In our house, my husband is really the gourmet guy; I am merely a sharp recipe follower with many good foundational skills. He intuits and sticks things into his foodie algorithm like Remy from Ratatouille. However, he would be the first to say that he has put in the time through many miscalculations, off flavors, and Alton Brown when he was a teenager. Part of the core of the Maple Key girls’ program is to empower them to learn through mistakes, so my daughter’s latest kitchen creation made me think about how this plays out in real life.
We make the rule in our house that you are welcome to practice your cooking skills as long as you clean up after yourself. It’s really more a rule for me than the kids because it helps me not micromanage and gives them more independence. They always ask for assistance if they need it.
Sometimes that means we get a delicious North African delight like Shakshuka. Our daughter nailed it all the way down — attention to detail in the recipe, taste, presentation.
And then sometimes something like the slurry comes out.
This was supposed to be soothing ginger tea with cardamom pods and other spices. My daughter knew we didn’t have fresh ginger, so she said she would fudge it a little bit with what I can only guess is ground ginger (and a heap ton at that). I have no idea what it was supposed to taste like, but she and her younger sister tried to have some. They both only took a few sips and politely left them on the counter. My daughter cleaned it all up and said, “Mom, don’t put that recipe in the bad pile. I want to try it again when I can really make a better effort with all the ingredients.”
Perhaps some of you would say, “Well, that all could have been avoided if she had listened to you about the ground ginger.” I would respond, “You’re right. She might have, but the lesson she learned about substituting ingredients, stepping out and making an effort of curiosity, and being brave enough to give it another try someday was worth the sludgy mess. I can’t teach her that.”
I am sure your kids have read so many books about scientists and artists who learned from their own blunders. Sometimes the cheesecake is still a little wobbly, sometimes the muffins are overbeaten, sometimes the casserole is soggy despite your best efforts. I’m all for teaching and facilitating excellence in the kitchen (especially where safety is concerned) but a recipe gone awry is something everyone experiences, so let it happen in safe community where we can laugh about it and learn from it.
As a bonus here was a birthday fail we made a few years ago when my husband attempted to make Australian frog cakes. They were so hideous that we still laugh about what a disaster that was. The recipe said we could use buttercream as an alternative to fondant. It clearly lied.
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