I almost don’t even want to tell you guys what I’ve been doing over the past few weeks. Okay, okay, I’ll spill: I’ve been tasting chocolate with CHEESE and BREAD to come up with the most decadent chocolate pairings ever for my book. I know, it’s a hard life.
I’m saving the exact pairings for the book, but here, for your reading pleasure, are a few of the bizarre tastes we’ve found along the way, as well as some hilarious quotes. Thanks to Christine Clarke of Murray’s Cheese, Tess McNamara of Lucy's Whey, Joanna Brennan, and Matt Caputo and Jessica Weaver of A Priori Specialty Foods for their excellent taste buds and sense of humor.
Cheese
We used the “milkshake method” from Murray’s, offending mothers everywhere: Take a bite of chocolate, let it melt for a second in your mouth, then take a bite of cheese.
Bad tastes:
Microwave popcorn
Cheese + chocolate equals…garlic
Good tastes:
Mashed potatoes and butter
Junior mint (not with a minty chocolate, just with the cheese-chocolate combo!)
A cheese that’s “cartoonishly umami” on its own gets mellowed with chocolate
Bread
We also used the “milkshake method” here: Take a bite of bread, chew for a little bit, then add the chocolate. You’ll lose some of the nuances of the chocolate, but it’s worth it for a good pairing. A bad pairing tastes like bread and chocolate; a good pairing tastes like a third flavor altogether.
Bad tastes:
Barbecue sauce
Beef jerky
Smoked baby diaper chocolate, or, to be exact, on remembering a chocolate we didn’t taste during the experiments: “It tastes like a baby diaper that’s put in a hot smoker, smoked until it’s petrified, put in a wood chipper, then covered in chocolate.”
Good tastes:
Cake
Peanut butter and jelly
Think cheese and chocolate don’t go together? Or think this sounds like the best thing ever? What are some of your favorite pairings? Tell me at megan@chocolatenoise.com or on Facebook or Twitter and I’ll include your comments in the next Chocolate Today.
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