Think the secret to great cooking is simply following a recipe? How about when that recipe tells you to use asbestos in your baked goods – or catnip in your puddings? Once upon a time, this was real advice offered in good faith to home cooks. Our list counts down the worst cooking tips of all time, including disastrous kitchen hacks from the Middle Ages and terrible pointers from world-famous cookbooks and celebrity chefs. Approach these pearls of gastronomic 'wisdom' with extreme caution...

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the worst cooking advice in history.

We've based our ranking on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.