Every family has a recipe that was “ruined” once and turned into the version everyone loves now. Mistakes get passed down too.

Accidents become official more often than anybody admits. Somebody doubled the butter or left the dish in too long, the result turned out better than the original, and nobody ever corrected the record. Now the mistake is the recipe. Traditions are far less carefully designed than they look, which ought to make them feel more approachable rather than less.

When something you are making goes wrong this week, taste it before you bin it. Keep whatever is better and write down what you actually did. The same method works well outside a kitchen, where plenty of good ideas began as somebody’s error.