We asked our friends and family to share their most memorable Thanksgiving cooking disasters.
This is what they told us:
1.
"We were newlyweds and I wanted to impress the in-laws, so I made pumpkin pie from scratch. The pie went in the oven, and I went to the bath. We lived in an older home that had no shower and a small water heater. After the pie was done, Dan was going to take his bath. There wasn't much hot water left, so I heated up water on the stove where the pie was cooling. The next thing we both heard was a loud bang!
"I ran to the kitchen and started crying. The pie was everywhere, and the pie plate was in flames! Dan came out of the tub, grabbed his slip-on dress shoes, and cleaned up the mess. We lived in an upstairs apartment, and the house next door had two widows whose living room window looked into our kitchen. I think they had quite a show watching a guy in ONLY dress shoes cleaning the mess!"
—Teddi W.
2.
"A few years ago, my mom's friend Jeannie and her husband were hosting Thanksgiving. Jeannie is about 4'11", and her husband is about 5'2", and they were sipping wine while cooking all day. So — between the weight of the turkey, the wine, and the grease — when it came time to lift the turkey out of the pan and onto the platter, they were struggling, and the turkey ended up on the floor!
"Jeannie and her husband tried to grab it while it was sliding all over, but at that point they were laughing way too hard. In the meantime, all their guests were waiting in the dining room with no idea any of this was going on. Eventually they caught the turkey — and served it! — but they never told any of their guests what had happened."
—Dana V.
3.
"My mom overheard this one at the nail salon: A woman's relative had made a ham and turkey the day before, sliced everything up nice and pretty, and put them in an aluminum container all topped with plastic wrap to store till Thanksgiving day.
"On the day of, when she popped everything in the oven, she forgot to take the plastic wrap off. Black billowy smoke came out of the oven and turned the meat into a carcinogenic nightmare; everything was ruined. One partygoer kept complaining about how there was no meat. The only store that was open was a convenience store, so they went out and got him a pack of bologna to try to assuage the situation (which, in my opinion, is equally offensive)."
—Isa D.
4.
"One Thanksgiving, I decided to surprise my parents by baking a pumpkin pie all by myself. Somehow, I threw this dessert together from scratch. Mind you, the only thing I'd ever cooked before was toaster pastries and cereal. A few hours later, the pie was ready. I was so excited. Even my little pipsqueak sister was proud of me — so much so that she wanted to take a photo of me holding my masterpiece.
"As I pose in the kitchen, smiling like a dork, my sister tells me to 'tilt the pie down further' because she couldn't see the top. I obey, and as I tilt, the ENTIRE thing plops right onto the dirty kitchen floor. I'm in hysterics. This damn pie is now resting in dog hair and covered in my tears. My sister immediately ducks down, picks up all the pieces, and plops it back into the tin. 'Tara, it's fine, they don't have to know.' We put the entire pie back together and never told our parents what happened."
—Tara P.
5.
"A somewhat distinctly Southern tradition appears to be frying turkey — at least it's a tradition my mother picked up on. After a bachelor's degree in home economics and years of an unblemished record baking delicious turkeys, Mom wants in on this frying-a-whole-turkey thing — which is good, because no one in the family knows how to.
"Dad goes out and rents a frying device big enough for the whole thing and gets the whole thing good 'n' ready. I'm talking 'bout a big vat of bubbly, steamy oil on the back lawn. And of course, the entire family, having no idea what we're doing, took at least a couple safety precautions — big gloves, lowering the bird in with a winch, goggles, etc. — but in our nervousness, we forgot to thaw it. Needless to say, I didn't have to mow that part of the lawn for quite some time."
—Chris D.
6.
"One year, my mom added extra marshmallows to the top of the sweet potato casserole, because that's obviously everyone's favorite part. However, they expanded and kept expanding (as marshmallows do). We had to then transport the sugary mess on a 15-minute car ride while they were steaming hot, and they ended up spilling all over the lap of our friend who was riding in the front seat with them."
—Isa D.
7.
"My grandpa cooks the best gravy ever using giblets, turkey neck, thyme, rosemary, friggin' unicorn horn dust, and anything that's delicious. One Thanksgiving dinner he was making the gravy, and it smelled wonderful, and we were all very excited to try his world-famous creation yet again.
"Sadly, I guess being 84 and all, he made two mistakes when stirring the thing: he used a soft plastic spoon instead of a wooden one, and then left it in there for like five minutes. Maybe he was trying to kill Grandma, we simply don't know. Mom saved the day by convincing everyone gravy-free turkey would still be delicious, meaning the day was not saved because that is a GIANT LIE. Turkey without gravy sucks!"
—Leslie R.
Got your own Thanksgiving horror story? Relax, once the turkey's done, the rest is gravy — HEINZ® HomeStyle Gravy. Click here to save now!
