- If you’ve ever felt shy about your out-of-the-box food pairing proclivities, you’re not alone – there are tons of strange food combinations that often turn out to be improbably delicious.
- We asked around the Insider office for everyone’s favorite unusual food pairings, and they were happy to spill the beans.
- From bananas on pizza to cream cheese and Hot Cheetos, here are 11 of the weirdest food combinations that are actually really good.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
If you’ve ever felt shy about your out-of-the-box food pairing proclivities, don’t worry – you’re not alone. There are many strange food combinations that are actually delicious, no matter how improbable they may seem.
From bananas on pizza and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos dipped in cream cheese, to pickles on peanut butter and fries covered in ice cream, unusual food pairings can be absolutely mouthwatering.
Many of these combinations are great due to the intersection of salty and sweet – something that’s actually scientifically explainable. As Tasting Table reported in 2017, evolution has caused humans to develop a serious taste for sweet and salty foods. The former is calorically dense, while the latter contains minerals (namely sodium) that are essential for our survival. The human tongue even has certain sweetness receptors that only activate when sugar and salt are both present.
Here are 11 of the weirdest food combinations that are actually really good.
French fries dipped in ice cream make for a sweet and savory treat.
The saltiness in the fries is complemented by the sweetness of the ice cream. If you'd rather grab a drink then a cone, milkshakes can also make an incredible dipping sauce for your side of fries.
Cream cheese and jelly complement each other nicely on a bagel or sandwich.
Cream cheese has a generally mild taste that makes it a versatile canvas for other flavors - and perfect for dips, spreads, and sauces. Combine it with jelly to highlight the latter's sweet and fruity flavor.
Salty brine from pickles can add a punch to peanut butter.
Here, the briny pickle flavor is cut by the sweet, nutty taste of the peanut butter.
Doritos and Oreos are the perfect sweet and salty snack.
The zesty - and sometimes spicy - Doritos are cooled down by the cream filling and sweet chocolate of the Oreo cookies.
Peanut butter adds a layer of sweet nuttiness to the classic American hamburger.
A layer of peanut butter can go a long way in a burger. In addition to a layer of sweetness and nuttiness that adds complexity to the flavor profile, peanut butter adds a crunchy or smooth texture to the sandwich - depending on what kind is used. In fact, peanut butter burgers are becoming more and more common, even cropping up on the menus of popular burger joints in NYC.
M&Ms and popcorn make for the ultimate salty-sweet movie snack — at home or in the theaters.
Salt, butter, chocolate, movies. What more could you need? Here, the M&Ms provide a sweet crunch among the fluffy pieces of salty popcorn, and cut down the intensity of the butter.
While butter and sugar sandwiches might not be the healthiest snack in the world, they sure are tasty.
Besides combining delicious fats and sugar - two things our bodies have evolved to crave - a butter and sugar sandwich is a wonderland of texture. The granular sugar, combined with soft butter and your choice of crunchy or soft bread, adds an extra dimension to this treat.
Cream cheese cuts through the scorching heat of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, allowing you to eat the entire bag without setting your tongue on fire.
A bit of cooling cream cheese is a welcome reprieve after a handful of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, which is why it's also often used in spicy 7-layer dips.
Rice acts as a flavor delivery device in this ketchup-based combination.
Plain rice can often be bland when it's cooked without any spices or seasonings - that's where ketchup comes in. The starchy rice flavor is offset by the sweet and tangy ketchup. In Filipino cuisine, banana ketchup is a popular condiment that is often eaten with rice.
Mixing alcohol such as red wine with Coca-Cola is popular in Spain. The combination is often called a Calimocho or Kalimotxo.
This cocktail is perfect for hot summer days, as it's best served over ice. The most popular way to prepare the concoction is to dump out half of a two-liter bottle of coke and pour in a bottle of cheap red wine. The coke's sweet caramel flavor and carbonation can turn a less-than-stellar bottle of wine into a tasty and refreshing poolside drink.
Bananas offer a fruity sweetness to a usually savory New York favorite.
While the age-old argument of whether pineapple belongs on pizza has been raging for decades, a different fruit topping has been quietly converting pizza lovers - bananas. Popping a few slices of banana on your 'za can lend a sweet kick to an ordinary slice.