I've done the same. I love mushroom soup. I love egg nog. I once tried to put the two together because I had run out of milk.
Now I'm not one to waste things, so I tried to finish it but could only stomach a few mouthfuls. Whatever unholy mixture that turned out to be needed to be buried a minimum of 10 feet deep in a lead container with warnings in every possible language to future generations to leave it the fuck alone.
I tried that once with hot cocoa. my logic was that going from water to milk makes hot cocoa far richer and tastier, even better if it's whole milk. egg nog is even richer and tastier than whole milk, so clearly cocoa nog should be delicious. nope
Rice and tortilla chips are both basically solid carbohydrates, right? So like, what's the difference between eating refried beans with tortilla chips, and putting refried beans in rice?
What they have in common is that they both make me not hungry anymore. The difference is how.
Instead of wrecking the entirety of your cooking when introducing something that may not work so well, put a small amount of the new thing in your mouth with a bit of what you’re cooking.
In this case, take a spoonful of mashed potato without swallowing and then a sip of chocolate milk . Do you want an entire bowl of that?
Sometimes even just smelling one with a taste of the other is enough to decide.
Also, try a big spoonful of sour cream in your homemade mashed potato along with your regular seasonings. Awesome.
Mm, I guess for your everyday taste test this works. This would absolutely work as far as determining whether or not chocolate milk potatoes would be good. However, there are meals where completely incongruous ingredients blend perfectly due to how they're cooked.
I've cooked some weird stuff before. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As I've gained experience, my cooking has improved and the number of failures has decreased. Same with every other skill. If it's not dangerous or expensive, just do it and see what happens!
Hell yeah. We are born as scientists and the adults around us extinguish that drive.
Kids always ask why. Why use milk, and not chocolate milk? Well, now you know why, and nobody told you.
Return to childhood, explore all those questions. That’s what you exist for! Questions! We are the universe trying to understand itself.
I used to be a terrible cook, but I’ve learned from those bland bean stews and barely-edible noodle dishes. Now I can eat everything I make, and most other people can too (sodium free, so challenge for some; magnesium salt isn’t the same)
Take bread, put some banana slices on top, and then spread some Dijon mustard on top. Better than it has any right to be.
If you have some proper aioli and you need to fry something (but without very high heat), spread a layer of aioli on it as your cooking fat. The oil renders out and leaves behind a thin crust of garlicy goodness.
Tried to makes some tuna-noodle casserole. Out of tuna. Substituted canned chicken for tuna. Out of cream of mushroom soup. Substituted cream of broccoli. My family jokingly dubbed the dish "chicken cordon green." I was 10 or 11 when that one worked out.
Learned in my late 20's that the real secret to a kickass marinara sauce is a single anchovy fillet that has been chopped into paste and added to the simmering sauce, with your aromatics.
This reminds me of when I made spaghetti and meatballs pizza. It was amazing. The spaghetti crisped up slightly on the edges, creating a satisfying crunch. Will make again.
Not all combinations are exactly what we predict they'll be, hence the reason for trying new things. People like pineapple on pizza so I thought a different kind of sweet thing might be worth the try.
I've made a lot of macaroni and cheese in my day, and I haven't always had the luxury of being able to afford milk. My go-to in that scenario is to use at least double the recipe's butter, and substitute the required milk with about 75% as much water.
It makes the mac and squeaky and it tastes.. not very good.
If they can't afford 1/4 cup (~60 ml) milk for a box of mac n cheese, they certainly can't afford half and half or cream.
If you're not in the US, get powdered milk, which is usually cheaper and for something like mac n cheese, it's plenty good enough. But in the US, powdered milk is more expensive for some stupid reason (probably something to do with dairy subsidies).
I once decided to stuff chicken breasts with Feta, blueberry, and rosemary, I really really thought it should work.
It's the dish that my SO reminds me of constantly that almost ended our relationship. She agrees I'm a good cook but says she almost was willing to take the thought back and leave me over that dish.... It was pretty bad.
The Michelin Star way is 1:1 butter to potato ratio (yes, so 1 pound of butter for every pound of potatoes) and a tiny bit of salt lol. You just run the mash potatoes through a fine mesh until it becomes a super smooth paste.