Sometimes things go horribly wrong. Sometimes, you don’t even know why your food is so horrible. Occasionally, you wind up making something entirely different as a result.
I discovered that myself when I tried making candied ginger (which I’ve done several times) and suddenly found myself googling things like “Why won’t my candied ginger crystallize?” and then wondering why it was now the consistency of some type of praline:
My odd-looking candy even came with a big batch of hard but flavorful sugar crystals that tasted just normal as could be.
Luckily, it’s normally not that big of a deal. If you’re cooking for yourself, you can scrap it or try to save it. If you’re cooking for other people… well, there’s always ordering pizza. Most people will still be impressed you tried, right?
The only catch is an occasionally awful mess. The good ole’ fashioned soak the pan & come back later technique usually does the trick. I had to go through several rounds of soaking with this number!
Tagged: candy making, kitchen experiments
