzed just a little, like a soda trying to remember what it used to be. We tried maple syrup next, only to learn it wasn't maple at all — just sugar syrup with a fancy label. Still, it tasted perfect, which kind of annoyed me. By the 1980s, indulgence was the trend. People wanted sweet, deep-fried and convenient treats. Fast food continued to boom, and microwave snacks became essential. This decade had some hits — and major misses. The funnel cake mix worked like magic. All you needed to do was add water to the packaging, shake it up and pour it into hot oil. It fried up normally as if it were a freshly made batter. The olive oil from this era, on the other hand, looked and smelled like it belonged in a car engine. Whatever chemicals and ingredients in the olive oil bottle separated at one point, leaving a solid white settlement on the bottom and a nearly clear oil on top. Star Wars was a giant franchise at this time, at its peak of popularity. The Star Wars-branded fruit snacks were once colorful, distinctive shapes. 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And yes, we didn't dare open the Michael Jordan Wheaties box. It is too sacred. The Lifesaver gummies have always been a hit in my book. In the '90s, they were booming in popularity. The tropical flavor is my favorite, so I was excited to see what they looked like in the '90s. Let's just say, my disappointment was obvious. How these turned black, I will truly never know or understand. We also opened Skittles from 1995 — they fused into one massive rainbow block. The lemon chiffon cake, originally from this decade, rose into a dense, springy volleyball. It smelled like eggs, and probably wasn't safe — but the cake mix still worked. Orbitz was a lava lamp in a bottle. I remember it tasting a lot better as a kid, but honestly, that could be because it's almost 30 years old. The 2000s were when the internet started influencing food. Viral recipes, snack fads and early YouTube food content were all beginning to take shape. We entered the 2000s with Lipton Cup-a-Soup and Chef Boyardee. 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We'll call this arrest 'Fuck-up #1.' Displaying an unusual amount of patience for a man of his reputation, Genghis then sent three ambassadors to try and diplomatically resolve the situation. Shah Muhammad II refused to punish his dear old uncle for his actions, and instead decided to execute at least one of the Mongolian ambassadors, or possibly all three. He sent the severed head of one ambassador back to Genghis Khan as a lovely little parting gift, which was 'Fuck-up #2.' "There was no 'Fuck-up #3,' for Genghis then decided that the 'fucking around' phase was over for the Khwarazmians, and the time of 'finding out' had begun." "He led an army of as many as 200,000 battle-hardened Mongol warriors straight into the Khwarazmian Empire, and did what he did best: unleashed hell. Within two years, the Mongols utterly annihilated the empire: they sacked and destroyed its cities, chased the shah into exile, and killed possibly as many as 10 million people; not just Khwarazmians, but anyone else who happened to be in the way. Because of Muhammad II's refusal of diplomacy, the Khwarazmian Empire was wiped from existence." —u/WildBad7298 4."On this note, one of the biggest policy fuck-ups is the Mongol policy of having to return back to Mongolia to elect a new khan after the death of the old one. This single policy outright halted many of their major campaigns and subsequently saved much of Europe and Asia from the all-conquering Mongol armies." "The most historically significant instance of this was the conquest of Europe after Ogedai's passing. Having defeated Poland and Hungary, it's said that there wasn't a standing army in Europe capable of stopping the Mongol invasion of Central and Western Europe. Ogedai's death resulted in the Mongol withdrawal from Europe. Had he lived a few more years, it's very possible that the Mongols would have swept through central and western Europe, drastically changing the course of history." —u/SantiCathorla 5."Microplastics are going to be the lead of this decade." —u/not1337 6."Adding lead to gasoline." —u/don0tpanic "The same guy who invented leaded gasoline also invented freon. Thomas Midgley Jr., the greatest inventor of evirotoxins in history!" —u/firelock_ny 7."I mean, Japan attacking Pearl Harbor can be on this list too. It set off a series of fuck-ups." "1. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, officially dragging the US into the war. 2. A few days after the US declares war on Japan, Hitler declares war on America. 3. The war is brutal and ugly. The US builds the atomic bomb and uses it. 4. Truman and Churchill effectively tell Stalin to go fuck himself after the war, and immediately kick off the Cold War and nuclear arms race. 5. 80 years later, those fuck-ups are still reverberating through the geo-political landscape." —u/noreast2011 "One thing I find fascinating is how after the Pearl Harbor Attack, and up to the Battle of Midway, the Japanese thought they had pretty much won. They thought that US morale was very low, and the US would want to sue for peace at any moment. They completely miscalculated the effect Pearl Harbor had on the US." —u/MotorBobcat 8."When Noah allowed those two mosquitoes on the ark. I mean, seriously, dude???" —TallDarkHandsome365 "On that subject, brutally executing the one true Son of God is a pretty epic fuck-up, and he didn't even stay dead." —u/Seanay-B 9."The invention and widespread use of plastics." —u/Alexander_da_ok 10."In terms of death attributable to a single individual? Lysenko and his agricultural reforms." "Some 15 million dead in the Soviet Union from starvation; of course, they lied and said it was working great. So China followed and implemented it as well. The farmers were told to eat all their food reserves because we'll have so much produce with this new Soviet farming technique that our stores will be overflowing. And there were another 15 million or so dead. And that's just the most direct effect; Lysenko completely ruined centuries of livestock breeding by arguing genetics was anti-revolutionary. If you just care for them enough, any and all will be equally capable of x, y, or z. A nice thought, but genetics still exist whether you believe it or not. It wasn't limited to livestock; the scientific field was essentially gutted and researchers ended, career or otherwise." —u/TNT1990 "This is what happens when you appoint an unqualified political loyalist instead of a real expert. Lysenko's only real skill was sucking up to the party. 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Even if we ever wanted to stop using the internet for things, at this point people's heart monitors and C-PAP machines and all kinds of other life-sustaining medical equipment would result in the loss of tons of lives. It seems to be hugely responsible for diminished attention spans, a general sense of more labor being involved in things that require large amounts of attention. I don't know about you, but everyone I know is reading less than they used to, and while that's anecdotal, I'd be curious how much others are experiencing this." —u/JusAxinQuestuns 15."Not decarbonizing in time to prevent catastrophic global warming. We're heading full throttle for the cliff right now, with no brakes." —u/Sarah_Cenia 16."Plastic. Social media. Nuclear bombs." Javier Zayas Photography / Getty Images, Historical / Corbis via Getty Images —u/ceremoniousone 17."Using PFAS in almost everything through the '90s. Thanks, now the world is contaminated and everyone is getting cancer." —u/BallBearingBill 18."The moment our species decided that we could turn healthcare into a for-profit business, I think, will turn out to be one of the most epically stupid and relentlessly human things we have ever collectively thought up." —u/starspider 19."When Benito Mussolini declared war on the Allies, over 40% of Italy's naval warships were in foreign ports. Upon declaring war, they were seized immediately by the foreign countries they resided in." —u/Adamskiiiiiii1 20."The last season of Game of Thrones." —u/Porcflite And a final thought to leave you with: "We probably don't know about it." —u/GhostWriter888 "Scary but this is the true answer really." —u/GohanAwakens So, what do you think of these? Were any big screw-ups left out? Let me know down in the comments! Or, if you have something to share but want to do so anonymously, you can check out this anonymous comment form.
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Buzz Feed
26 Bizarre Kitchen Habits People Have Witnessed
We probably all develop our own quirks and habits in the kitchen over time, ranging from innocently leaving cabinet doors open to not so innocently refusing to toss expired foods. And because I love some good ol' kitchen drama, when redditor u/beetlebloop asked the r/AskReddit community to share the weirdest habit they've seen in a friend's kitchen, I dug right in. Here are some of the horrifying, confusing, and just plain weird things people have witnessed. "Knew a guy who kept his chef's knives stabbed into the wall." "I opened a friend's fridge and it contained 30–40 cans of whipped cream and NOTHING ELSE. Family of three." "The dad of a guy I went out with in high school had, I swear to god, an entire wall stacked with Coca-Cola 12-packs. Must have been 8 by 8 feet. No one was allowed to drink any of the cans except for him. If we wanted Coke, we had to drink from the stale 2-liter bottle in the fridge." "My ex-father-in-law thought traditional spaghetti with meat sauce was too 'spicy,' so he would make noodles and top them with ground beef and ketchup." "I worked with someone who told me that if she ever cooks and bakes for other people, she will strip down to her underwear to avoid cross-contamination of dog hair or other linty bits from her clothes." "Their dishcloth was used only once: They did the dishes; wiped down the stove top, counters, and cupboard fronts; then threw it in the bin and got a new one. Must cost a lot." "After college, I had a roommate who said the best way to boil water was a 'slow boil.' He insisted on using low heat." "She cut up raw meat using her bare hands, then opened drawers, cabinets, and the fridge before washing her hands. When she asked if I wanted to do weekly meal prep with her, I politely declined." "My childhood dog would poop inside, and if it solid, my dad would use a spoon to clean it up. Not a designated spoon that was the dog-shit spoon, just a regular spoon from the cutlery drawer. I did not discover this until he had been doing this for years. I was HORRIFIED and furious. When I told him it was disgusting, he got so defensive and said, 'Well, how would you like me to clean it up?' I then listed many different ways to clean dog shit. My mom also didn't seem too concerned with it." "A friend of mine when I was growing up had me over for family dinner. We were served spaghetti. When everyone (five or six of us) was done, the mom scraped all of the uneaten spaghetti on everyone's plate back into the big pot." "My old roommate would take a coffee cup from the night before with old coffee and milk in it and make a new one in the morning without dumping the old coffee out first." "My uncle left raw chicken out on the counter for who knows how long, and it was covered in ants. I let him know. He rinsed the ants off and put the chicken back in the fridge." "I was friends with a family who had six kids. The parents made everyone drink a full glass of milk with every meal, including guests. They would set out a gallon of milk on the table at each meal, and it would just sit there until it was all gone, even if it took longer than one meal. I've always hated drinking milk, but those experiences really finished it off for me." "My husband's old roommate used to take a new dish every time he ate something and then leave it behind in his room instead of putting it in the dishwasher. One day, it occurred to my husband that there were like five dishes left in the kitchen, and the rest were nowhere to be found until he looked in said roommate's room and found his moldy hoard." "Growing up, I used to go to this one friend's house almost every day after school. This was a middle-class family who made a decent amount of money. Her parents let us have however much soda we wanted, but it was always the off-brand cola ONLY that was stored in the garage. I live in the desert, so imagine walking home in 110 degrees in the summer and cracking a 90-degree cola. YUCK." "I know someone who throws away almost nothing. This wouldn't be a terrible habit if it didn't mean offering you the moldy lemon that has been sitting on the counter for god only knows how long because god forbid she just cuts a new lemon. Also tomatoes, peppers — anything. I try not to eat there. She is very well off but has this hoarder mindset, especially around food. Also, she refuses to use chef's knives and cooks exclusively with steak knives." "Taking raw chicken and putting it directly in her flour canister to cover with flour to fry. I am still horrified years later." "I watched my coworker wash his potatoes with dish soap. He squirted the soap straight onto the potato, rubbed it all over with his bare hands, rinsed it, and started chopping it. Then he threw the chopped, unpeeled, and soapy potatoes into a pot. He boiled them, mashed them without adding anything to them, then, for some reason, picked the skin out of the pot of mashed potatoes with his bare hands. No milk, cream, butter, salt, or anything. Tasted like a sad, soapy pile of compost." "I had an acquaintance whose place I went to a couple of times for parties. On both occasions, they brought out a blender to blend wine. I think one time I just saw them blend a single bottle, but another time they blended two bottles together. I think they fundamentally misunderstood what it meant to 'blend wines' and thought that it involved the appliance. I was absolutely gobsmacked but didn't know them well enough to feel comfortable asking them why they did it." "I have this friend — a grown adult male — who doesn't wash his dishes with soap. I realized this after I had already eaten at his house several times. We were talking in his kitchen one day, and I watched him start washing a pan. He rinsed the food off with water and just put it up to dry?? Then, later on, he was at my house and yelled at me for washing a pan he had given me with soap. He was apparently scared I was going to take off the finish or something." "I knew a guy who thought you were meant to throw out wooden spoons after each use. He'd spend so much money on them. When we told him you could reuse them, his mind was blown." "I had a roommate I didn't know well. We kind of ignored each other, and I didn't want to ask too many questions. She kept six peach yogurt cups in a drawer in the kitchen (not in the fridge). I never saw her use any of them. One day, her boyfriend came over and found them. He asked why she had yogurt in a drawer, and she got kind of upset and told him to just put them back and leave them alone. After that, I was even more curious but even more afraid to ask." "My husband has a habit of just putting used utensils in the freezer. Not washed, just licked clean (sometimes). He says the freezer 'kills' the bacteria and he can reuse them as many times as he wants." "I knew a family who had two full kitchens, yet they used the dishwasher to store bakeware. Everyone had to wash dishes by hand instead. I get it if you're short on storage or don't have a dishwasher, but space was not an issue here." "My mother-in-law insists on keeping cabinet doors above the microwave open. Why, you ask? So the heat doesn't build up in the cabinet and start a fire." "My neighbors had to finish their plates completely, and I mean licked clean, because the dessert yogurt would be poured onto the used plates. It was so gross having yogurt with a bite of potato. It is still a running gag with my family." Are there any bizarre kitchen habits you've witnessed from friends or family? 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