The start of a new year brings about a variety of resolutions to be healthier, take up a new hobby or even to learn something new. One of those resolutions that hits all three marks is cooking. Learning to cook for yourself (and not burn anything in the process) is often something people don’t learn until they have to, until they are on their own and get tired of microwave dinners every night. But there is a reason so many people resolve to cook from scratch and give up shortly after: cooking is hard. With so many hot and sharp objects around it’s easy to injure yourself or burn your dish, making the task of cooking seem like too much to handle.
If this sounds like you, know that you aren’t alone. In fact, most people are guilty of major cooking fails and they don’t handle it well. To get to the bottom of this dangerous pastime, the group at Postmates took a deep dive into Twitter and survey data to see just how likely people are to mess up in the kitchen and how they react. And it turns out, cooking mishaps can be pretty emotional.
Over 1,000 people were surveyed across the US, and the reactions were quite varied. While 41% said they would keep a level head and try to salvage the dish, the rest of society takes a different route. 7% admitted they would skip eating altogether out of anger, while 8% often cry out of frustration. Just under 30% would give up and order out from their favorite diner, and try again tomorrow night.
When looking at the generational difference, it’s interesting to note that younger generations are most likely to shed some tears or skip eating entirely. Once we get to older generations, however, they are more likely to throw out their failed dinner than any other age group (most likely because they’ve been cooking for years and know what can and can’t be salvaged).
So now that we know just how people react to cooking fails, Postmates also wanted to take a look at what the most common mishaps are in the kitchen. They took to Twitter to look at the last two years of #cookingfails tweets. From burnt dishes to sliced fingers, people admitted to a lot of screw ups online.
No matter if you take to Twitter to vent your frustrations or quietly cry by the stove before trying again, it’s nice to know you aren’t alone in your cooking blunders. Check out their full post for more data on common cooking fails and let’s hope for less burnt food in 2020!
