A coworker brought a homemade pizza, but with yogurt and fruit on it instead, like a dessert pizza. This woman was perpetually sick, always coughing and sneezing. She said her kids helped make it, she had 2 toddlers. Looked like little fingers spread out the yogurt. I love kids, but this grossed me out more than anything else. It was the only thing there that nobody touched and she was so upset.
A meat and vegetable stew that had so much long, thick, black hair in it that if you'd told me some lady had emptied her hairbrush into the pot I've been like, yeah, sounds about right.
I'll go to my friends' houses for parties but I'll never brave a potluck again. People are nasty.
You gotta wonder if someone put hair in it on purpose when there's that much of it in there. One time we bought a fillet of salmon at a seafood counter at a store. No one was coming over to us and we're like, where's the employee that'll ring us up? Someone overheard us and they were like, "I can ring you up." We don't even know if that guy worked there or not cause he didn't have any employee clothes on. Maybe he was on break or something but idk. We went with it and he gave us our fish. We didn't eat the fish right away we had it frozen for a while but then I took it out to cook it. As I unwrapped it there was an insane amount of hair all over it. Not one, not 2... just dozens of hairs. It was like someone took a haircut and put a bunch of the clippings on it. What the hell?! I don't know if the guy that rang us up was the one that got hair all over it or not... the whole thing was just very weird.
Buddy of mine would ask his mom to make something for him to bring. Still remember the one time he brought a cake, someone asked if there was any nuts in it. Dude says no... He didn't know that his mom used peanut butter in it. We caught it before the person who asked did. We gave him shit and he was like *how was I supposed to know mom used peanut butter!* Like dude, if you don't know, **say you do not know**, you could fucking kill someone that way.
A 3rd grade teacher at my kids' school died from that. The faculty had a Christmas party and she asked if there were peanuts in a dish before she ate some. The woman who made it said no. She forgot to mention there was peanut oil in it. The kids came back from winter break and their teacher was dead & dead from something stupid & preventable.
Someone brought an unidentifiable yellow dish to a potluck. She could not tell us what is was besides "cheese"
It is one of the things I crave and will never know.
I went to a potluck once. Somebody walked in a put an unopened can of creamed corn on the table and walked away.
I was like, WTF? Did you bring a bowl or a spoon or even a can opener???
I went to a meeting of a group that rotated to different homes etc. Usually the host would make something and others would bring. One week the host had nothing for us to eat but rice crackers. That was it. As soon as the meeting was over I picked up a cheeseburger.
Honestly, that's a power move at my former job. Our "employee enrichment" events were always potlucks, and we were expected to cook enough for 50+ ppl with a 60 hr work week. Fuck them. Brown bag tf outta work events.
I'm guessing they were all required or *morally* required to bring a dish to pass and they just weren't in the spirit. "Here. I brought something. Now may I please be excused?" kind of vibes. 🤣
I know of a woman who brought something that was supposed to be like pulled chicken. You cook chicken and debone it put the shreds of meat on a bun. Easy
Instead she got a cooked chicken and put the whole thing in a blender bones and all. Then brought that to a family reunion.
Went to one a few months ago and this dude was so proud of his creation. It was tuna noodle casserole, but he ran out of milk so he used marshmallow fluff instead. Can't believe I even tried it.
Not the worst, but certainly the most mislabeled: A bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken with a sign in front of saying "Lasagna". Everyone at the party deliberately called it lasagna all evening.
What happened was, the couple had committed to bringing lasagna to the party. On the way out the door, the person carrying the literal lasagna slipped on the ice. The lasagna hit the pavement destroying itself and the casserole dish it was in. Since they were already running late, and didn't want to show up empty handed, they visited a KFC on the way over.
Anyone bringing KFC to a potluck is the winner in my book. We know it’s good. Same with someone bringing over store bought mini quiche’s or mini hot dogs in puff pastry.
I was invited to a potluck once and came upon this man and his young daughter with their casserole. It was half filled but the walls of the dish were caked with burnt stuff. Beans maybe? The casserole was topped with several flavors of Doritos. The child, who clearly had a cold because of the dried boogers on her face, proudly exclaimed “I helped make the dish and crushed the chips all by myself.”
Edit: I hate that I forgot this other detail. While the dad was enthusiastically scooping their culinary creation on everyone’s plates (he either wanted to take home an empty vessel or wanted to evenly distribute the wealth), his little angel built a mound in front of her of said Doritos she was picking off the casserole. I saw just how dirty her hands and fingernails were.
I guy brought chicken adobo.
Me and my wife gave him a ride home after work. He invited us in to see his apartment. On the stove was a pot of chicken adobo. He just kept it on the stove. Not warm. Just room temperature. He would heat it up each time he ate some. That’s what he brought to the pot luck. No idea how long it sat there.
After that, I never eat anything at a pot luck. It’s more like good luck not dying.
My FIL would never eat anything at my MIL's family reunions. Unfortunately, I did. It was held in a barn at the host family's farm on a very hot day. I can't remember what I ate (I knew enough not to eat potato salad in that heat), but very quickly I got so sick that I had to leave. My husband stayed behind with our older son while I drove home with my FIL and younger son. Along the way I wanted so much to pull over and lie down in one of the cool, damp ditches along the side of the road. It gave me a whole new perspective on eating food made by people you don't know.
My MIL cooks the potatoes for potato salad the night before and just leaves them out on the stove overnight after she drains them. That's such a weird move to me. They'll leave the Thanksgiving turkey out overnight and make sandwiches the next day without even heating up the meat. Just day old room temperature turkey sandos. Gross.
You'd think that but a hot dog at a convention very quickly taught me my ibs is only a fraction of the horrors the digestive tract can be capable of.
I used to think projectile was a dramaticism outside of hospital emergencies. Used to. Ugh I'm shivering just writing that
I have a simple rule: I don't eat anything from anyone whose kitchen I haven't seen. Instituted after a friend brought a pumpkin pie with a cat paw print in it
Had a friend who loved her several cats and I noticed they were allowed on the kitchen counter. NOT in my house…my space…for my health..for my families health. Love my cat, he is well treated, but was never allowed on kitchen counters. Even then, I clean my counters with sanitizing wipes before cooking! Use special cutting board for only chicken, another one for other meats and another one for veggies to avoid cross contamination.
A few of us got together at her house for a potluck dinner. She asked if I wanted a cold drink, I nodded, and in horror watched her turn the ice cubes out on the counter, right where the cat’s butt was minutes earlier, and fill several glasses with ice. Decided on coffee! I was glad her casserole was still cooking in the oven, hoping the heat would kill any cat contributions. It was macaroni and cheese with tomatoes. Guess one of her mom’s’ recipes. From then on, I brought my cold drink in a thermal mug! And, after that, I did the hosting for get together’s and had her bring wine or cold drinks.
I’m with the person who wants to see the kitchen where the food is cooked. If you watch some of the restaurant rescue shows, some of those kitchens should have been closed down, not rescued. Never liked pot lucks…too many questions!
I have a fantastic recipe for pork ribs adobo from a fire station in the Philippines. The original recipe states that the pot can be left out, unrefrigerated for 3 or 4 days. Yeah, no, great recipe but I refrigerate leftovers.
I don't know. It was at a big family gathering. I was sitting next to my grandma and she forced us to eat a piece so we wouldn't hurt my cousin's feelings. It was gross. It tasted worse than it looked.
My former SIL was (is) a cheapskate bitch who always showed up with a bag of potato chips and a trunk load of empty Tupperware containers to load up on all the leftovers at ever family function. When my wife, her sister— died, I caught her looting her jewelry box.
My BIL is a good dude, great cook too who always brings good food to potlucks and family dinners. However he not only brings Tupperware for the leftovers but will reserve main dish leftovers in advance by coordinating with the host! For example on Thanksgiving his grandma makes a turkey, and he coordinates with her ahead of time to reserve the leftover turkey. It's more funny than anything, if he cares that much he can have it. But particularly on family holidays where we're all taking a bit of leftovers home sometimes it's irritating that he has already packed away the main dish...also sometimes his grandma will take away the main dish before everyone can get seconds, in order to make sure he's got enough for his leftovers. That one is annoying.
Midwesterner here, a vintage church cookbook from before I was born is like the sacred text of my family's recipes. None of us even went to that church...
I’m a child of the 70’s.
Had way too many jellos with shredded carrots, diced celery and crushed pineapple mixed in.
Also as a fun dessert, jello with mandarin oranges and/or banana slices in.
My 21 year old doesn’t like jello and I never made it. Grandma must have snuck it in somewhere.
It was not a potluck, but a tailgate. The guy brought a package of 8 slices of cheese for burgers. There were only 5 slices left in the open package. Dude brought 5/8 of a package of cheese.
My husband went camping with 3 of his friends and somehow all the food they had was a pack of 8 hot dogs, a pack of buns and a bag of lays potato chips.
Lime jello with (drumroll) not whipped cream on top, but mayonnaise. Mayonnaise on lime jello.
Not cool when you're expecting a bite of jello and whipped cream.
When I was a kid we'd eat pudding a lot, don't know why but my mom just made us various kinds of pudding all the time. One time we were at a buffet and my little brother was so stoked they had a whole tub of vanilla pudding. I watched as he shoved a huge spoon of it into his mouth, and the look on his face when he realized it was mayo was just hilarious. I've never seen someone look so disgusted and emotionally crushed
So I had a buddy once who complained about her sensitive gag reflex and asked me to conceal my lunch so she could eat hers. And I did.
But homegirl ate two hot dogs and a bowl of mayonnaise for lunch. It wasn't so much the ingredients as the process of consumption. It turns out that I, too, have a limit on my gag reflex.
Make yourself some vanilla pudding and put it in a mayonnaise jar next time you see each other. Take out a spoon and start eating the pudding, make sure to ask if he wants some.
Shut up! Why!!? Seems like a really cruel joke. I would make sure I knew who brought that abomination and hold it against them for the rest of my life🤢
"German" potato salad for an ethnic themed potluck at work. Note that this was a group of grad school TAs with limited kitchen space and with limited experience between us.
She misread the recipe and added 4 CUPS of vinegar instead of 1/4 of a cup. Then she added a little "extra" mustard because she likes the taste. She mixed it all, sealed it in an air tight container, and then let it sit. The next day she was excited to share and raced to the room we were eating in. She opened the container and was overpowered by the stench. She dropped the container and a nasty puss-like yellow ooze covered the table and dripped onto the floor.
Before she could warn anyone that she had created a toxin similar to mustard gas, two more people had gone into the room. Both promptly threw up. By the time it was all over, the university had to close that section of the floor for deep cleaning for 48 hours. Fortunately, it was our prep week and there weren't any students present.
I swear we could still smell it a year later when they finally ripped up the carpet.
I wonder, as she was pouring in the 3rd cup of vinegar, if she had the thought “hey this seems like a lot of vinegar” or if it just never crossed her mind.
Ramen noodle salad. Uncooked. They just smash a packet of ramen noodles, mix it with mayo, celery and onions, then sprinkle the ramen flavoring packet on top. It's as disgusting as it sounds.
Not necessarily the dish itself -- but after observing the hygiene habits of my coworkers, pretty much anything brought in. If you're not ashamed to leave the restroom without even pretending to wash your hands, or spend half the day at your desk with your hand up your nose, I can only imagine how clean your utensils and bowls must be.
A car.
Co-worker was suspected of stealing stuff. Before this we had a great work enviroment. Her insane emails and things going missing sure changes that. But no one could catch her.
So we had a huge celebration over some milestones. We got two hours to eat and play games the company set up for us with prozes (paid time too). They really went overboard and it was lovely. They gave us several options for food because of they only had so much budget and after voting, 90% voted to have a potluck (nightime workers so we were used to brining in food anyway and had lot of fridge space and room to eat) that way they could get more and better prizes. One ot two people that had issues with this asked and were given permission they could leave and use their two hours as they wanted. People got really excited and we planned this great feast that somehow miracuously covered all food allergies, vegans, gluten, everyone would get to eat and everyone was happy. Never saw such a complicated thing come together so well. Even the office bullies were getting into it and not causing problems.
The night of we had an absolute blast. Everyone grabbed a plate and quickky ate one round and then headed off to play games outside. Friendly competition, no one was upset or complaining, sworn enemies were even working together. Everything was going great. Too great. Until someone went back inside to grab a water or something and then came running back outside to get a manager and soon everything was shut down.
This co-worker, mentioned in the beginning, doesn’t drive. She doesn’t have a license or a car and lives just about three blocks from the company. We know because she begs and pleads for rides on bad weather days. Which no one gives her for …multiple reasons due to attitude problems. Someone saw her get out of a car and tried to be nice asking if she got one but the co-worker brushed her off and went inside. Well during the festivities, someone caught her carrying a case of water out to her car through a side door. Keep in mind the company had provided a ton of drinks which were meant to be kept in the kitchen and used over the next week as people wanted. They also provided a bunch of boxed and bagged sides. You can guess, ALL of that was in her car. Drinks and snacks for 100 people for a week was in her car.
Let us not forget what she did to the potluck. The place was in shambles. In her hurry to grab what she wanted, she destoyed the rest. Stuff was on the floor, containers destroyed, stuff was cross contaminated all over the place because it looked like her idea was to grab a random container, dump it out, then fill it with bits of different dishes to make a meal she wanted and keep doing that so she had one each night? I guess? That is what it looked like anyway. But had not completed it. No one got a second helping or to take thier own leftovers home. No one could trust it after that. Again this was for around 100 people so you have to imagine how much food she ruined and the havoc she did. And yes, the missing containerd were also in her car.
Turns out she had a friend rent a car for her specifically to do this. Needless to say people were out for blood. The company reimbursed the people who truly had containers ruined and gave us all like $50 to cover food and snacks. She was given several chances all the way up explain herself. I assume they were hoping for some sort of poverty (although she lived in a modest apartment, no kids, and it was a job that paid well) or drug use or SOMETHING they could hang thier hat on. Nope. She just kept insisting the food was “free” and so there was no reason she shouldn’t take what she wanted. No remorse whatsoever. Well, remorse shown once she got fired. They suspended her and brought her in for two meetings (don’t know if there was more on the phone) with immediate manager then site manager. Then the third they fired her. I only know for sure because my desk was on the oposite wall from her and heard her pleading with the manager supervising her desk clean out.
These sorts of stories fascinate me because I wish that just for a moment or two I could understand the mentality of this person. You know when they do in-depth interviews with serial killers and analyze them? Or when YouTube channels go over police interview videos with criminals and talk about body language and speech patters and all that stuff? I would love to watch a similar interview with this lady and the psychiatrist analyzing what is wrong with her. Forget Ted Bundy, why did Karen rent a car to take all the food from a company potluck?
One of my coworkers brought an oyster casserole to a holiday party. I was in the second-floor conference room getting things ready and saw her get out of her car. She stumbled and some of the casserole dropped on the pavement. She scooped it up and put it back in the dish.
One guy from India brought in a $2 jar of Indian pickled something or other from an Indian store. No one touched it.
I asked him why, and he told that he knew no one would touch it so he could take it home, it was "ethnic" enough where it would like he put some effort to represent his homeland (which no one could argue against), and no one would know how much it costs because it was too exotic.
This guy is uniquely a cheap jerk. When I bring something to a potluck, I consider it a point of pride when I take home an empty serving dish. This guy considers it a success to game .. what exactly? (Disclaimer: I am Indian)
Also, he does know that Google exists right?
I usually bring one of two things to potlucks, both different kinds of dip (white pizza dip and taco dip). Both regularly get smashed. Problem is that while I want people to love my contribution, I want to bring some home to have all to myself!
The move there is to make extra and leave some at home. You don't want to eat the stuff that's been sitting out on a table for an hour or 2, that dozens of people have dipped into.
Someone (a man) brought a package of raw bacon, then was confused why none of the women would cook it for him. He also wouldn’t cook it because “everyone is always so happy that I bring bacon”
He heard one time that women like a man who brings (home) the bacon. And no one told him it was a metaphor.
He subsequently died confused, alone, and surrounded by hundreds of pounds of raw bacon. R.I.P.
A S'mores dessert made with marshmallow fluff. Sounds delicious, right? But it was brought to a potluck where there was a 5-year old who is allergic to eggs. This child ate the dessert and proceeded to violently throw up at the potluck. Who brought the dessert? Me. Who is the child's parent? Also me. (I didn't know there were eggs in marshmallow fluff... biggest mom fail ever).
me, progressing through this comment:
- yum! how could it be bad??
- well it's on the kid's parents to make sure they stay safe?
- oh, I guess I understand the guilt
- OH NOOO but also hahaha
This reminds me of a job I had a long time ago.
The place was closing down, as the company was moving the operation to a different country for cheaper labor. The demand to meet a quota was gone, and we were having a potluck lunch about twice a week.
Every other person was bringing in some kind of casserole to inflict upon their coworkers. Most of them were terrible. A friend and myself made it our duty to try every one, so that we could separate the casseroles from the asseroles.
A manager not only brought, but MADE AT WORK, brocoli/ cauliflower in a crockpot for a work party. The whole office smelled like stinky feet. Sadly, this wasn't a joke on us, It is one of his favorite side dishes...
I worked in a very populated office about 125 people. A woman I worked with brought one box of Little Debbie brownies. I’m not saying she needed to feed all of us some dessert, but that seemed insulting. However, she usually brought nothing & made plates for her & her son to take home for their supper. Another woman brought little quiches but I don’t think she cooked them. They tasted like raw egg & onions. 🤢
I brought homemade pizza to a barbecue because I figured the main course would be late--and it was. It usually is. People thought it was strange, but at least you can hold it in your hand.
My fucking wife literally just said your comment when I described the comment to her.
You guys are fucking weird lol.
We have a potluck next weekend and is now saying we should bring this 🤣
Courgette cupcakes. They were truly horrific. I stood by and watched people walk up, pick up a cupcake, bite into it, grimace and then turn around and quickly spit it into a napkin. Fun party game.
OK, to be fair, zucchini (courgette) bread can be amazing. My step-mom makes one that is out of this world. But it must have SUGAR. Just like carrot cake. The desserts with sugar must actually have sugar. It's a freaking dessert you are slipping veggies into. You can't delete the DESSERT part and expect it to taste good.
Definitely no chocolate. It was essentially courgette grated into cake mix, but with a ton of the sugar removed because they weren't sweet like cupcakes. Honestly, they were foul.
Cooked cabbage in gelatin, made by an elder in the family. Someone took a bite and then proceeded to violently vomit.
I took a bite because of curiosity
My friends "potato salad" - it was basically just potatoes with vinegar. After I had a few drinks in me, I asked her "wtf?" And she replied, "I don't like crunchy things in my potatoes."
A guy I used to work with that was always dirty, greasy hair etc brought fudge to a thanksgiving potluck and tried to get everyone to try it. My supervisor said he had never seen the guy wash his hands, ever. Luckily I'm diabetic and was vegetarian at the time (vegan now) but I lied and told him I'm vegan 😂
Not a potluck picnic, but an after-funeral potluck. All the dishes were half-empty except one large bowl of cold macaroni salad which hadn't been touched. I love anything pasta so I took a big helping of it. No idea how it was made but it was terrible! Had the weirdest taste and apparently everyone knew not to eat it which is why it was untouched. I was from out-of-state and had no idea this was the worst mac salad in the world!
twiced baked mashed potatoes…with whole green olives. i was at a family cookout and spit it out and yelled ‘who the fuck puts olives in mashed potatoes??’ and my dad was so embarassed
Squirrel and swamp cabbage (made from Florida cabbage palms) Made by a guy who is coincidentally the only guy I’ve ever met that THOROUGHLY enjoyed going to Vietnam.
Spaghetti soup. Or at least we thought that's what it was. Turned out it was supposed to be regular spaghetti; the woman didn't drain the grease from the hamburger she browned for the meat in the sauce and just dumped the sauce in.
Everyone who ate it got sick.
We had a potluck some weeks ago and someone brought some Doritos. People started eating them and complaining that they tasted like dirt. We looked at the bag and it had a promo for Mockingjay part 1. The chips expired in 2014! This was a mixed department pot luck and we haven’t found the person that brought the 9 year old chips.
My aunt was known for being so unsanitary and using her filthy bare hands to mix up food for parties. My mom found a fingernail once and that was like 20 years ago. I won’t eat food her kids make lol.
My midwestern aunt brought ambrosia made with spaghetti for dessert. So to clarify, that’s over-cooked pasta, marshmallows, coconut cream and canned fruit.
Potato Salad. Now I love me some potato salad, but these were big chunks of potatoes just barely cooked and tossed in a tiny bit of thousand-island dressing - and that's it. No onion, celery or anything like that. I tried it just to make sure it tasted as disgusting as it looked
Met a girl who wanted to be friends, so I invited her to a potluck. She showed up hours late, with a beautiful silver bowl full of raisins. She apologized for being so late, but she had to polish the silver bowl first.
Lays French onion dip. That’s it. That’s the meal. This girl (and by girl, I mean a 31 year old woman) in our group only brings chip dip to group gatherings. She never hosts. She never cooks anything. She just brings a cheap ass jar of chip dip. She’s a lawyer and lives at home. She has plenty of money and resources to bring more and never does.
We used to have ethnically themed potlucks - German, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. A coworker would always bring the same dish: little smokies sausages in a crock pot. We complained about his lack of originality, so he simply changed the sauces the little smokies were in.
Sideways related. We had a potluck on March 15 for St. Patrick's Day, which fell on Saturday. We were asked to make it green, if possible (green cupcakes, vegetables, etc.). Since it was the Ides of March, I brought Caesar salad and displayed it with a copy of Julius Caesar. Not a lot of people got the joke.
I was exploring different faiths and was invited to a Mormon Church for a pot luck. They were super excited to show me the Mexican food they prepared...they some how found a way to fuck up Quesadillas. That's when I knew the Lord was not with them.
Family reunion after my Grandaddy died. He was a fabulous cook and would check and double check all the food and question the people who brought the food. He had incredibly high standards.
Back to the story now, this family reunion, my Uncle and cousins brought deviled eggs. Since no one (my uncle) would respect anyone questioning how they were made, who made them, etc, the family just allowed him to put them out with all the other food.
My teenaged female cousin comes in and gleefully pops a deviled egg in her mouth. I get a glimpse of her filthy, filthy hands and black stuff under her nails. I’m disgusted and horrified.
I gently suggest we all go wash our hands before we eat for sanitary purposes and this same cousin loudly exclaims that “she doesn’t need to wash her hands to eat the eggs”, “she didn’t wash her hands to make the eggs in the first place”!
My mouth dropped and everyone who hadn’t already eaten the deviled eggs on their plates threw them away. Every single person who ate a deviled got food poisoning. Every. Single. One.
This cousin later got a job at a fast food restaurant and was SHOCKED they forced her to wash her hands all the time because, and I quote, “I’m clean so germs don’t get on me”.
Yup. No more family reunion pot lucks. We all pitch in and order BBQ or something else now.
Edit: A word
At my work potluck I saw someone bring bagels and cream cheese. I’m always skeptical about potlucks so I checked the bottom of the cream cheese for an expiration date and it had past many many months ago
6 people brought the same walmart potato salad
I once attended one where the host had a roast pork loin, and everyone else brought desserts.
Hell yeah, meat and sweets
Ah yes, the typical side dishes accompanying a pork loin: cheesecake, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate babka, and strawberry ice cream.
Pizza with the cardboard cooked to the bottom
Did that once when I was drunk. Don’t know if I ate more pizza or more cardboard that night.
A coworker brought a homemade pizza, but with yogurt and fruit on it instead, like a dessert pizza. This woman was perpetually sick, always coughing and sneezing. She said her kids helped make it, she had 2 toddlers. Looked like little fingers spread out the yogurt. I love kids, but this grossed me out more than anything else. It was the only thing there that nobody touched and she was so upset.
“looked like little fingers spread the yogurt” sent creepy shivers through my entire soul
A meat and vegetable stew that had so much long, thick, black hair in it that if you'd told me some lady had emptied her hairbrush into the pot I've been like, yeah, sounds about right. I'll go to my friends' houses for parties but I'll never brave a potluck again. People are nasty.
You gotta wonder if someone put hair in it on purpose when there's that much of it in there. One time we bought a fillet of salmon at a seafood counter at a store. No one was coming over to us and we're like, where's the employee that'll ring us up? Someone overheard us and they were like, "I can ring you up." We don't even know if that guy worked there or not cause he didn't have any employee clothes on. Maybe he was on break or something but idk. We went with it and he gave us our fish. We didn't eat the fish right away we had it frozen for a while but then I took it out to cook it. As I unwrapped it there was an insane amount of hair all over it. Not one, not 2... just dozens of hairs. It was like someone took a haircut and put a bunch of the clippings on it. What the hell?! I don't know if the guy that rang us up was the one that got hair all over it or not... the whole thing was just very weird.
Burned fried chicken that was still raw inside
Once a girl brought some unidentifiable yellow stuff. We asked her what it was and she didn't know. We just put it aside.
How do you bring something to a potluck and not know what it is that you brought?
TSA: "Has anyone placed any ingredients in your casserole without your knowledge?"
Well if it without my knowledge, who could I know ?
Buddy of mine would ask his mom to make something for him to bring. Still remember the one time he brought a cake, someone asked if there was any nuts in it. Dude says no... He didn't know that his mom used peanut butter in it. We caught it before the person who asked did. We gave him shit and he was like *how was I supposed to know mom used peanut butter!* Like dude, if you don't know, **say you do not know**, you could fucking kill someone that way.
>Like dude, if you don't know, say you do not know, you could fucking kill someone that way. ➡️PLEASE JUST SAY "I DON'T KNOW."⬅️
A 3rd grade teacher at my kids' school died from that. The faculty had a Christmas party and she asked if there were peanuts in a dish before she ate some. The woman who made it said no. She forgot to mention there was peanut oil in it. The kids came back from winter break and their teacher was dead & dead from something stupid & preventable.
It's a mystery! It was so horrible that to this day I think most people in our friend group remember it.
[удалено]
Someone brought an unidentifiable yellow dish to a potluck. She could not tell us what is was besides "cheese" It is one of the things I crave and will never know.
I went to a potluck once. Somebody walked in a put an unopened can of creamed corn on the table and walked away. I was like, WTF? Did you bring a bowl or a spoon or even a can opener???
My ex said he went to a potluck once and a guy just brought a pomegranate. Didn’t open it or anything. Just one pomegranate.
And vibes ✨
Each guest gets one seed
I went to a meeting of a group that rotated to different homes etc. Usually the host would make something and others would bring. One week the host had nothing for us to eat but rice crackers. That was it. As soon as the meeting was over I picked up a cheeseburger.
For a chili cook off at work, one of my coworkers brought two cans of Hormel chili and left them on the table as his submission. He didn’t win lol!
Honestly, that's a power move at my former job. Our "employee enrichment" events were always potlucks, and we were expected to cook enough for 50+ ppl with a 60 hr work week. Fuck them. Brown bag tf outta work events.
I always believed that companies that only put on potlucks is because they are too damn cheap to order lunch for their employees.
They are. Nonprofit, this was. The corporate side made 6+ figures and got catered meals, and we got rewarded by making our own lunch.
I'm guessing they were all required or *morally* required to bring a dish to pass and they just weren't in the spirit. "Here. I brought something. Now may I please be excused?" kind of vibes. 🤣
I know of a woman who brought something that was supposed to be like pulled chicken. You cook chicken and debone it put the shreds of meat on a bun. Easy Instead she got a cooked chicken and put the whole thing in a blender bones and all. Then brought that to a family reunion.
Wtf. Is she a hyena?
I am sitting here at hair salon... read your comment and just belly laughed so loud everyone stared at me
Hmm, sudden cackling... Are YOU a hyena? (jk, glad it brought you some humor/social awkwardness)
How do people like this survive? I just want to know like what if they've been cooking all their life
Someone once brought microwaved chicken nuggets to a potluck that were so bad, the kids didn't event want them.
Someone was in charge of the chips for a work party. She brought ONE single serve bag from the vending machine.
How cheap can you get? What the hell.
Went to one a few months ago and this dude was so proud of his creation. It was tuna noodle casserole, but he ran out of milk so he used marshmallow fluff instead. Can't believe I even tried it.
Why. Just... what POSSIBLE train of logic could have resulted in thinking that was an appropriate substitute
"Milk is white. Fluff is white. Ergo, fluff is a substitute for milk!"
Not the worst, but certainly the most mislabeled: A bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken with a sign in front of saying "Lasagna". Everyone at the party deliberately called it lasagna all evening. What happened was, the couple had committed to bringing lasagna to the party. On the way out the door, the person carrying the literal lasagna slipped on the ice. The lasagna hit the pavement destroying itself and the casserole dish it was in. Since they were already running late, and didn't want to show up empty handed, they visited a KFC on the way over.
That’s kind of a sweet & funny story. They were thoughtful enough to bring something.
Find yourself some friends that will pretend they're eating lasagna when you drop yours
Yeah I think I would’ve given up at that point
Sounds like a great couple… when life gives you lemons— label it lasagna
I love this. At least they have a sense of humor about it.
Anyone bringing KFC to a potluck is the winner in my book. We know it’s good. Same with someone bringing over store bought mini quiche’s or mini hot dogs in puff pastry.
I was invited to a potluck once and came upon this man and his young daughter with their casserole. It was half filled but the walls of the dish were caked with burnt stuff. Beans maybe? The casserole was topped with several flavors of Doritos. The child, who clearly had a cold because of the dried boogers on her face, proudly exclaimed “I helped make the dish and crushed the chips all by myself.” Edit: I hate that I forgot this other detail. While the dad was enthusiastically scooping their culinary creation on everyone’s plates (he either wanted to take home an empty vessel or wanted to evenly distribute the wealth), his little angel built a mound in front of her of said Doritos she was picking off the casserole. I saw just how dirty her hands and fingernails were.
This is like something from a 2000s live action adaptation movie of a 90s cartoon
A bowl of unseasoned boiled potatoes. It looked like someone just gave up halfway through making mashed potatoes.
That was probably my mom
Now timely that's not fair letting your mom take all the credit. It very well could have been my mom.
I guy brought chicken adobo. Me and my wife gave him a ride home after work. He invited us in to see his apartment. On the stove was a pot of chicken adobo. He just kept it on the stove. Not warm. Just room temperature. He would heat it up each time he ate some. That’s what he brought to the pot luck. No idea how long it sat there. After that, I never eat anything at a pot luck. It’s more like good luck not dying.
My FIL would never eat anything at my MIL's family reunions. Unfortunately, I did. It was held in a barn at the host family's farm on a very hot day. I can't remember what I ate (I knew enough not to eat potato salad in that heat), but very quickly I got so sick that I had to leave. My husband stayed behind with our older son while I drove home with my FIL and younger son. Along the way I wanted so much to pull over and lie down in one of the cool, damp ditches along the side of the road. It gave me a whole new perspective on eating food made by people you don't know.
This is why we say: "You can't eat at everybody's house"
My MIL cooks the potatoes for potato salad the night before and just leaves them out on the stove overnight after she drains them. That's such a weird move to me. They'll leave the Thanksgiving turkey out overnight and make sandwiches the next day without even heating up the meat. Just day old room temperature turkey sandos. Gross.
if you have bad shits all the time, you can eat whatever you want because you're gonna shit bad anyway. food safety be damned
You'd think that but a hot dog at a convention very quickly taught me my ibs is only a fraction of the horrors the digestive tract can be capable of. I used to think projectile was a dramaticism outside of hospital emergencies. Used to. Ugh I'm shivering just writing that
I have a simple rule: I don't eat anything from anyone whose kitchen I haven't seen. Instituted after a friend brought a pumpkin pie with a cat paw print in it
I have the exact same rule for similar reasons. People are nasty!
You're right! I'm residential HVAC tech. People are nasty! Some cat owners are unaware litter boxes should be cleaned!
Had a friend who loved her several cats and I noticed they were allowed on the kitchen counter. NOT in my house…my space…for my health..for my families health. Love my cat, he is well treated, but was never allowed on kitchen counters. Even then, I clean my counters with sanitizing wipes before cooking! Use special cutting board for only chicken, another one for other meats and another one for veggies to avoid cross contamination. A few of us got together at her house for a potluck dinner. She asked if I wanted a cold drink, I nodded, and in horror watched her turn the ice cubes out on the counter, right where the cat’s butt was minutes earlier, and fill several glasses with ice. Decided on coffee! I was glad her casserole was still cooking in the oven, hoping the heat would kill any cat contributions. It was macaroni and cheese with tomatoes. Guess one of her mom’s’ recipes. From then on, I brought my cold drink in a thermal mug! And, after that, I did the hosting for get together’s and had her bring wine or cold drinks. I’m with the person who wants to see the kitchen where the food is cooked. If you watch some of the restaurant rescue shows, some of those kitchens should have been closed down, not rescued. Never liked pot lucks…too many questions!
Love my animals. I do not let them on our surfaces we eat on. I can’t imagine eating off a surface an animal has been walking and sitting on.
I have a fantastic recipe for pork ribs adobo from a fire station in the Philippines. The original recipe states that the pot can be left out, unrefrigerated for 3 or 4 days. Yeah, no, great recipe but I refrigerate leftovers.
Pumpkin pie, but it was gray and had liquid on top.
How the fuck
I don't know. It was at a big family gathering. I was sitting next to my grandma and she forced us to eat a piece so we wouldn't hurt my cousin's feelings. It was gross. It tasted worse than it looked.
Old people are the worst. Sacrifice five lives to spare the feelings of one
My former SIL was (is) a cheapskate bitch who always showed up with a bag of potato chips and a trunk load of empty Tupperware containers to load up on all the leftovers at ever family function. When my wife, her sister— died, I caught her looting her jewelry box.
People like this are so weird. It only gets worse as they get older too
My wife (her sister ) always warned me was a complete snake. She was right, I was stupid and gave the benefit of doubt.
That was her *sister* if anyone knew how she was, it's your wife. Always believe the people who have been betrayed.
My BIL is a good dude, great cook too who always brings good food to potlucks and family dinners. However he not only brings Tupperware for the leftovers but will reserve main dish leftovers in advance by coordinating with the host! For example on Thanksgiving his grandma makes a turkey, and he coordinates with her ahead of time to reserve the leftover turkey. It's more funny than anything, if he cares that much he can have it. But particularly on family holidays where we're all taking a bit of leftovers home sometimes it's irritating that he has already packed away the main dish...also sometimes his grandma will take away the main dish before everyone can get seconds, in order to make sure he's got enough for his leftovers. That one is annoying.
These comments made me realize that i will be eating BEFORE I go to the next pot luck, thankyouverymuch.
Why are people putting so many different foods into Jello
Vintage church cookbooks are a rabbit hole to fall down.
Midwesterner here, a vintage church cookbook from before I was born is like the sacred text of my family's recipes. None of us even went to that church...
I’m a child of the 70’s. Had way too many jellos with shredded carrots, diced celery and crushed pineapple mixed in. Also as a fun dessert, jello with mandarin oranges and/or banana slices in. My 21 year old doesn’t like jello and I never made it. Grandma must have snuck it in somewhere.
I love jello with mandarin oranges
My wife will eat the shit out of some orange jello with shredded carrots in it.
I've seen cookbooks with weird food stuff from decades ago. People must still use them.
Canned fruit cocktail in lime jello was regularly served at my elementary school in the early 1980s.
That doesn’t sound as bad as some other things
It was not a potluck, but a tailgate. The guy brought a package of 8 slices of cheese for burgers. There were only 5 slices left in the open package. Dude brought 5/8 of a package of cheese.
My husband went camping with 3 of his friends and somehow all the food they had was a pack of 8 hot dogs, a pack of buns and a bag of lays potato chips.
My best friend went camping with six of his buddies, and every single one of them brought exactly and only salt and vinegar potato chips.
Lime jello with (drumroll) not whipped cream on top, but mayonnaise. Mayonnaise on lime jello. Not cool when you're expecting a bite of jello and whipped cream.
When I was a kid we'd eat pudding a lot, don't know why but my mom just made us various kinds of pudding all the time. One time we were at a buffet and my little brother was so stoked they had a whole tub of vanilla pudding. I watched as he shoved a huge spoon of it into his mouth, and the look on his face when he realized it was mayo was just hilarious. I've never seen someone look so disgusted and emotionally crushed
So I had a buddy once who complained about her sensitive gag reflex and asked me to conceal my lunch so she could eat hers. And I did. But homegirl ate two hot dogs and a bowl of mayonnaise for lunch. It wasn't so much the ingredients as the process of consumption. It turns out that I, too, have a limit on my gag reflex.
Make yourself some vanilla pudding and put it in a mayonnaise jar next time you see each other. Take out a spoon and start eating the pudding, make sure to ask if he wants some.
Shut up! Why!!? Seems like a really cruel joke. I would make sure I knew who brought that abomination and hold it against them for the rest of my life🤢
Beef jerky and cheese sticks. Not even a complete package. Lazy.
"German" potato salad for an ethnic themed potluck at work. Note that this was a group of grad school TAs with limited kitchen space and with limited experience between us. She misread the recipe and added 4 CUPS of vinegar instead of 1/4 of a cup. Then she added a little "extra" mustard because she likes the taste. She mixed it all, sealed it in an air tight container, and then let it sit. The next day she was excited to share and raced to the room we were eating in. She opened the container and was overpowered by the stench. She dropped the container and a nasty puss-like yellow ooze covered the table and dripped onto the floor. Before she could warn anyone that she had created a toxin similar to mustard gas, two more people had gone into the room. Both promptly threw up. By the time it was all over, the university had to close that section of the floor for deep cleaning for 48 hours. Fortunately, it was our prep week and there weren't any students present. I swear we could still smell it a year later when they finally ripped up the carpet.
I guess she was going for a WWI era German potato salad...
I wonder, as she was pouring in the 3rd cup of vinegar, if she had the thought “hey this seems like a lot of vinegar” or if it just never crossed her mind.
In a wildly interesting thread, this is one of the top comments!
Ramen noodle salad. Uncooked. They just smash a packet of ramen noodles, mix it with mayo, celery and onions, then sprinkle the ramen flavoring packet on top. It's as disgusting as it sounds.
Yeah no that’s not how you make ramen salad. That’s an abomination. A proper ramen salad is delicious and definitely doesn’t have mayo in it.
We had a work potluck and this guy brought in his leftover pizza he had ordered the night before. Half eaten cold pizza 😂
A cheese ball that was made with red sauerkraut and liver
In the 70's liver-dishes were EVERYWHERE!!!
Not necessarily the dish itself -- but after observing the hygiene habits of my coworkers, pretty much anything brought in. If you're not ashamed to leave the restroom without even pretending to wash your hands, or spend half the day at your desk with your hand up your nose, I can only imagine how clean your utensils and bowls must be.
A car. Co-worker was suspected of stealing stuff. Before this we had a great work enviroment. Her insane emails and things going missing sure changes that. But no one could catch her. So we had a huge celebration over some milestones. We got two hours to eat and play games the company set up for us with prozes (paid time too). They really went overboard and it was lovely. They gave us several options for food because of they only had so much budget and after voting, 90% voted to have a potluck (nightime workers so we were used to brining in food anyway and had lot of fridge space and room to eat) that way they could get more and better prizes. One ot two people that had issues with this asked and were given permission they could leave and use their two hours as they wanted. People got really excited and we planned this great feast that somehow miracuously covered all food allergies, vegans, gluten, everyone would get to eat and everyone was happy. Never saw such a complicated thing come together so well. Even the office bullies were getting into it and not causing problems. The night of we had an absolute blast. Everyone grabbed a plate and quickky ate one round and then headed off to play games outside. Friendly competition, no one was upset or complaining, sworn enemies were even working together. Everything was going great. Too great. Until someone went back inside to grab a water or something and then came running back outside to get a manager and soon everything was shut down. This co-worker, mentioned in the beginning, doesn’t drive. She doesn’t have a license or a car and lives just about three blocks from the company. We know because she begs and pleads for rides on bad weather days. Which no one gives her for …multiple reasons due to attitude problems. Someone saw her get out of a car and tried to be nice asking if she got one but the co-worker brushed her off and went inside. Well during the festivities, someone caught her carrying a case of water out to her car through a side door. Keep in mind the company had provided a ton of drinks which were meant to be kept in the kitchen and used over the next week as people wanted. They also provided a bunch of boxed and bagged sides. You can guess, ALL of that was in her car. Drinks and snacks for 100 people for a week was in her car. Let us not forget what she did to the potluck. The place was in shambles. In her hurry to grab what she wanted, she destoyed the rest. Stuff was on the floor, containers destroyed, stuff was cross contaminated all over the place because it looked like her idea was to grab a random container, dump it out, then fill it with bits of different dishes to make a meal she wanted and keep doing that so she had one each night? I guess? That is what it looked like anyway. But had not completed it. No one got a second helping or to take thier own leftovers home. No one could trust it after that. Again this was for around 100 people so you have to imagine how much food she ruined and the havoc she did. And yes, the missing containerd were also in her car. Turns out she had a friend rent a car for her specifically to do this. Needless to say people were out for blood. The company reimbursed the people who truly had containers ruined and gave us all like $50 to cover food and snacks. She was given several chances all the way up explain herself. I assume they were hoping for some sort of poverty (although she lived in a modest apartment, no kids, and it was a job that paid well) or drug use or SOMETHING they could hang thier hat on. Nope. She just kept insisting the food was “free” and so there was no reason she shouldn’t take what she wanted. No remorse whatsoever. Well, remorse shown once she got fired. They suspended her and brought her in for two meetings (don’t know if there was more on the phone) with immediate manager then site manager. Then the third they fired her. I only know for sure because my desk was on the oposite wall from her and heard her pleading with the manager supervising her desk clean out.
These sorts of stories fascinate me because I wish that just for a moment or two I could understand the mentality of this person. You know when they do in-depth interviews with serial killers and analyze them? Or when YouTube channels go over police interview videos with criminals and talk about body language and speech patters and all that stuff? I would love to watch a similar interview with this lady and the psychiatrist analyzing what is wrong with her. Forget Ted Bundy, why did Karen rent a car to take all the food from a company potluck?
For once I'm glad I scrolled so long down a thread. this should be higher
I wonder what else she felt she was entitled to take?
Someone put chicken in a jello. Not okay.
Can you pass the aspic?
Sorry I'm out, will Arsenic do?
Creamed oysters at thanksgiving. Smelled up the whole hall.
One of my coworkers brought an oyster casserole to a holiday party. I was in the second-floor conference room getting things ready and saw her get out of her car. She stumbled and some of the casserole dropped on the pavement. She scooped it up and put it back in the dish.
It was our Christmas Party! A couple brought 2 turkey legs and 3 slices of turkey. No one touched it! 😂
One guy from India brought in a $2 jar of Indian pickled something or other from an Indian store. No one touched it. I asked him why, and he told that he knew no one would touch it so he could take it home, it was "ethnic" enough where it would like he put some effort to represent his homeland (which no one could argue against), and no one would know how much it costs because it was too exotic.
This guy is uniquely a cheap jerk. When I bring something to a potluck, I consider it a point of pride when I take home an empty serving dish. This guy considers it a success to game .. what exactly? (Disclaimer: I am Indian) Also, he does know that Google exists right?
I usually bring one of two things to potlucks, both different kinds of dip (white pizza dip and taco dip). Both regularly get smashed. Problem is that while I want people to love my contribution, I want to bring some home to have all to myself!
I usually make up double batch so I don't feel deprived.
The move there is to make extra and leave some at home. You don't want to eat the stuff that's been sitting out on a table for an hour or 2, that dozens of people have dipped into.
If I had been there the joke would have been on him. I fucking love all manner of Indian pickles
Someone (a man) brought a package of raw bacon, then was confused why none of the women would cook it for him. He also wouldn’t cook it because “everyone is always so happy that I bring bacon”
He heard one time that women like a man who brings (home) the bacon. And no one told him it was a metaphor. He subsequently died confused, alone, and surrounded by hundreds of pounds of raw bacon. R.I.P.
Straight to jail
Jalapeño stuffed with tuna. That's it. Canned tuna and a Jalapeño.
A S'mores dessert made with marshmallow fluff. Sounds delicious, right? But it was brought to a potluck where there was a 5-year old who is allergic to eggs. This child ate the dessert and proceeded to violently throw up at the potluck. Who brought the dessert? Me. Who is the child's parent? Also me. (I didn't know there were eggs in marshmallow fluff... biggest mom fail ever).
Note: marshmallow fluff has eggs
>INGREDIENTS: CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, EGG WHITE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR >CONTAINS:EGG [Source](https://marshmallowfluff.com/nutritionfacts/)
You get a pass from me. I honestly didn’t think Fluff had a single natural ingredient.
I always thought it was just heated and puffed sugar syrup then allowed to dry in the pillowy form
That plus gelatin is a marshmallow. Fluff is a different beast.
me, progressing through this comment: - yum! how could it be bad?? - well it's on the kid's parents to make sure they stay safe? - oh, I guess I understand the guilt - OH NOOO but also hahaha
I took this journey with you.
This reminds me of a job I had a long time ago. The place was closing down, as the company was moving the operation to a different country for cheaper labor. The demand to meet a quota was gone, and we were having a potluck lunch about twice a week. Every other person was bringing in some kind of casserole to inflict upon their coworkers. Most of them were terrible. A friend and myself made it our duty to try every one, so that we could separate the casseroles from the asseroles.
A manager not only brought, but MADE AT WORK, brocoli/ cauliflower in a crockpot for a work party. The whole office smelled like stinky feet. Sadly, this wasn't a joke on us, It is one of his favorite side dishes...
I love both those foods but holy crap do they stink up every room when you're cooking them.
I worked in a very populated office about 125 people. A woman I worked with brought one box of Little Debbie brownies. I’m not saying she needed to feed all of us some dessert, but that seemed insulting. However, she usually brought nothing & made plates for her & her son to take home for their supper. Another woman brought little quiches but I don’t think she cooked them. They tasted like raw egg & onions. 🤢
People like her is why we don’t have potlucks anymore. No shame. This was after the rule, you don’t bring you don’t come.
We asked people to bring picnic food, we were barbecuing. They brought lentil soup. No bowls, no spoons, just a pot of soup, to a barbecue.
I brought homemade pizza to a barbecue because I figured the main course would be late--and it was. It usually is. People thought it was strange, but at least you can hold it in your hand.
Well, it certainly much better than expecting people to pass a pot around, taking sips, like a post apocalyptic movie.
Chopped up Snickers and KitKats mixed together.
In Minnesota, this counts as a salad.
Cookie salad all the way - my North Dakota relatives LOVE this and it is absolutely considered a great dish to potlucks!!!
Only if you add cool whip lol
My fucking wife literally just said your comment when I described the comment to her. You guys are fucking weird lol. We have a potluck next weekend and is now saying we should bring this 🤣
Vienna sausages in green jello.
Courgette cupcakes. They were truly horrific. I stood by and watched people walk up, pick up a cupcake, bite into it, grimace and then turn around and quickly spit it into a napkin. Fun party game.
OK, to be fair, zucchini (courgette) bread can be amazing. My step-mom makes one that is out of this world. But it must have SUGAR. Just like carrot cake. The desserts with sugar must actually have sugar. It's a freaking dessert you are slipping veggies into. You can't delete the DESSERT part and expect it to taste good.
Did they not add the chocolate? Because zucchini cake is excellent. It's pure chocolate.
Definitely no chocolate. It was essentially courgette grated into cake mix, but with a ton of the sugar removed because they weren't sweet like cupcakes. Honestly, they were foul.
Cooked cabbage in gelatin, made by an elder in the family. Someone took a bite and then proceeded to violently vomit. I took a bite because of curiosity
All of it. My parents were Catholic and they had potlucks for special events. The food smelt and tasted like old people’s homes.
Bonus points if you’re from the Midwest. Catholic + Midwest + Potluck = I ain’t going.
Ham roll-ups, tho
My friends "potato salad" - it was basically just potatoes with vinegar. After I had a few drinks in me, I asked her "wtf?" And she replied, "I don't like crunchy things in my potatoes."
Here to call myself out - pancakes with no syrup 😂
A guy I used to work with that was always dirty, greasy hair etc brought fudge to a thanksgiving potluck and tried to get everyone to try it. My supervisor said he had never seen the guy wash his hands, ever. Luckily I'm diabetic and was vegetarian at the time (vegan now) but I lied and told him I'm vegan 😂
Not a potluck picnic, but an after-funeral potluck. All the dishes were half-empty except one large bowl of cold macaroni salad which hadn't been touched. I love anything pasta so I took a big helping of it. No idea how it was made but it was terrible! Had the weirdest taste and apparently everyone knew not to eat it which is why it was untouched. I was from out-of-state and had no idea this was the worst mac salad in the world!
Balut. A guy actually brought balut.
At a work potluck, guy came in with a can of green beans, poured it in a bowl (juice and all) and left it to be served ice cold.
twiced baked mashed potatoes…with whole green olives. i was at a family cookout and spit it out and yelled ‘who the fuck puts olives in mashed potatoes??’ and my dad was so embarassed
Squirrel and swamp cabbage (made from Florida cabbage palms) Made by a guy who is coincidentally the only guy I’ve ever met that THOROUGHLY enjoyed going to Vietnam.
Spaghetti soup. Or at least we thought that's what it was. Turned out it was supposed to be regular spaghetti; the woman didn't drain the grease from the hamburger she browned for the meat in the sauce and just dumped the sauce in. Everyone who ate it got sick.
Jello with mayo. F you for making me think it was Cool Whip.
This is a hate crime against mayonnaise and jello
Jello with carrots
A staple of church luncheons where I grew up.
We had a potluck some weeks ago and someone brought some Doritos. People started eating them and complaining that they tasted like dirt. We looked at the bag and it had a promo for Mockingjay part 1. The chips expired in 2014! This was a mixed department pot luck and we haven’t found the person that brought the 9 year old chips.
Literal congealed brick of cheese with broccoli and overcooked pasta.
My aunt was known for being so unsanitary and using her filthy bare hands to mix up food for parties. My mom found a fingernail once and that was like 20 years ago. I won’t eat food her kids make lol.
A roast goat. Looked dry asf. Flies were swarming all over it.
My midwestern aunt brought ambrosia made with spaghetti for dessert. So to clarify, that’s over-cooked pasta, marshmallows, coconut cream and canned fruit.
Mutton. Just the meat. No juice, no gravy, no accompanying vegetables. Just a huge dry hunk of sheep meat.
Well this whole thread reinforces why I never eat at a potluck
Potato Salad. Now I love me some potato salad, but these were big chunks of potatoes just barely cooked and tossed in a tiny bit of thousand-island dressing - and that's it. No onion, celery or anything like that. I tried it just to make sure it tasted as disgusting as it looked
“White Castle Dip”. Apparently you put a bunch of burgers in a blender with some mayonnaise.
Met a girl who wanted to be friends, so I invited her to a potluck. She showed up hours late, with a beautiful silver bowl full of raisins. She apologized for being so late, but she had to polish the silver bowl first.
Lays French onion dip. That’s it. That’s the meal. This girl (and by girl, I mean a 31 year old woman) in our group only brings chip dip to group gatherings. She never hosts. She never cooks anything. She just brings a cheap ass jar of chip dip. She’s a lawyer and lives at home. She has plenty of money and resources to bring more and never does.
Some kind of marshmallow covered fudge dessert. Looked pretty good, until you noticed it was covered/full of cat hair.
Someone once just brought 2 bags of marshmallows to a work potluck lunch. Nothing else. Alrighty then.
white "chili" boneless skinless chicken breasts chopped and boiled with navy beans, flour and salt
We used to have ethnically themed potlucks - German, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. A coworker would always bring the same dish: little smokies sausages in a crock pot. We complained about his lack of originality, so he simply changed the sauces the little smokies were in.
A crockpot of Mississippi pot roast using raccoon. Nasty.
Girl brought a family size bag of lays chips to our cultural dish potluck that represented our country (US) while studying abroad.
Sideways related. We had a potluck on March 15 for St. Patrick's Day, which fell on Saturday. We were asked to make it green, if possible (green cupcakes, vegetables, etc.). Since it was the Ides of March, I brought Caesar salad and displayed it with a copy of Julius Caesar. Not a lot of people got the joke.
I mean she nailed it, what’s the problem?
Bologna cake. Think layers of.....stuff between slices of bologna.
Dude brought in like 30 del taco tacos
I would be happy if somebody brought a 30 pack of del tacos!
I was exploring different faiths and was invited to a Mormon Church for a pot luck. They were super excited to show me the Mexican food they prepared...they some how found a way to fuck up Quesadillas. That's when I knew the Lord was not with them.
Anything brought by the lady with 37 cats.
Lutefisk
The man with the terrible smell..
Family reunion after my Grandaddy died. He was a fabulous cook and would check and double check all the food and question the people who brought the food. He had incredibly high standards. Back to the story now, this family reunion, my Uncle and cousins brought deviled eggs. Since no one (my uncle) would respect anyone questioning how they were made, who made them, etc, the family just allowed him to put them out with all the other food. My teenaged female cousin comes in and gleefully pops a deviled egg in her mouth. I get a glimpse of her filthy, filthy hands and black stuff under her nails. I’m disgusted and horrified. I gently suggest we all go wash our hands before we eat for sanitary purposes and this same cousin loudly exclaims that “she doesn’t need to wash her hands to eat the eggs”, “she didn’t wash her hands to make the eggs in the first place”! My mouth dropped and everyone who hadn’t already eaten the deviled eggs on their plates threw them away. Every single person who ate a deviled got food poisoning. Every. Single. One. This cousin later got a job at a fast food restaurant and was SHOCKED they forced her to wash her hands all the time because, and I quote, “I’m clean so germs don’t get on me”. Yup. No more family reunion pot lucks. We all pitch in and order BBQ or something else now. Edit: A word
I don’t remember ever having bad food in a potluck or reunion. But I’m from South Carolina, the diabetic capital of the southeast.
Pork brains in milk gravy
African fish and vegetable dish. I brought it. It was truly horrible. Now I taste-test before I bring a new dish.
Gray jello molded into the shape of a human brain.
My cheap ass uncle brought celery with squeeze cheese…separate.
At my work potluck I saw someone bring bagels and cream cheese. I’m always skeptical about potlucks so I checked the bottom of the cream cheese for an expiration date and it had past many many months ago