Christmas food fails

Around 2004, we were living in New Zealand. Popped the turkey in the oven at 4 am for a slow roast. Went to church at 8am and returned to find the house slightly smokey. We were unable to determine where the smoke was coming from. The turkey was not burning and there seemed to be no source for the smoke.
Around 11:30, with the house becoming progressively more smokey, my husband determined that the cupboard shelf, under the oven was glowing red. It was only then that the smoke alarm started sounding.
I called the fire brigade and asked them if they would mind coming to check. 2 Fire trucks, a removal of an oven and removal of the offending piece of shelf later, we were advised that this fire was the result of the incorrect installation of the oven (in a house we had lived in for 2 years and was about 9 years old.) Apparently this was a frequent call out and we were lucky to not have lost the house.
Christmas lunch was finished in the microwave and stovetop and eaten about 3 hours late. The firemen offered to have us over to theirs if we were unable to rescue lunch.
It gave the teenagers a wonderful Christmas story and us a neurosis for checking how ovens have been installed in every house since then. Particularly when we moved to Western Australia.

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I agree. I’ve found a whole ham keeps well and is the perfect stand-by for feeding the summer holiday hoards, plus you get the bone to freeze and use in pea and ham soup later on.

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We cooked one of the Coles Finest Beef Rib Eye Roast for dinner last night and it was even better than it looked prior to cooking.

It was the juciest, most tender beef roast I have ever tasted.

Highly recommended even if paying the full price of $33/kg which is similar in price to non-Angus premium rib eye roasts.

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OH YUM!!! Just adding this because the software doesnt like incomplete sentences.

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It looks lovely & sounds good but could not afford it on the Pension

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If you shop at Coles, simply keep an eye out for ones being marked down by their Best Before date.

I have bought a few of the ones pictured for $16.50/kg and some of the boneless rib eye roasts for as little as $7.50/kg

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Hi everyone, I’ve heard from a reliable source that we’re updating our Christmas food fails article. If you have an anecdote you’d like to share, please add it here.

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I remember a, while ago we had a large family Christmas and the kitchen wasn’t completely renovated at relos house it was pretty bad as you mentioned the turkey was half raw but their oven was to small.

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First Christmas with my in-laws to be, each visitor bringing a contribution to our house in Sydney. 6 weeks prior, MiL brings home-made pudding from Canberra, wrapped in a nice cloth. House is full of stuff and kitchen is small, so I suggest it goes in a cupboard. Maybe she doesn’t hear?

On Christmas day, MiL asks whether I have the pudding “ready”… hmmm? I guess she thinks I know how to prepare it? Turns out it needs to be steamed to heat through! I pull it out of the cupboard, in it’s lovely cloth, but it turns out there’s a layer of plastic and inside that the pudding has gone mouldy.

We scrape off the surface, rewrap it and stick in a pot of boiling water to heat through. It’s not very big any more!
But it tastes fine with some custard and “hard sauce” which I also didn’t know how to make.

I was the unimpressive potential daughter-in-law that year and it took some time for her to forgive me.

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For guests I was baking four bream that’d been marinated in soy and ginger.

Tested one of them before removing and it was fine.

After serving it emerged that the two inside fish in the tray hadn’t cooked. Woops.

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I gave up on anything piggy a long time ago, partly because of the gluttony at Christmas. It doesn’t stop it of course!

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Food fails are live now, thanks for adding your stories :+1:

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Wow. Some of us received “honourable mentions” in the Choice article.

Perhaps a special run-off vote for a free plum pudding?

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I remember my mother sweating over a wood stove on Christmas day to cook the traditional meal. People felt quite daring when they started rebelling against the hot roast with trimmings, the boiled pudding, hot custard etc. As kids the best part for us, aside from presents, was watermelon and going to the beach (at Coolum).

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Mum rebelled, eventually… she still made Christmas pud and cake, but the meal switched from a roast to a ham and chicken salad. I still prefer that

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Someone requested a test on this on our social media channels. Not sure our testers will be keen…

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I think they would have to be “GAME” to give it a go.

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Wow. It actually makes macca’s look good.

And they now even have a vegan version.

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Reminds me of the WillyWonka product! A flavour for each layer.