Nothing tastes/looks/feels worse than....

[Monica Bhide]

Okay this weekend I had some near misses with food -

1. popped a few almonds in my mouth only to realize they were bitter and terribly rancid.. YUCK

2. Left the half and half outside, forgot about it and then poured it into my coffee.. double YUCK

3. Found a piece of watermelon my son had hidden under his toy chest (dont ask) for a few weeks ago.. oh man.. terrible smell

any other yuck stories out there???????

[JumpinJude]

The one that comes to mind instantly is the turkey carcass that Mom had been saving for soup. The dog managed to open the fridge (yes, he really did), and hide the carcass in the cushions of her sofa. It did not get terribly yuck, but it had potential.

Oh, and another one about this dog (who really is a honey)... This is Passover a few years back, and Mom had placed the gefilte fish on the table, not remembering (how??!!) that the dog was quite capable - and willing - to get on the table to get items of interest. Iron Mike must have eaten 3 - 4 pieces of gefilte fish. I spent the entire seder in the bathtub with him washing him - can you say colon cleanse? - from the mess the fish made of his system.

Then there is last night where I went to make some yams, and discovered that I had extra yams that had moved their way under the kitchen stool in the pantry and remained hidden from me for weeks now. Strangely, only one of four yams had turned into liquid yech, but needless to say all four had to go! It was disgusting.

[Monica Bhide]

too funny or should i say yucky!

I have one for you.. when we were house hunting in Cleveland.. we really like one house. When the inspector came to inspect.. he said there seemed to be a weird smell coming from under the kitchen sink. He bent down and looked.. and pulled out a large bottle of cooking oil (missing a lid).. with a DEAD MOUSE floating inside it. MAN THAT was so GROOOOOSSSS

[andiesenji]

Took my fruit-picking apron off the hook in the laundry room. (A heavy sail-cloth apron that has a very long skirt that can be folded up to the waist and has snaps along the sides and loops at the bottom corners to hold it in place.)

Apparently I missed either an apricot or a plum down in one corner, my fault for not unsnapping it, that had turned into a gooey mess and the fruit flies had found it. (I kept wondering why I kept seeing them in the laundry room).

Yuck indeed.

I took it outside and hosed it off, scrubbed it with a brush and let it hang outside then put it in the wash with some towels. It still has a dark spot but at least is clean.

I have had a few yucky things happen when I had someone helping me bring things in from my van and they did not put something where it belonged and I didn't notice it. (A box of frozen filo dough set on a shelf in the pantry between two boxes of pasta). Not a pretty sight.

[FL Heat]

A boyfriend who forgets his lunchbox at work for a week, then brings it home. . .without having washed any of the containers out, and after it had sat in his truck for the entire weekend in Florida.

I ended up just throwing the containers away. . .hard-boiled eggs had not been eaten. . .clumps of what used to be cucumbers in another. . .the yummy cheese & apricots that had met an untimely end. . . .and a plastic baggie with pepperoncinis. . . .

He wasn't quite sure what made me so mad, he just knew he did. I couldn't describe the gore to him without gagging.

Diana

[bloviatrix]

I had a room-mate who left an open bottle of apple juice in the fridge for such a long time that mold formed on top.

Some months ago I kept picking up an unpleasant smell and finally figured out that one of my onions had liquified.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Too many stories... which are the yuckiest???

Shawn and I bought a used refrigerator that a friend had in a storage unit for 5 years which really smelled bad -- heavy discussion on how to get rid of smell (coal? coffee? much was debated). We started cleaning and couldn't figure out how to get rid of the smell. Finally, a piece of the freezer unit broke out and out fell *something* wrapped in plastic. We don't have a clue what it was -- but the smell soon dissipated.

Shortly after the Northridge earthquake (in the month of January), I had to start house-hopping amongst friends (my place was demolished). I had some very nice friends across town who offered me a room. I never could eat in their house because the kitchen was too much of a mess. Finally, not being able to stand it anymore (mid-February), I started cleaning. I shortly found their THANKSGIVING left-overs from the previous November. I went back to being homeless and living in my car, finding it preferable to the maggots I was living with (not my friends, the actual vermin).

Okay, that's enough yuck from me -- I'm realizing I have too many of these stories...

[daniellewiley]

We moved into our house in February of 2000. It's a big old Victorian, so we have more storage space than we need, and the previous owners have all left a ton of crap to fill up some of that space.

I had a garage sale last summer, and decided to clean out the cabinets in the ice room off our kitchen, as there were a bunch of items in there from the previous owner that seemed saleable.

I was standing on a ladder pulling out items when I saw something wrapped in plastic. I pulled it out and was appalled to see that it was the remains of cinnamon buns, in a tin tray, complete with a butter knife, wrapped in plastic with a twist tie. Luckily, enough time had passed so that the stinky phase of its decomposition was over. I was half grossed out/half fascinated to see what 3.5 year old (at least) cinnamon buns look like. They were kind of black and grey and seemed really hard.

[tryska]

hah. typically grwoing up, we would bring in the groceries, and empty all the bags on the kitchen table. anything that was to be stored for future us, got put in a little storage area in the dining room. (stuff like grnaola bars etc).

well for some reason, because someone hadn't been paying attention a package of chicken breasts got stuck there. well for the next couple days or so it started to rot and it had a wierd sulfurous dirty baby diaper type smell.

well coincendentally enough we had some workmen doing repairs or wall-papering or some such thing during that same time period. my mom thought the workman must have stunk and the lingering smell was from him, and i can't even begin to think what he thought of the way our house smelled.

anyway, it finally got noticed and removed.

Edited July 26, 2004 by tryska (log)

[jgarner53]

I'm always amazed/appalled at the liquified vegetables or herbs that I find in the veggie drawers in the fridge.

Once, when I was younger (in elementary school), and dad was charged with feeding me (I don't remember where mom was), he brought out margarine to put on the rolls. At the time, he was the only one who ate margarine because of his high cholesterol; the rest of us ate butter. I was convinced that the bread had freezer burn, or the butter was bad because it just didn't taste right somehow, but he couldn't taste it. I'm sure he thought I was crazy.

And the night before Thanksgiving one year, I made a whole batch of pie crust for my pumpkin pies only to realize that the shortening had gone rancid. Off to the store (pissed off, naturally) for more at probably 11pm.

Last year at Christmas, mom made some special garlic bread that she'd gotten the recipe for. I don't know if I was the only one to taste the off flavor, but I was the only one who said anything (the next day). To me, it tasted (and smelled) like moldy oranges. Mom had just bought the butter (3 lbs of it) at Costco, but threw it all out once I pointed out the problem with it (then she could notice it, too). Mmmmm, moldy orange garlic bread....

[sparrowgrass]

Went mushroom hunting in the rain, and left a large clump of oyster mushrooms in the pocket of my raincoat. Stuck my hand in there about 2 weeks later--shooey!! A smelly, slimy pocket o' goo.

My mom was rummaging thru her freezer and set her 20 pound turkey out on the shelf so she could get something out from the bottom of the pile. A week later I came over to visit, walked out on the back porch and almost died of the smell. Did you know that lots of old folks lose their sense of smell? She said, " I smelled that, but I thought maybe a mouse had died back there.

[LittleMissCrepe]

Senior year of college, I shared a house with six good friends. We started noticing an absolutely nauseating smell in the second-floor kitchen, so we washed all the dirty dishes and did a thorough refrigerator cleaning. The smell lingered and it was making us crazy.

One afternoon, a roommate noticed another roommate's stock pot on the back burner of the stove. The pot always sat there, but we assumed - as any reasonable person would - that it was because of limited cabinet space, and that she cleaned it after each use.

Wrong! My roommate lifted up the lid and the smell that was released made her double over and gag. It turned out our roommate had been using that pot for everything - boiling pasta, steaming vegetables - without ever rinsing it out. Thus, old pasta and veggie bits had fermenting in the same water for about two months. Unbelievable.

The offending roommate wasn't home, so we dumped the pot's contents in the backyard and put the foul thing in the basement, where no one ever ventured. The Pot Incident led to many passive-aggressive written messages being exchanged on the kitchen whiteboard between us and the one roommate, but eventually we got over it. Oh, but that smell...

[Knicke]

Also in college....

We lived in a teeny apartment - 2 bedrooms, a tiny bathroom, a tiny kitchen, that's it. The kitchen served as our living room most of the time.

We had a faulty plastic gallon of milk that leaked all over the inside of the fridge, but we caught it quickly (we thought) and disposed of it properly. Three days later our kitchen smelled a little off; 5 days later we were sure that something had died. We looked every, in drawers, in closets, to no avail...until we finally realized the smell was coming from the ostensibly-clean fridge...not from inside it, but from UNDER it.

When the maintenance man came to move the refridgerator, we found...not a dead mouse, but a quart-sized puddle of yellowed, curdled milk... ...which had apparently dripped down, out, and under to fester.

[Monica Bhide]

Some months ago I kept picking up an unpleasant smell and finally figured out that one of my onions had liquified.

this has happened to me.. . its really disgusting!

[Monica Bhide]

Senior year of college, I shared a house with six good friends. We started noticing an absolutely nauseating smell in the second-floor kitchen, so we washed all the dirty dishes and did a thorough refrigerator cleaning. The smell lingered and it was making us crazy.

One afternoon, a roommate noticed another roommate's stock pot on the back burner of the stove. The pot always sat there, but we assumed - as any reasonable person would - that it was because of limited cabinet space, and that she cleaned it after each use.

Wrong! My roommate lifted up the lid and the smell that was released made her double over and gag. It turned out our roommate had been using that pot for everything - boiling pasta, steaming vegetables - without ever rinsing it out. Thus, old pasta and veggie bits had fermenting in the same water for about two months. Unbelievable.

The offending roommate wasn't home, so we dumped the pot's contents in the backyard and put the foul thing in the basement, where no one ever ventured. The Pot Incident led to many passive-aggressive written messages being exchanged on the kitchen whiteboard between us and the one roommate, but eventually we got over it. Oh, but that smell...

Oh man this is really bad

I remember a long time ago - Mom and Dad had a dinner party one time. Well everything went well ... however after about a day or so.. we could smell NASTY stuff in the living room. Turns out that one of the kids, who did not want to eat anything that day, decided to stick a WHOLE plate of food under one of the couch cushions

Disgusting ... eeeww

[get in my belly]

ok yall what about reaching into a case of potatoes and your hand goes right through one of them how nasty . or sticking your hand into a case of oranges and one is supper fuzzy moldtacular tas T molds are kinda fun sometimes i call them kitchen experiments

[chefboy2160]

A friend of mine works for Yosemite National Parks as a year long security person.

His perk is a cabin to live in! He always drinks bottled water and kept a 3 gallon igloo filled up in his cabin for his drinking needs.Well, he gets real sick one winter and ends up with a trip to the E.R. Come to find out a mouse had gotten into his igloo and died giving him a memorable experience.We call him mouseman now!

Even did some nifty pictures of him with mouse ears applied! Will he live this down, never!

[browniebaker]

Not much feels worse than getting a shard of Doritos tortilla chip stuck in the crevices between the nasal passage and the throat. It hurts! I don't know how this happened to me last week, but nothing would dislodge it. I tried snorting it back, blowing it out the nose, and nothing worked. I was afraid I would have to wait for the chip to decay and dissolve and flow down my throat slowly. Luckily, it must have softened up from the moisture in the nasal passage, because it went down after a few minutes. Whew.

[binkyboots]

nothing, nothing smells quite as awfull as a decomposing potato... ugh, I found a bag of them hidden under a pile of stuff in our cupboard a coupe of years ago, black, wet and when I lifted the bag the lots slopped their way out and onto the floor, hmm, where's the vomiting smiley when you need it?

also a big ugh, my sister was drinking a milkshake she'd bought (a probiotic type thing) when she suddenly gagged and ran for the sink.... when she was through spitting milk everywhere she told me she'd gagged on a large clump of furry mould o_0

since then I've had to drink all drinks from a glass, no more fly slurps out of bottles for me.

[sparrowgrass]

My ex-in-laws bought a little house to fix up as a rental. They kept smelling something nasty in the kitchen, but couldn't find it. Finally figured out it was the broiler pan--used, probably repeatedly, and never washed.

[Kayakado]

I had an alcoholic tenant who moved back home to Mom without telling us. I didn't even realize he had moved out permanantly until I found out he had turned off the electricity (or it was turned off for non-payment). He left a lot of stuff behind, including a refrigerator full of food. It seemes before he left the last time, he did not shut its door properly (this was 2 weeks in FL mind you before I found it). I went in to clean things out. I opened the refrig door and was faced with a crawling mass of maggots in both freezer and refrigerator. I couldn't face it until I donned sugical mask, hat, rubber apron and loooong rubber gloves. The vision, smell and texture still haunt me of cleaning and removing that mess into a garbage bag. I should have thrown out the whole refrigerator but it was still good and fairly new. I spent a week disassembling it and disinfecting every nook and cranny. It is my backup in the garage and new tenants are now required to supply their own.

[slbunge]

My in laws have a cabin that they use for weekends. After putting a coat of varnish on the cabinets, my father in law opened one of the cupboards and threw the can of varnish inside so he'd remember to take it home with them when the weekend was over. My wife and I arrived the next morning and her mother made lunch for us. As we bit into our lovingly prepared sandwiches we all looked at each other trying to gracefully spit out the varnish-laden bread! Bread is just about the perfect vehicle to soak up all those nice petroleum volatiles.

[petite tête de chou]

Ex-boyfriend used to chew tobacco and spit his sludge into his empty soda cans..WELLL his mom decided to take a drink of her sons soda and got herself a mouthful of ICK! God, it was funny.

[Monica Bhide]

My in laws have a cabin that they use for weekends. After putting a coat of varnish on the cabinets, my father in law opened one of the cupboards and threw the can of varnish inside so he'd remember to take it home with them when the weekend was over. My wife and I arrived the next morning and her mother made lunch for us. As we bit into our lovingly prepared sandwiches we all looked at each other trying to gracefully spit out the varnish-laden bread! Bread is just about the perfect vehicle to soak up all those nice petroleum volatiles.

[Suzanne F]

ok yall what about reaching into a case of potatoes and your hand goes right through one of them how nasty . or sticking your hand into a case of oranges and one is supper fuzzy moldtacular tas T molds are kinda fun sometimes i call them kitchen experiments

Oh, yeah! Professional kitchens can be a source of constant YUCK! stories.

A chef I worked for kept coming up with ideas to try -- he'd buy stuff to use, but for whatever reasons, he'd not go through with the whole thing. Like the time he thought he might serve Roast Baby Lamb on Easter . . . or the opaque plastic bucket of sausage casings that just kept getting moved from shelf to shelf, for several months. Eventually, when we had to empty out that walk-in, I made the mistake of removing the lid. Oh, that guy was a never-ending source of "science experiments."