Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

The Grossest Things Anyone Has Ever Brought To A Potluck

Ham, Pie, casserole and gravy on a dinner table.
cooked food on white ceramic plate
Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

Reddit user aquamarinetangerines asked: 'What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever seen someone bring to a potluck?'

When getting together for dinner with friends, there isn't a more convenient, economical, or (hopefully) fun way to do it than having a potluck.

That way, one person isn't responsible for cooking everything, not to mention cleaning all the dishes afterward.


And everyone can contribute something they love, be it handmade or store-bought.

Of course, the ongoing risk with potluck meals is that one dish proves to be much less popular than others, possibly even going completely untouched all night. Perhaps the only thing worse than a dish going completely untouched is only one person touching it and then warning others to avoid it.

Redditor aquamarinetangerines was eager to hear about the most disgusting dishes people have ever seen or tasted at a potluck, leading them to ask:

"What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever seen someone bring to a potluck?"

Disgusting AND Lazy...

"Has a guy bring in his 'specialty corn'.”

"It was legit canned corn in a crockpot with spices."

"Thing is, he tells us 'ya, my wife took it to her pot luck on Tuesday, they didn’t eat it so I saved it on low in the crockpot and brought it here'.”

"It was Friday."

"Corn was brown."

"Nobody ate it."

"He kept eating it saying it was so good."

"The following Monday his new name at work was Corn Cob Rob."- ComparisonHonest

"She opened a can of tiny shrimp and poured it out, liquid and all, on top of a block of cream cheese."

"That was it. I guess we were supposed to eat it with crackers."- cherrybounce

Happy Fun GIF by Chopt Creative Salad Co. Giphy

Check The Dates...

"My grandmother-in-law."

"Everything she brings."

"The first time was stale cake in a bowl of syrup(?)."

"It was both cake and soup, while also being neither."

"She has meat in her deep freezer older than some of her grandchildren."

"She’s a depression-era cook, so expiration dates don’t apply to medicine, cupboards, or freezers."

"Once she tried to give my daughter (2yo at the time), cough medicine that expire 9 years before she was even born."- dirtandstarsinmyeyes

"We had a potluck today 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."- Chicken_Scented_Fart

Beef In Place Of Walnuts? Makes Perfect Sense...

"Someone made brownies with ground meat in them to a church potluck."

"My vegetarian friend discovered this when she bit into one."

"She was more confused and horrified about their existence than she was upset about eating meat-."

"It was the concept of this abomination itself that was disturbing and baffling."

"I thought she had to be wrong."

"'You haven't had ground beef in years, you don't know what it tastes like anymore, it's probably something else'."

"I tried them."

"It was beef."

"I was disgusted and really, really, really confused."

"Years later, I found out that apparently this was a thing."

"Someone came up with this-- putting beef in brownies-- as a substitute for walnuts for people with nut allergies."

"While this explains it a little, in theory, I'm still confused about why someone would assume that people who can't eat walnuts would prefer to eat ground beef brownies over just regular nut-free brownies."

"My sister reminded me that she was also there for this and she had tried the brownies first, and that they were actually the reason she stopped wanting to come to church."

"'I started doubting the entire establishment', she says."- Unfey

Hungry Pizza GIF by Papa Johns Giphy

Honest Mistake? Or Adventurous Experiment?

"Someone brought Deviled eggs and instead of sprinkling paprika on them they used cinnamon."- TinyWifeKiki

Veering From The Recipe Doesn't Always Pay Off...

“'Homemade fried chicken'.”

"Which translated to ‘chicken that I covered in pancake batter and breadcrumbs and dropped into a frypan until the outside looked cooked'."

"It wasn’t even seasoned."- Tying_pyrope

Not Everyone Likes Things Spicy...

"An apple pie, but they didn't have apple pie spices, like clove, cinnamon, or nutmeg, and said they used taco seasoning by accident and expected people to eat it."

"I, a dumb b*tch who likes to torture themselves tried it, and promptly tossed it into the trash when they looked away."- jirohen

Hot GIF by GIPHY Studios 2018 Giphy

At A Restaurant No Less!

"A Korean-American coworker brought homemade kimchi, but she admittedly didn't know how to make it and just 'winged it'."

"It was fermented wrong and was covered in mold, which she didn't seem to understand was bad."

"The vegetables were basically half liquified and it smelled like dumpster juice."

"The thing is...half of the chefs at work had learned to make kimchi correctly and safely since various different kimchis used to be on the menu before she was hired."

"So we all instantly knew it was wrong and unsafe, but no one wanted to tell her."- No_Pear_2326

Cross Contamination...

"At my previous job, I had a coworker that would frequently cook food because it was his 'passion' and he would bring it in to share with everyone."

"On a few occasions, someone would get ill after, but infrequently enough that people wrote it off as a coincidence."

"This coworker goes out on PTO and asks another coworker to feed his 12 cats while he is gone/scoop the litter boxes."

"Unfortunately, it was discovered the coworker was cooking/serving us food in the same pans he was also sometimes using as litter boxes for his bushel of cats."

"When confronted, he stated he thought this was fine because he washed them after."

"We never ate his food again."- Kitten_spawn

Surprise Ingredients Rarely Pay Off...

"Casserole with a side of roaches."

"Not even kidding."

"They crawled out of the bag she brought her dish in."

"I stopped participating in potlucks after that."- CanUFeelItMrKrabs

new york cockroach GIF Giphy

Yesterday's Delicacies/Today's Atrocities...

"Grandma's Jello salad, made with cottage cheese and celery."- GoatEatingTroll

No two people share the same taste in food, hence why we shouldn't always be hurt or offended if our contribution to a potluck doesn't prove popular.

There's also nothing wrong with choosing to pop by a supermarket instead of preparing something yourself.

As a store-bought lasagna will always go over better than homemade kimchi covered with mold or ground beef brownies...


More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Melania Trump
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Melania Just Held A Bizarre Press Conference To Debunk 'False Smears' Related To Jeffrey Epstein—And Everyone Had The Same Response

First Lady Melania Trump had everyone thinking the same thing after she held a bizarre press conference on Thursday to deny that she had anything but casual ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced financier, pedophile, sexual abuser, and sex trafficker.

Mrs. Trump publicly denied any ties to convicted sex offenders Epstein and his procurer Ghislaine Maxwell, saying claims linking her to Epstein are “lies” meant to damage her reputation. She said she met her husband, President Donald Trump at a New York City party in 1998 and did not meet Epstein until 2000, contradicting a witness statement in the Epstein files that alleges Epstein introduced the couple.

Keep Reading Show less
Sarah McBride; Nancy Mace
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Dem Rep. Sarah McBride Perfectly Shames Nancy Mace For Her Transphobic Response To McBride's Condemnation Of Trump

Delaware Democratic Representative Sarah McBride pushed back at South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace after Mace responded with transphobia to McBride's criticism of President Donald Trump's genocidal threat to kill the "whole civilization" of Iran.

Trump has insisted that God supports his war on Iran and declared—before a provisional ceasefire was announced—that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" ahead of a deadline to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges that legal scholars and world leaders have said would constitute war crimes.

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshot of JD Vance
News Nation

JD Vance Dragged After Making Bizarre 'Skydiving' Analogy About His Wife To Explain Iran Ceasefire Deal

Vice President JD Vance had critics raising their eyebrows after he used a bizarre analogy about his wife–Second Lady Usha Vance—going skydiving while attempting to explain the United States' position on Iran's right to enrich uranium.

Vance addressed reporters on the tarmac at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport as he left Hungary, where he had voiced the Trump administration’s support for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only days before the country’s elections.

Keep Reading Show less
Screenshots from @mikemancusi's Instagram video
@mikemancusi/Instagram

Comedian Explains How Millennials' Midlife Crises Are Different From Past Generations—And He's Spot On

Don't make promises you cannot keep, unless your goal is to hurt someone.

Millennials know that practically better than anyone. They were fed a long and impassioned series of advice, hyper-focused on the importance of getting a college degree in order to find a good job. They were also force-fed traditionalist ideals of getting married, having kids, and buying a nice house with the money they'd be making from that great job, of course.

Keep Reading Show less