According to canada.com, it seems that a simple typo in a Swedish magazine led to four people being poisoned. See, a recipe for apple cake was posted, and "Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg, it said 20 nutmeg nuts were needed." The error was spotted after printing, letters were sent to subscribers, and inserts were added to store issues. But these warnings didn't reach everyone. One group of people still tried out this horrifically over-nutmegged recipe, and the four suffered poisoning symptoms like dizziness and headaches.
How can anyone choose to make that recipe and not question that amount, or not be turned off by it? One sniff of nutmeg is hint enough that it's way too strong to imagine 20 nuts in one cake. So, even if you don't come to the conclusion that there was a typo, one would think that the recipe would just seem, well, gross. I can only imagine that those who ate it have taste buds that don't measure sickening amounts of nutmeg.
9-02-2008 @7:59PM Tim said... Well, if the people making it don't cook much, they could have done it. Things that seem like common sense to seasoned home cooks often screw up new people. I mean, how many times have you seen a young cook eagerly present a cake where s/he confused teaspoons and tablespoons for the salt?
Or maybe the people who saw the recipe saw the bug, and wanted to test the myth of if nutmeg can have cannabis-like effects.
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9-02-2008 @8:07PM MJ said... Dumb and dumb...........really this goes beyond not knowing how to cook
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9-02-2008 @9:10PM GL said... You can't know what you don't know.
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9-02-2008 @9:58PM ger said... reminds me of an actual new york times correction i saw with my own eyes a few years ago, which corrected a recipe to read two teaspoons of salt from the original two pounds of salt.
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9-03-2008 @11:40AM ketherian said... Those of us who were taught to cook using recipes are also taught to trust in the printed word. Don't judge a recipe because it sounds odd -- if it's in print someone must like it; and the first time you make a recipe - make it as written. You can modify it to your own tastes on the next go-round.
Yes, in retrospect, it does seem silly to not know that 20 nutmeg nuts is way too much; but it's neither ignorance nor idiocy that would lead the beginning cook to make the cake as written, it would instead be their training.
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9-03-2008 @10:21AM drwende said... Ketherian has just provided outstanding reasons to teach cooking by principle rather than by recipe.
Anyone who knows how cakes in general are constructed would have reduced the nutmeg to a more reasonable amount. I'm now imagining home cooks dumping in a cup of vanilla extract due to typos...
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9-03-2008 @2:18PM Toungtiedtowboy said...
The group mentioned that ate the cakes were most likely husbands scared to death to say anything about their wives cooking.
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9-03-2008 @2:26PM Tarbaby said...
You would think this would be so obvious, but then it does seem there are some very ignorant people in this world. Nutmeg may make you sick, but there are those who abuse everything for a reason. I love the smell, but any recipe which told me to use nutmeg nuts would have been sent to the garbage can immediately. Hope no one ever confuses buckeyes with black eyed peas. Talk about poisonous. The manufacturers have to go overboard with 'safety warnings' to cover their backsides from law suits. When the average person reads all these warnings it makes us wonder who in their right mind would even THINK of some of these things. Like: "Don't put plastic bag over head or air ways. May cause suffocation." Does anyone need to be told that? Law suits have their place, but in the medical and invention field, law suits have caused companies to close their doors. Guess who suffers? Those who need the medicine they made or the inventions that were great. ALL THINGS CARRY RISK. THERE IS NOTHING THAT IS 100% PERFECTLY SAFE IN THIS WORLD. The world is getting more screwed up by the day and there are those who are going to suffer from money hungry people who file frivolous law suits.
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9-03-2008 @2:35PM jimbChili said... Well let's face it folks , 75% of all the humans walking this planet today , well - they're just plain STUPID !! All 75% of 'em - dumber than a pile of dirt - they are indeed.
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9-03-2008 @2:38PM jim clark said... thinning out the herd
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10-27-2008 @12:02PM Tarbaby said... Oh really. You think people trust the written word? That's like saying if someone jumped off a bridge, you'd do the same thing. First place, nutmeg nuts are not normally found in the average grocery store. I can't account for many overseas places, but I know the developed countries don't have nutmeg nuts in stores. That would mean you would have to know how to clean them, prepare them and ground them up. Did the recipe mention any of this preparation? If not, I would have assumed immediately that something was not right, if I had access to the nuts in the first place. I don't trust the 'written word' in articles because they are written by people and PEOPLE MAKE ERRORS and ERRORS ARE NOT ALWAYS CAUGHT BY THE EDITORS. Gee...that's a position I'd love to have. I guest ion most things I read against the knowledge I have gained, studied or from experience. Can there really be that many ignorant people in developed countries? If so....we are not only in a 'world of hurt', but we are going on the down hill slide to oblivion and picking up speed. On another subject: In the year 2008, whites will become the majority. Christianity has already lost it's lead to Muslims. Anyone wonder why? First, we (the intelligent people of the world) were told about a population problem and were encouraged to curtail our child production to two or less for the world to survive. Unfortunately, it seems no one told second and third world countries this message or they failed to heed it. Results: The white race will be a minority in a few years. Disturbs me. I think there was a plot or plan (call it what you will) years ago. Blacks felt if they could not conquer in the intellectual field, they'd take us by sheer numbers. Seems the Hispanics and Muslims feel the same by the number of children (off spring) they continue to produce regardless to the problems with feeding, clothing, or health care. For those with intelligence, I'd start having more than two children and quickly. We can afford it if we do with less of what the marketing media tells us we 'need to have' or 'can't do without'. Better start soon. Just more FOOD....excuse the pun for this related article.....FOR THOUGHT. HAVE A GREAT DAY.
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9-03-2008 @2:52PM chuckie said... There are a lot of very stupid people out there. It's amazing that they were able to get that far with the recipe.
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9-03-2008 @3:01PM cgrannyrock said... Just goes to show you that if the recipe didn't come from Mom or Granny, it's not worth the bother---:)
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9-03-2008 @3:07PM karey said... How much of that cake did they eat? You would think common sense would kick in when you read 20 nutmeg nuts, then after one bite you would think that one would stop eating it, I wonder how much they had to eat and tolerate before it made them sick.
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9-03-2008 @3:07PM Justin said... Personally other then baking things that come in boxes such as packaged brownie mix or cake mix i have no experience with baking anything from scratch. I can honestly say i would not know that adding nutmeg nuts to a cake would be bad, how am i supposed to know that they can not be eaten like regular nuts if me being a 19 years old have not spent much time cooking or baking. Something that may seem over obvious to someone might not be to others. This is definitely a valid situation where this can occur.
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9-03-2008 @3:08PM Terri said... Maybe they did this on purpose and planned on suing the magazine afterwards. Most people are just looking for a quick buck and would do just about anything for it.
Simple common sense would deter you from putting that much into one cake.
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9-03-2008 @3:17PM Vickiey said... Do ya think maybe they have nutmeg trees in Sweden? Where do you buy them anyway and do you think the cook put then in the cake whole?i agree that would be alot of work to clean and grind them.Hmmm...The whole thing sounds kinda nutty to me.LOL
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9-03-2008 @3:21PM Melissa said... Tarbaby,
You can buy whole nutmeg in the grocery store. Learn your spices. That is why they sell Nutmeg grinders which can be manual - which is what I have or electric. There is no "preparing" needed for nugmeg nuts. You buy them and grind them into whatever you are using them for. I am not saying that red flags would not go up when I saw 20 nutmeg nuts, but there are people who might not know better - kind of like you. They can be found with every other kind of spice in the spice aisle of any supermarket in America. You should do research before you type something so you dont look like the 70% of dumb people in the world.
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9-03-2008 @3:20PM Vicki said... Tarbaby said: "I can't account for many overseas places, but I know the developed countries don't have nutmeg nuts in stores." I live in the US. I buy whole nuts in my grocery stores all the time. When you grate a nut you get a much fresher taste that when you buy the alrady powdered stuff. You can even find them in the goya spices section.
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9-03-2008 @3:31PM Steve said... I have to be honest -- I wouldn't have questioned the amount, and I would have followed the recipe. True, it might be a stupid thing to do, but I guess I am ignorant when it comes to cooking and following recipes.
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