The Best of Culinary Crimes Marathon

A user substituted olive oil and ghee in a butter chicken recipe with ranch dressing. The hosts found the resulting dish edible but noted a distinct 'off' and 'sweet' flavor profile that was unexpected for butter chicken.

The hosts tasted the dish, noting its wetness and a sweet element. They identified barbecue sauce (incorrectly) and later discovered it was ranch dressing. They described it as a 'cultural slap in the face.'

A recipe for classic chili was altered with multiple sweet substitutions: avocado oil instead of olive oil, pineapple instead of jalapeños, peppermint candy instead of cilantro, marshmallow fluff instead of sour cream, and graham crackers instead of saltine crackers, with added chocolate chips.

The hosts tasted the chili, finding it 'kind of good' but noting the peppermint was a 'crime.' They identified marshmallow, pineapple, chocolate chips, and graham crackers. The overall consensus was a bizarre, dessert-like chili.

A user replaced key components of a seven-layer dip: refried beans with Lucky Charms, guacamole with Dijon mustard, and tortilla chips with oatmeal raisin cookies for dipping.

The hosts were visibly disgusted by the appearance and taste. They identified Lucky Charms, Dijon mustard (mistakenly thought it was hummus), and oatmeal raisin cookies. They described the experience as 'stupid' and 'upsetting,' with flavors that 'should not be in a seven-layer dip.'

A user made extensive substitutions for a Detroit-style pan pizza: almond flour for bread flour, apple juice for water, agave for salt, pineapple for yeast, coconut for salami, and a sauce made from plums, nutritional yeast, raspberry syrup, guava paste, and sesame paste. The pizza was baked at a low temperature (120F).

The hosts were horrified by the appearance and taste, describing it as 'roadkill' and 'gruesome.' They identified many of the sweet and unusual substitutions, concluding it was a 'completely different recipe.'

A user modified a New York cheesecake recipe, substituting cream cheese with lox cream cheese and adding capers, believing it was a 'New York bagel' recipe. The reviewer gave it one star and blamed the recipe.

The hosts immediately identified the presence of salmon and capers in the cheesecake, leading to strong reactions of disgust. They deduced the user's confusion with a lox bagel. The original cheesecake was praised for its authentic taste.

A user claimed to follow a strawberry rhubarb crumble recipe 'to the tea' but actually swapped strawberries for apples, rhubarb for papaya, and instead of baking a crumble, made it into a 'nice salad' with Bulgarian yogurt and honeycomb.

The hosts were appalled to find a cold fruit salad with yogurt and honeycomb instead of a baked crumble. They noted the complete absence of original ingredients and the lack of any 'crumble' element, calling it a 'complete wash' of the recipe's title.

A user made a brown sugar ginger cake, but due to a typo in the recipe's template that mentioned 'minced beef,' they included lean ground beef in the sweet loaf. The user was confused by the result, questioning why it had meat.

The hosts tasted the cake and were 'devastated' by the beef chunks in the sweet dessert. They correctly identified lean ground beef. The verdict revealed the beef was a typo in the original recipe, making the user an 'attentive reader' rather than a 'culinary criminal.'