Burned my chili so bad the smoke alarm went off for 20 minutes

I was trying to make a big batch of chili to stretch for the week, threw everything in my biggest pot, and walked away to watch a show. Totally forgot about it until the smoke detector started screaming and my whole apartment smelled like burnt beans for 3 days. Had to scrape out the bottom and salvage what I could, but it still tasted like campfire. Has anyone else had a cheap meal go totally sideways like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

amyh123d ago

Haunted by chili" is the best way to put it, oh my gosh. I did the exact same thing with my black bean soup, except I left it simmering and went to take a nap (huge mistake). Woke up to a thick layer of charcoal at the bottom that took steel wool and a lot of elbow grease to scrub off. And the smell? It was like someone had a bonfire inside a canned bean factory. I tried to trick myself into eating it for two days, but the campfire taste just got worse every time I reheated it. Eventually I just threw the whole pot out and ordered tacos, it was the only way to save my kitchen sanity. You are so right that burnt carbon is just burnt carbon, no amount of extra cumin can fix that.

singh.harper3d ago

Friend of mine did this with lentil soup once, left it on high and went to the store. Came back to a pot that looked like a science experiment gone wrong, black crust and all. He tried to save it by adding a whole can of diced tomatoes, but it just turned into sad, smoky tomato soup that nobody wanted to touch.

olivia_lopez983d ago

Wait three days of burnt bean smell? That's insane. I thought a day was bad but three days sounds like the apartment is haunted by chili now. Honestly I'm surprised you even tried to salvage any of it, once my rice cooker burns the bottom I just throw the whole thing out and order pizza instead. Campfire flavor is not something you can fix with more spices, that's just burnt carbon at that point. You have way more patience than me dealing with that for a whole week.