Charcoal

I tried to make beef stew on Saturday. It’s a very easy recipe, that my parents gave me years ago; two pounds of stewing beef, carrots, celery, potatoes, two cups of V8 juice, three tablespoons of tapioca (to make it a bit thicker), a bit of sugar and some salt—throw it all into a roasting pan, and put it in the oven at 250° for 4–6 hours.

Unfortunately, I misread the instructions, and I put the oven at 450° instead of 250°. The smell of smoke was very gradual, so I didn’t notice anything was wrong for three hours. By that time, when I pulled the pan out of the oven, the food was just charcoal. And that’s not an exaggeration; there was nothing left but carbon.

I think the pan is useless now.