Foods/ingredients that DO NOT go well together

[infernooo]

Hi folks,

First of all, let me preface this post with this:

"Yes I know taste is completely subjective, and many people will enjoy things others dislike and vice-versa." This is about your personal experiences and preferences.

So, with that out of the way, I thought it would be interesting to hear some experiences of ingredient combinations that do not work together. Whether that means a total failure or just something that rubs you the wrong way. I know molecular gastronomy deals a lot with flavour combinations and suggests many "strange" combinations and informs us as to why others work. This topic is on personal experience, not on purely theoretical issues.

I will get it kick started:

* Yogurt and chocolate (e.g. yogurt and cocoa)

* Yogurt and balsamic (besides 12 year+ aged and thick)

* Creamy, sour sauces with worcestershire sauce (e.g. buttermilk or sour cream)

* Lamb and sweet sauces (besides mint sauce) - e.g. the typical smokey bbq sauce just does not do it for me on lamb

* Lamb and strong fishy flavours - e.g. lamb sauced or braised with thai/vietnamese fish sauce (not true for all red meat, e.g. beef works well, e.g. grilled thai beef salad with hot/sour/salty/sweet palm sugar/fish sauce/chilli/lime juice dressing)

* Livers with an overly sweet sauce

Lets hear them!

Edited October 13, 2010 by infernooo (log)

[Lisa Shock]

stewed tomatoes and dill

[Dianabanana]

Yogurt and coconut. I'm not talking about coconut milk yogurt (which I've never had) but regular dairy yogurt with coconut. There's a commercial brand of this, I forget the name, and it's absolutely wrong wrong wrong.

I see a yogurt theme developing in this thread.

[Kim Shook]

The is only for me personally - I know that this is a popular combination, but I don't care for fish/shellfish with a tomato sauce (except for cocktail sauce).

I agree on the yogurt and chocolate. I'll add that I don't usually care for chocolate cheesecake, either. Something about the tangy taste of cheesecake or yogurt just doesn't go with chocolate to me.

[Jenni]

Yogurt and coconut. I'm not talking about coconut milk yogurt (which I've never had) but regular dairy yogurt with coconut. There's a commercial brand of this, I forget the name, and it's absolutely wrong wrong wrong.

I see a yogurt theme developing in this thread.

In cooking, the combination of yoghurt and coconut is delicious! There are many south indian salads and cooked dishes that use it.

[ambra]

The is only for me personally - I know that this is a popular combination, but I don't care for fish/shellfish with a tomato sauce (except for cocktail sauce).

I HATE tomato sauce made from tomato puree with my fish. They absolutely don't belong together. I find it literally digusting and I am a BIG fish/shellfish eater.

However, light tomato flavor that comes from a handful of fresh tomatoes or a couple of whole peeled but canned tomatoes I think is delicious.

[Kat Tanaka Okopnik]

Not quite the same, but a memorable "ZOMG, what the hell happened in my mouth?!" experience.

Yummy bowl of classic Japanese natto. (Hush, you natto-haters...this is not the horrendous part.)

Sip of lychee black tea afterward.

wRETCHed. The only thing you can drink after natto, it turns out, is hot Japanese green tea.

[ChrisZ]

Orange juice after brushing your teeth. There's something about toothpaste that disorientates your sense of taste for a while. Not that I eat toothpaste, but it's the only negative flavour combination I can think of.

[Mr Pie]

I have an aversion to fruit with meat. Fruit is good, meat is good, lets just leave it at that. The following are particulary offensive:-

Duck and orange or plum sauce

Pork and apple sauce

Turkey and cranberry

Lamb and red current jelly

Lamb and apricots

For some reason I thought miso paste would be good in a Thai green curry, it wasn't.

[Dianabanana]

In cooking, the combination of yoghurt and coconut is delicious! There are many south indian salads and cooked dishes that use it.

Yes, you're quite right. The awfulness must be due to the lack of other savory flavors to marry the yogurt and coconut.

[bolero]

I have an aversion to fruit with meat. Fruit is good, meat is good, lets just leave it at that. The following are particulary offensive:-

Duck and orange or plum sauce

Pork and apple sauce

Turkey and cranberry

Lamb and red current jelly

Lamb and apricots

For some reason I thought miso paste would be good in a Thai green curry, it wasn't.

Funny cause I literally just finished some grilled pork belly with pear compote not 5 minutes ago and I thought it was delicious.

[Jenni]

^^^

Yes, I believe a lot of people find several of those fruit and meat combinations to be rather nice! It's just more proof (if it were needed) that everybody's tastes are different.

[Bella S.F.]

Yeah, that is interesting. Mr. Pie, I really like a number of dishes that combine those ingredients. It reminded me of all of the people who don't like cilantro. I never understanded that one either. It adds so much to dishes. Just made really spicy pork tacos. Sour cream, cilantro sprigs, and freshly squeezed lime juice over the top, just brought them to another level.

Now I am reaching into the far corners of my mind. For every comination that I think that I don't like, I have come up with an exception. eg. Seafood and tomatoes. The Greek dish using shrimp, feta, and chopped tomatoes. Tuna puttanesca.

This is fun to think about.

[chileheadmike]

I may be alone here, but cheese and barbecue. It ain't right, be it brisket, pulled pork, or chicken. There's a very well known barbecue joint in KC that sells a lot of sandwiches with brisket, cheese, and an onion ring. It ain't right, I tell you. Other than this abomination, the place is great.

[Le Master]

Mustard and anything.

[heidih]

I may be alone here, but cheese and barbecue. It ain't right, be it brisket, pulled pork, or chicken. There's a very well known barbecue joint in KC that sells a lot of sandwiches with brisket, cheese, and an onion ring. It ain't right, I tell you. Other than this abomination, the place is great.

+ one on this

at least for me

[chappie]

I may be alone here, but cheese and barbecue. It ain't right, be it brisket, pulled pork, or chicken. There's a very well known barbecue joint in KC that sells a lot of sandwiches with brisket, cheese, and an onion ring. It ain't right, I tell you. Other than this abomination, the place is great.

+ one on this

at least for me

I think you both are arguing this combo from a standpoint that barbecue is hallowed ground and Thou Shalt Not Adulterate It. I get it; I see the point. But I guarantee you could take a bite of, say, the Texas Cheese Steak made by the local BBQ Joint in my town and ... um ... not gag. Whether you think brisket "should" or "shouldn't" be topped with gooey cheese as judged by the Sacred Keepers of BBQ is one thing; whether the two flavors -- delicious on their own -- combine into a wretched taste (which is the subject of this thread) is another.

[Beebs]

Mayonnaise and fruit. It's common to find "seafood salad" in Chinese restaurants here. It basically consists of bits of cooked shrimp, lobster and/or crab, chunks of melon or canned fruit cocktail all mixed up together with mayo. So incredibly wrong on so many levels, it literally makes me dry-heave.

[bwv544]

orange juice and thousand year old eggs. my mother made congee on saturday mornings when i was growing up and i made the mistake of pouring myself a glass of orange juice to go along with breakfast. all was well until i washed down a mouthful of thousand year old egg with the OJ and had the exact "ZOMG what the hell happened in my mouth" moment described above.

[Kat Tanaka Okopnik]

Orange juice after brushing your teeth. There's something about toothpaste that disorientates your sense of taste for a while. Not that I eat toothpaste, but it's the only negative flavour combination I can think of.

I am very, very cross with Tom's of Maine for discontinuing a toothpaste flavor that an old lover of mine introduced to me as the only one you could ever be safe using before orange juice - GingerMint.

[Lilija]

I may be alone here, but cheese and barbecue. It ain't right, be it brisket, pulled pork, or chicken. There's a very well known barbecue joint in KC that sells a lot of sandwiches with brisket, cheese, and an onion ring. It ain't right, I tell you. Other than this abomination, the place is great.

+ one on this

at least for me

I think you both are arguing this combo from a standpoint that barbecue is hallowed ground and Thou Shalt Not Adulterate It. I get it; I see the point. But I guarantee you could take a bite of, say, the Texas Cheese Steak made by the local BBQ Joint in my town and ... um ... not gag. Whether you think brisket "should" or "shouldn't" be topped with gooey cheese as judged by the Sacred Keepers of BBQ is one thing; whether the two flavors -- delicious on their own -- combine into a wretched taste (which is the subject of this thread) is another.

I feel the same way about barbecue and cheese. It's not so much that it's sacred hallowed ground, it's the sauce. The rich sweet thick sauce, with a rich sharp or creamy gooey bite of cheese. The flavor combo doesn't make me gag as much as it makes my palate say "AGH TOO MUCH" There's just way too much going on, there. I dislike the barbecue flavor and cheese, because they're both quite enough on their own, and this goes from slow smoked brisket and good cheese, all the way to the ubiquitous barbecue sauce, bacon, fried onion, cheddar burger. It's like...umami overload.

[JAZ]

Most citrus fruit and chocolate. I like them separately, but I don't get the pairing. Orange and dark chocolate are okay, but lemon, lime or grapefruit just don't go with chocolate.

[faith]

Liquor and coffee. I realize I am probably in the minority here, but mixing them strips away what I like about each of them. If I want whiskey, I don't want it toned down by coffee. And vice versa.

I'm a big fruit and meat person. When I accompany pork with pear compote (or apple sauce), I season the sauce/compote toward the savory end--vinegar, sometimes balsamic; s&p; savory herbs; sauteed onions (at least before I took up with someone with an onion allergy); the like. Not trying to make converts; just elaborating on the intersection of those flavors that appeals to me. I ended up getting an ex to trust me on this one--though I should have known that relationship would never work as the first big dispute we had was over whether fruit ever belonged with meat (and it was just a theoretical discussion; we were having brunch).

As for cilantro, I know several people (fortunately not me) for whom it tastes like soap. That's a genetic thing. There's an eG forum on it: I don't know the proper way to post links, so this'll have to do.

[heidih]

I may be alone here, but cheese and barbecue. It ain't right, be it brisket, pulled pork, or chicken. There's a very well known barbecue joint in KC that sells a lot of sandwiches with brisket, cheese, and an onion ring. It ain't right, I tell you. Other than this abomination, the place is great.

+ one on this

at least for me

I think you both are arguing this combo from a standpoint that barbecue is hallowed ground and Thou Shalt Not Adulterate It. I get it; I see the point. But I guarantee you could take a bite of, say, the Texas Cheese Steak made by the local BBQ Joint in my town and ... um ... not gag. Whether you think brisket "should" or "shouldn't" be topped with gooey cheese as judged by the Sacred Keepers of BBQ is one thing; whether the two flavors -- delicious on their own -- combine into a wretched taste (which is the subject of this thread) is another.

No I just find it horrid to my taste. I do not come from a "Q" culture. And to clarify it was particularly the sauce and the cheese combo I find nasty. Even with the meat- it is such a strong taste that the cheese goo seems an impeding distraction.

[chileheadmike]

I may be alone here, but cheese and barbecue. It ain't right, be it brisket, pulled pork, or chicken. There's a very well known barbecue joint in KC that sells a lot of sandwiches with brisket, cheese, and an onion ring. It ain't right, I tell you. Other than this abomination, the place is great.

+ one on this

at least for me

I think you both are arguing this combo from a standpoint that barbecue is hallowed ground and Thou Shalt Not Adulterate It. I get it; I see the point. But I guarantee you could take a bite of, say, the Texas Cheese Steak made by the local BBQ Joint in my town and ... um ... not gag. Whether you think brisket "should" or "shouldn't" be topped with gooey cheese as judged by the Sacred Keepers of BBQ is one thing; whether the two flavors -- delicious on their own -- combine into a wretched taste (which is the subject of this thread) is another.

That's half of it, I admit it. But as was mentioned above, the barbcue with sauce and cheese just doesn't go together. A dry beef brisket sandwich with a slice of cheese? Maybe, but why cover up the barbecue?