Here's a "I knew better" story:
When I came back to California, I stayed with my Dad for awhile. He was a serious gourmet cook and was the one who taught me cooking (BTW, Cincy'sMom, he was a chemist - who better to teach you to cook?LOL). I was a vegetarian at the time. I wanted to impress him with a homemade "all natural" vegetable soup we used to serve at our restaurant back east, so I started adding things, and the soup/stew grew out of the 2 quart pan, the 3 quart pan and finally ended up in the 5-quart dutch oven.

No problem there, the problem lay when I added the final touch, the sunflower seeds I found in his cabinet. I did a sniff test, knew they were a little old, but I added them anyway! We had 5 quarts of the most rancid tasting glop ever! Dad was such a tease, I never tried to make it again for him!!

NEVER use old seeds or nuts; the oils go rancid and GAK - permeates the whole dish! (Which is why I always keep them refrigerated, along with my oils, for the most part.)