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?'

Make us preferred on Google

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

Screenshot of Wayne Allyn Root talking to Donald Trump over the phone
Real America's Voice

Critics Sound The Alarm After Trump Floats Idea Of Declaring 'National Emergency' For Midterm Elections

President Donald Trump was criticized after floating the idea of declaring a "national security emergency" ahead of the November midterms.

Real America's Voice host Wayne Allyn Root brought the idea up to Trump while discussing the "SAVE America Act," a sweeping federal elections bill that, among other things, complicates voting for individuals whose legal name does not match their birth certificate and poses a restrictive photo ID requirement for voting that disproportionately impacts minorities.

Keep Reading Show less
Arby's Restaurant
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Woman Sparks Debate After Revealing Absurd Price She Paid For Single Arby's Sandwich Through Uber Eats

It's no secret that prices are on the rise for groceries and other basic necessities, but when it comes to services of convenience, like food delivery services, an increasing number of people are questioning if paying is worth it.

One woman ordered one Arby's roast beef sandwich, with no sides or drink, but because she ordered it via delivery and also had to pay a long-distance charge, the fees quickly piled up.

Keep Reading Show less
Julie Andrews
Gilbert Flores/Variety/Getty Images

Julie Andrews Reveals Why She 'Passed' On Reprising Her Role For 'Princess Diaries 3'—And Fans Are Bummed

In a world full of nostalgic sequels based on late '90s and early 2000s films, one sequel that's dividing fans is Princess Diaries 3, namely because their beloved Queen Clarisse, portrayed by the timeless Julie Andrews, will not be returning.

Originally adapted from Meg Cabot's novels, the Princess Diaries franchise has followed Queen Clarisse and her granddaughter, Mia Thermopolis, portrayed by Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway. The general arc of the story involved the Queen training her granddaughter to be a proper princess and guiding her as an heir to the throne as the eventual Queen of Genovia.

Keep Reading Show less
'Harry Potter' Fans Force $580 Million Underwater Power Cable To Be Rerouted Due To Fictional 'Grave' Site
Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

'Harry Potter' Fans Force $580 Million Underwater Power Cable To Be Rerouted Due To Fictional 'Grave' Site

Uh, Harry Potter fans, are you okay?

The series has always had a deeply devoted fanbase, but the recent manifestation of that fervor is, uh, a bit over the top.

Keep Reading Show less
Lucy Davis; screenshot from Instagram of Lucy Davis
Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic/Getty Images; @reallucydavis/Instagram

Celebs And Fans Rally Around 'The Office' UK Star After She Reveals 'Incurable' Cancer Diagnosis With Poignant Video

Lucy Davis is an English actor best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in the original BBC version of the comedy The Office (2001-2003), zombie apocalypse baddie Dianne in the horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004), Steve Trevor's assistant Etta Candy in Wonder Woman (2017), and Aunt Hilda Spellman in the Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-2020).

Most recently, Davis could be seen as mom Eva/Surge on the Disney Channel's The Villains of Valley View (2022-2023).

Keep Reading Show less