10 ms·
The Incompatible Food Triad
- endswapper 10y agoChocolate and brie sounds delicious...I'm going to eat some right now. It sounds like a salty, chocolaty, creamy dream come true. I'm going to have some red wine with it.
- imagist 10y agoYeah. That's what I thought when I read that.
- grkvlt 10y agoI tasted some cheese-flavoured speciality chocolate once, you can buy them from the Barcelona chocolate museum.[0] I will not be doing that again. Possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten... [0] http://www.museuxocolata.cat/museu.php http://www.museuxocolata.cat/museu.php
- uiri 10y agoChocolate, Pretzels, Mustard. Chocolate-covered pretzels - great! Mustard on a pretzel - great! Chocolate and mustard - http://archive.jsonline.com/features/recipes/159818205.html http://archive.jsonline.com/features/recipes/159818205.html All three? WTF!
- lucideer 10y agoI think the fact that chocolate and mustard is a thing (and that you had to link to proof of this) is probably a bizarre enough fact to hint that all three might also be somehow workable.
- someones_acct 10y agoThe chocolate mustard used in that brownie recipe is specifically marketed as being good on pretzels. :) http://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1296/exotic-mustards http://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1296/exotic-mustards
- jstanley 10y ago> Salted cucumbers, sugar, and yogurt might work, but if you count the salt, that’s four ingredients, not three. You might not like the thought of potatoes, mayonnaise and cabbage, but someone has invented a corned beef salad that has all three. So, which is it? "More than 3 ingredients doesn't count" or "it counts as long as it contains all 3"?
- bmh100 10y agoI agree. The article isn't consistent. It references the > Lemon, cocoa, and curry don’t sound great, but it’s not too hard to imagine a decent lemon mole sauce. > Salted cucumbers, sugar, and yogurt might work, but if you count the salt, that’s four ingredients, not three. Mole sauces seem to contain quite a bit more than 3 ingredients, such as chili peppers [1]. If salt counts as a single ingredient, then surely a mole sauce is extremely disqualified. Sugar should also be considered an ingredient. > Tiffany Inglis, a programmer and digital artist, took some time a few years ago to design a lemon affogato, in order to patently prove that a top Incompatible Food Triad contender—espresso, lemon, and milk—wasn’t so bad after all. Here is the list of 5-8 ingredients in that affogato [2]: - 1 cup milk - 1cup sugar - ¼ cup condensed milk - 5 egg yolks, lightly beaten - 5tbsp lemon zest - ½ cup fresh lemon juice - 2 cups heavy cream - 1 shot of espresso In my opinion, the only reasonable way of approaching this problem is to strictly limit what counts as an ingredient and to carefully limit the amount of preparation involved to count ingredients as "paired". This way, pickles actually count as two ingredients, due to the vinegar involved. Sugar also cannot be assumed as a glue to bind the triad together. "Curry", being a mixture, could also not count as an ingredient. Therefore, I propose my own solution: chili powder + espresso = spicy espresso espresso + lemon juice = sour espresso chili powder + diluted lemon juice = spicy lemonade chili power + lemon juice + espresso = spicy sour espresso (bad) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_sauce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_sauce [2]: https://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2012/sep/06/gastronomes-puzzle-incompatible-food-triad https://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numb...
- edmccard 10y ago>> Salted cucumbers, sugar, and yogurt might work, but if you count the salt, that’s four ingredients, not three. You might not like the thought of potatoes, mayonnaise and cabbage, but someone has invented a corned beef salad that has all three. >So, which is it? "More than 3 ingredients doesn't count" or "it counts as long as it contains all 3"? Not sure what the confusion is, but neither of the two examples counts as "three foods where any two of those foods taste good together, but all three combined taste disgusting". The first example fails (if you count the salt) because it has four foods, not three. The second example fails because someone has made a (presumably non-disgusting) recipe with all three combined.
- whiddershins 10y agoMy favorite answer is: tequila, tequila, tequila.
- Retric 10y agoIf you limit it to just those 3 things then it's easy: Vanilla, Chocolate, ice cream. Vanilla + chocolate = tasty, Chocolate or Vanilla ice cream = tasty. Mixing Vanilla and Chocolate ice cream fails. The only way it's a problem is they keep adding other stuff such as a banana ice cream Sunday.
- rblatz 10y agoMost recipes I see for chocolate ice cream include vanilla[0]. Not to mention the typical chocolate vanilla swirl soft serve. [0] https://www.google.com/amp/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chocolate-ice-cream-recipe.amp.html?client=safari https://www.google.com/amp/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton...
- tgb 10y agoYou'll find that many people disagree with you on this... https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=681&q=swirled+ice+cream&btnG=Search+by+image&oq=nexlogic+logo&gs_l=img.3...348.2410.0.2583.13.13.0.0.0.0.173.1067.9j4.13.0.cqrwrth..0.0.0..1.1.17.img.vvwfDwNbylM&gws_rd=ssl#tbm=isch&q=ice+cream+swirl https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1...
- Retric 10y agoYet you don't find chocolate vanilla ice cream pre mixed.
- tgb 10y agoA machine that mixes it for you doesn't count? Or this: http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113883/vanilla-chocolate-ice-cream http://www.breyers.com/product/detail/113883/vanilla-chocola... And either way, the challenge would allow chocolate topping to a vanilla icecream base, or chunks of chocolate in a vanilla ice cream. Both of which are extraordinarily common.
- douche 10y agoOnly if there is also a third of it that is strawberry also. The only ice cream my granfather would buy was neapolitan, aka choc-van-straw.
- asah 10y agocoffee+lemon = espresso coffee+cream = latte cream+lemon = ricotta coffee+lemon+cream = curdled mess!
- imagist 10y agoYeah, you could substitute a lot of stuff for espresso there: chocolate, for example. Basically the curdling reaction is the key there.
- lucideer 10y agoIt's debatable whether curdled == bad though (e.g. ricotta)
- drjesusphd 10y agoI'm pretty sure you can make a dessert from ricotta and espresso. A coffee canoli sounds delicious.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoYou can do a simple cheesecake with ricotta, cream, and sugar (and a biscuit base). Flavour it with coffee, seems like it would taste OK.
- fnord123 10y agoSimilar: tea + lemon = good tea + milk = good lemon + milk = buttermilk tea + lemon + milk = Boudica weeps.
- daxfohl 10y agoAnything that would kill you 3/3 but would be arguably palatable for all 2/3?
- SilasX 10y agoIf we're posting solutions... Peanut butter + jelly = traditional snack Jelly + cream cheese = common on pastries Peanut butter + cream cheese = good cracker spread Peanut butter + cream cheese + jelly = ???
- joseph 10y agoHaving eaten at a few Michelin three star restaurants, I have come to realize that flavor incompatibilities are all in your head. Seafood flavored ice cream doesn't sound too good, but maybe it is, if you aren't thinking about where the flavors originate. Also, what tastes good is just, like, your opinion man.
- empath75 10y agoBefore eating at a Michelin star restaurant, I'd have suggested sea urchin, raw beef and meringue as an incompatible triad.
- wheat7420 10y agoSo you thought they would taste good paired but terrible with all three?
- tptacek 10y agoSquid ink ice cream is a thing, isn't it?
- archagon 10y agoI think flavor in general is very contextual. I routinely enjoy funky, fermented, strong-tasting foods that in a blind tasting with novice participants could probably be mistaken for garbage. As long as I have "culinary permission" to enjoy a food, it's unlikely that I'll find it disguisting, almost regardless of what the ingredients are!
- wldlyinaccurate 10y agoAm I missing something here? What about bread, cheese, and tomatoes? Even the Strawberries/Chocolate/Brie example in the article would not sound horrible to some people — I've had chocolate with cheese on many occasions.
- someones_acct 10y agoI like caprese on toast, and also just cheese-on-toast with a slice of tomato under it. Both are better with the usual seasonings (basil & olive oil or pepper respectively) but neither are horrible without them. I agree strawberries/chocolate/brie doesn't sound that horrible, though. That's just a fondue party with two pots, isn't it? Or is that cheating?
- lifeformed 10y agoHow is grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup not delicious?
- eridius 10y agoBread, cheese, and tomatoes sounds like a perfectly delicious sandwich.
- lucideer 10y agoPizzas are also a pretty popular food I think
- zem 10y agobread, cheese and tomatoes are practically a canonical sandwich!
- swolchok 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruschetta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruschetta
- KC8ZKF 10y agoAn apple pie without the cheese, Is like a hug without the squeeze
- _raoulcousins 10y agoI learned this many years ago as the Borromean food problem, after Borromean rings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- sweeneyrod 10y agoWhen I heard about this, I wrote a Python script to search allrecipes and find solutions (see here: https://github.com/sweeneyrod/three-food-problem https://github.com/sweeneyrod/three-food-problem). Unfortunately they seem to have changed their website format, so the code doesn't currently work. The most recent generated solutions I can find are: cheese, red wine, rump roast; corn, tart, dill pickle; hot pepper, cocoa, bun; apple, spinach, cup; cheddar, paprika, brown rice; split, tomato paste, maple syrup; crescent roll, cream cheese, apple pie; taco, pie, peanut butter; sour cream, honey, cup; vanilla, maraschino, grape; As you can see, there are some problems with what things WordNet classes as foods.
- sporkologist 10y ago> crescent roll, cream cheese, apple pie That one just looks awesome... well, a crescent roll is similar to pie crust anyway
- tptacek 10y agoI feel like red wine and tough beef get you "braised beef", and braised beef and parmigiano is a thing. Cheddar, paprika, and brown rice also sounds kind of conventional.
- failrate 10y agoHot pepper, cocoa, bun has me positively salivating in anticipation.
- gweinberg 10y agoIt seems to me this is more a chemistry question than a math question. Ignoring the subjectivity element, why is it ever the case that two things that taste good separately taste bad together? Maybe it's because they have a chemical reaction. So maybe what we should be looking for is chemicals that don't react as a pair (or react so slowly you don't notice), but will react in the presence of a catalyst which is pretty inert by itself. So I think one ingredient should be Platinumschlager (which is like Goldschlager except stupider).
- Mathnerd314 10y agoThere are multi-component reactions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-component_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-component_reaction The Hantzsch reaction looks promising (producing pyridines which are apparently pretty nasty); from looking at which foods contain which compounds, the obvious ones are cinnamon (cinnamaldehyde), apples (malic acid, which links to keto acid, which is linked from β-keto ester... I didn't take organic chemistry), and aged cheese (glutamate, a nitrogen donor). Apple-cinnamon and apples+cheese are both well-known pairings. The only question is cinnamon cheese, and surprisingly enough there's a review: http://www.thekitchn.com/cheese-review-trader-joes-cinn-130753 http://www.thekitchn.com/cheese-review-trader-joes-cinn-1307.... It's apparently pretty good. But, when eating the cheese with the apple, "the cinnamon flavor didn't really enhance the cheese, ironically enough, and so I opted to eat the cheese separately from the fruit." I guess that means this question is solved...?
- throwa34567 10y agoThis was a popular conversation among friends of mine years ago. The best answer a friend of mine had was "tequila, tequila, tequila"
- fibbery 10y agospinach, peanut butter, celery spinach + peanut butter = pra ram (this assuming the ingredients can be cooked) raw spinach + celery = a salad raw celery + peanut butter = a common child's snack spinach + celery + peanut butter together, whether cooked or raw....:/
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hasenj 10y agoSesame paste, salt, molasses. The paste with salt makes tahini sauce, the paste with molasses makes a dessert. All three together sound horrible.
- michaelsbradley 10y agocanned sardines, pink bubblegum flavored ice cream, fresh pineapple