5 Kitchen Mistakes That Gave Us Gifts

Kitchen accidents happen now and again. As it turns out some kitchen mistakes have resulted in gifts for us all. In fact instead of disaster sometimes things turn out sweet gifts for us all! In actual fact a number of household foods and food gifts have been the result of a kitchen mistake. Here are just 5 kitchen mistakes that we've updated that we looked at a few years ago .

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Chocolate chip cookies were developed in 1930, when Ruth Wakefield, owner of Toll House Inn was making Butter Drop Do Cookies. It seems looking for a change she add smashed pieces of semi-sweet chocolate bar to the cookies she was baking. What resulted was a delicious batch of cookies with chunks of chocolate that soon became a hit.

Originally the cookies were called the " Toll House Crunch Cookie" though this was later changed to the Chocolate Chip Cookie.  The recipe was published in a Boston newspaper and its' popularity took off. According to a CNN article, Wakefield was the reason Nestle broke their chocolate blocks into pieces so as to make it easier to work with. 

2. Popsicle 

The Popsicle too was invented by mistake. It was 1905 and Frank Epperson made a soda water mix which he accidently left on his verandah overnight. Legend has it that he left the mixing stick in the mix. The next morning Epperson had created what would become the popsicle.

As an eleven year old this was some feat! He was so delighted he started selling his invention around the neighbourhood and before long the rest is history.

3. Sandwich 

Sandwiches are ever a convenient option for lunch. The sandwich beginning actually came from a similar need for convenience.

Invented by the fourth Earl of Sandwich John Montagu, the sandwich according to his descendants resulted from him working so hard that he did not want to stop to eat lunch. Myth has it that he was so engrossed with his card game that he did not want to stop for a proper meal. Either way lucky for us he ordered his house staff to bring him two slices of bread and some meat. This way without crockery and cutlery he could keep on going and still eat lunch.

We'll leave the debate to others about the actual reason for developing the Sandwich has resulted in a great gift for us all. 

 4. The Ice Cream Cone 

The invention of the ice cream cone is attributed to Marchiony and he was granted a patent in 1903. Around the same time legend has it that  Ernest A. Hamwi was selling a crisp, waffle like pastry in a booth beside the an ice cream stall. It is said that when the ice cream vendor ran out of bowls, Hamwi rolled he wafer like waffles to a cone and gave it to the vendor.

As the cone cooled it hardened and the ice cream vendor was met with great delight by customers. Ice cream in a cone was invented.

 5. Brownies 

There are many stories surrounding the invention of the sweet treat we know and love. According to the books Betty Crocker’s Baking Classics and The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, brownies were accidentally invented in the early 1900s by a housewife from Bangor, Maine. It is said that she forgot to add baking powder to the chocolate cake she was making so the cake was flat. 

The most documented and the one to which we at Dello Mano subscribe is that Bertha Palmer, requested the chefs at her husband’s hotel (Chicago’s Palmer House Hotel) to create a treat that would fit in the boxed lunches for the Women’s Pavillion at the World Columbian Exposition in 1893. The Chef created what is now known as the Brownie and to this day the Palmer House Hotel still bakes brownies almost everyday.

The history of brownies may not be agreed upon but what we can all agree on is how the delicious treat is loved the world over, right? 

 Which accidental food invention is your favorite?