The things we got wrong
This is a log of the mistakes we made—what didn’t work, what we fixed, and who did it. It’s here because the only way to earn trust is to show where it almost broke.
You’ll find no excuses, no spin, and no ‘lessons learned’ that sound like marketing. Just the things we got wrong, in order, so you can decide if the rest is worth your time.
Three we had to fix
Every site makes mistakes. Some get caught early. Others sit there until someone notices—or until the wrong person does. These are the three that mattered most.
The mistakes we fixed, IN order
- 1A recipe that didn’t work
The ‘Perfect Russet Roast’ promised a foolproof method for crispy skins and fluffy insides. It didn’t. The oven temp was off by 25°F, and the resting time was cut in half—so every reader who tried it got a dry, gummy mess. Sonia Grimaldi found it after three complaints, pulled it down, and rewrote it from scratch. The new version stayed up for six months before we tested it again.
- 2A measurement that was wrong
The ‘Spiced Potato Purée’ called for ‘a generous handful of butter’—no weight, no volume. Two readers sent in photos of burnt, greasy purée because they’d used a full stick. Sonia Grimaldi spotted the pattern, replaced it with grams, and added a note: ‘A handful is not a cup.’ The old version vanished within hours.
- 3A page that should never have gone out
The ‘10-Minute Mashed Potatoes’ hack used a food processor instead of a ricer, turning the potatoes into glue. It stayed live for a week before a reader’s photo of their failed attempt went viral in a cooking forum. Sonia Grimaldi deleted it immediately and added a warning to every high-speed prep guide: ‘If it doesn’t look right, stop.’
What those three changed
These weren’t just fixes. They rewrote how we think about recipes here.
Rules that came from mistakes
- Every recipe must be tested at least twice before it goes live (from the ‘Perfect Russet Roast’).
- Weights and volumes go together—no ‘eyeballing’ without a backup (from the ‘Spiced Potato Purée’).
- If a method fails in one kitchen, it fails everywhere (from the ‘10-Minute Mashed Potatoes’).
The people behind this
Sonia Grimaldi is the founder and editor of *Potato Recipes Russet*. She’s the one who signs the corrections because she’s the one who still winces when she remembers the mistakes. The log isn’t just a list—it’s proof that we don’t hide them.
Keeping a log like this isn’t easy. It means admitting when you were wrong in front of people who might have trusted you. It means looking at your own work and seeing flaws before anyone else does. And it means never getting complacent, because the next mistake is always waiting.
One thing not in the log? The time Sonia Grimaldi burned a batch of roasted potatoes because she forgot to flip them halfway. She ate them anyway—salty, charred, and still the best meal she’d had that week.
That’s the kind of person who keeps this list: someone who’d rather own up to a mistake than pretend it never happened.
If you find something we got wrong, don’t send an email. Go to the contact page and tell us. We’ll fix it, sign it, and put it in the next log.
There will be a next one
This list isn’t finished. There will be more mistakes, and we’ll write them down just like these. If you spot something that doesn’t add up—or if you tried a recipe and it didn’t work—let us know. The contact page is where to start.
The recipes are grouped by category: Appetizers, Beverages, Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts, Main Courses and Reviews.