Each of us has our favorite food combinations, many of which are considered generally accepted, such as tomato sauce with pasta, cottage cheese with fruit, or tea with cookies. And few people would like to change their habits or try new combinations of products, especially if they seem unusual and very dubious. But trust me, these food combinations will definitely delight your taste buds and are worth trying!

Meat + berry jam

Many people still don’t imagine how they can eat meat with berries. Meanwhile, in many countries around the world this combination is considered classic. Try serving lingonberry or cranberry jam with steak or baked pork - we are sure you will remember this taste for a long time.

Eggplant + honey

Eggplant with honey is something new! But in sunny Andalusia this combination is considered almost classic. Just fry the eggplants in the usual way and pour honey over them - you will lick your fingers!

Strawberry + cucumber

Strawberry season is just around the corner. Which means it's time to try something new. How about an unusual but very original combination - strawberries and cucumber? With them you can prepare sweet toasts, refreshing flavored water or a very tasty salad according to our recipe.

Melon + ham

It would seem that these products are absolutely incompatible with each other. Meanwhile, ham with melon is a traditional Italian summer dish, which is served both at official receptions, and at home dinners. Try it, it's very tasty.

Pineapple + blue cheese

Pineapple and cheese actually contain many similar substances. Combining them allows them to interact, enriching the taste. The best pairing is blue cheese, the sourness of which is balanced by the sweetness of the fruit.

Strawberry + Parmesan

Strawberries sprinkled with grated Parmesan replaced chocolate covered strawberries. The butyric acid in this cheese, which is also found in chocolate, reacts with the flavonoids in strawberries to produce a rich, sweet flavor.

Dark chocolate + beets

The substances geozyme and pyrazine give beets a special taste. The latter is also found in dark chocolate, and when you combine it with beets, you get an interesting combination of sweet and bitter. Try sprinkling grated dark chocolate on your beet salad.

Chocolate + soy sauce

An ideal combination from a chemistry point of view. The saltiness of the soy sauce brings out the sweetness of the chocolate. In addition, both products contain roasted, vegetable and fruit components, mutually enriching each other's tastes. Try dipping a candy bar in soy sauce or drizzling it over a chocolate dessert.

Pickled cucumber + ice cream

Pregnant women intuitively feel that this combination can trigger a reward response in the brain. Here's why: the salt in pickled cucumber is essential for normal blood circulation and cellular metabolism, while the sugar and fat in ice cream provide energy through fast carbohydrates. Your body needs all of this to survive. Therefore, the brain encourages the use of such combinations, even if they seem inappropriate.

Black caviar + white chocolate

The famous British chef Heston Blumenthal understood that a hint of saltiness on white chocolate would enrich its flavor and soften the sweetness. He began experimenting with combinations and experimentally discovered that it was best to put it on tiles. white chocolate black caviar.

Meat + chocolate

Complete madness. But not for Mexicans, because this is their traditional dish for several centuries. “Mole” is a mixture of several types of meat baked in a pot along with chocolate, peanuts, sesame seeds and various spices. The chocolate enriches the meat sauce, making it deeply dark and velvety. To completely drive the future eater crazy, local chefs also add garlic to the dish.

Fruit salad + chilli powder

Ready for fireworks for your friends taste buds? But this dish is ordinary Mexican street food. Capsaicin contained in chilies awakens the sense of smell and enhances the sweetness of the fruit. Mangoes and pineapples go especially well with chili.

Nutella + French fries

Salt enhances the flavor, even if it is a sweet taste. Try the nutty Nutella chocolate mixture with French fries. As mentioned above, potatoes have a mild flavor, so in this case they only act as a container for salt. You can also replace the Nutella with a chocolate milkshake. However, beware side effects– bloating and other troubles.

Strawberries + balsamic vinegar

Vinegar instead of cream? The combination of sour and sweet, firstly, has already been repeatedly used in cooking. Secondly, it is much healthier than pouring cream or chocolate sauce over strawberries.

Ketchup + dark chocolate

You probably put ketchup on a lot of other foods, but you've probably never tried it on dark chocolate. However, the latter has notes of tomato in the taste, and ketchup enhances them, enriching the taste. They both also have notes of parsley, thanks to the linalool molecule.

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Pineapple and cheese actually contain many similar substances. Combining them allows them to interact, enriching the taste. The best pairing is blue cheese, the sourness of which is balanced by the sweetness of the fruit.

• Strawberry and Parmesan

Strawberries sprinkled with grated Parmesan replaced chocolate covered strawberries. The butyric acid in this cheese, which is also found in chocolate, reacts with the flavonoids in strawberries to produce a rich, sweet flavor.

• Pizza and tuna

The MSG flavor found in tuna makes the pizza taste more intense and satisfying. And since tuna fills you up quickly, you won't want to eat the whole pizza. Tuna can be raw, grilled or canned.

• Dark chocolate and beets

The substances geozyme and pyrazine give beets a special taste. The latter is also found in dark chocolate, and when you combine it with beets, you get an interesting contrast of sweetness and bitterness. Try sprinkling grated dark chocolate on your beet salad.

• Mashed potatoes and ketchup

In India, McDonald's sells a potato cutlet sandwich, and customers enjoy dipping it in ketchup. The potatoes are mild in flavor and the ketchup perks it up with MSG.

• Chocolate and soy sauce

An ideal combination from a chemistry point of view. The saltiness of the soy sauce brings out the sweetness of the chocolate. In addition, both products contain roasted, vegetable and fruit components, mutually enriching each other's tastes. Try dipping a candy bar in soy sauce or drizzling it over a chocolate dessert.

• Ketchup and dark chocolate

You've probably put ketchup on a lot of other foods, but you've probably never tried it on dark chocolate. However, the latter has notes of tomato in the taste, and ketchup enhances them, enriching the taste. They both also have notes of parsley, thanks to the linalool molecule.

• Pickled cucumber and ice cream

Pregnant women intuitively feel that this combination can trigger a reward response in the brain. Here's why: the salt in pickled cucumber is necessary for normal blood circulation and cellular metabolism, while the sugar and fat in ice cream provide energy through fast carbohydrates. Your body needs all of this to survive. Therefore, the brain encourages the use of such combinations, even if they seem inappropriate.

• Red caviar and white chocolate

The famous British chef Heston Blumenthal understood that a hint of saltiness on white chocolate would enrich its flavor and soften the sweetness. He began experimenting with combinations and experimentally discovered that it was best to put red caviar on a bar of white chocolate.

• Nutella and French fries

Salt enhances the flavor, even if it is a sweet taste. Try Nutella's nutty chocolate spread with French fries. As mentioned above, potatoes have a mild flavor, so in this case they only act as a container for salt. You can also replace the Nutella with a chocolate milkshake.

Today I invite you to take a slight break from cumbersome recipes and remember the classic win-win combinations of products, based on which you can create as many recipes as you want. I will deliberately not write about sauces - everyone already knows that, for example, - best friends, but to fully cover this topic, a dissertation is not enough. In the same way, I don’t mention olive - and it’s clear that it goes with absolutely everything. We don't touch the salt either.

How to use these combinations? Firstly, for their intended purpose - by combining these products in dishes, you can be sure that the result will be decent. Secondly, as a starting point for further reflection - for example, in a combination of blue cheese and pears, just replace the latter with figs, and it will sparkle with new colors.

I deliberately omitted some classic, obvious combinations - I’m interested in what you’ll add to this list.

Duck + oranges. Moreover, oranges in any form - as a seasoning, orange slices in a salad with duck, orange sauce for breasts, and so on. Why this works is unclear, but it works.

Game + juniper berries when combined, they enhance the spirit of “wildness” and “primitiveness” of the dish significantly. By the way, this is exactly the rare case when the opposite is true - if you want to add “woods” to, say, lamb, add juniper.

Fish + fennel, and this time not seeds, but greens. I have not seen fennel greens on sale separately, and therefore, when buying fennel, I choose the curliest one. Fennel has a more subtle, delicate, aniseed flavor than dill, so it's definitely a better pairing.

Melon + ham- by the way, ready-made, which seems to exist everywhere where ham is made and melons are planted. Other berries and fruits in combination with dried ham are also good, but melon is especially good.

The popular website ADME made an infographic based on this post, which I am posting here for clarity:

And now - combinations suggested by readers:

Cheese + mustard

Fish + lemon

Fish + horseradish

Mushrooms + basil

Mushrooms + marjoram

Eggplant + basil

Eggs + cilantro + cheese

Hercules + cheese

Eggplant + garlic

Beans + bacon

Cauliflower + cheese

Rhubarb + raisins

Potatoes + bay leaf + onion

Cheese + grapes

Lamb + cilantro

Lard + garlic

Millet + pumpkin

Biscuit + cream

Pineapple + ham

Beets + prunes

Nuts + cinnamon + honey

Chicken + nuts

Pomegranate + lamb

Beef (minced) + basil

Pumpkin + cinnamon

Pumpkin + nutmeg

Soy sauce + honey

Pork + cloves

Rice + raisins

Pumpkin + garlic + parsley

Asparagus + eggs

Celery + apple

Onion + vinegar

Strawberries + cream

Beans + chili

Beans + nuts

Liver + apples

Chocolate + nuts

Herring + apples

Beef + eggplant

Eggs + tomatoes

Soy sauce + honey + orange zest

Cheese + dried oregano

Cabbage + cumin

Crayfish + dill seeds

Do you have anything to add? Write in the comments!

Many people who want to lose weight should take into account the principle of combining foods, based on the research of American naturopath Herbert Shelton. The principle of compatibility of various ingredients with each other is justified chemical composition, which is different for each type of product. The composition completely affects the time of digestion and breakdown of food by the stomach. If incompatible foods enter the body together, they can cause serious digestive problems due to different digestion times. Sticking to proper nutrition, this property must be taken into account.

The first figure to turn his attention to the peculiarities of food processing was Academician Pavlov, who noted in his works that many factors influence absorption - the composition of the product, the digestive department in which the component is processed, the rate of breakdown by gastric juice. His works formed the basis for all the scientific activities of Shelton and many other nutritionists.

Product Compatibility Chart

In addition to the absorption time, it is also necessary to take into account energy value products - food in which carbohydrates predominate does not go well with fats. The same applies to proteins. To make it easier to determine the combination of products, a special table was created by which it can be determined. It shows which ingredients we combine this or that component with and which we don’t.

Flavor combinations

To prepare a delicious dish, it is enough to take into account the taste combination of products with each other. It will significantly diversify the daily menu, delight the taste buds and make weight loss recipes less monotonous.

Many famous chefs use established combinations of edible ingredients as the basis for their culinary experiments. Here are just some of the most successful of them:

• tomato + basil + garlic - this classic combination will always come in handy in any dish where tomatoes are present;
• olive oil + garlic + lemon juice - this combination can become an ideal dressing not only for any salad, but also for a second one;
• soy sauce + honey + ginger - with this combination you can also dress salads or marinate meat products or fish;
• avocado + shrimp - a healthy balanced combination used for weight loss; salads, sandwiches or snacks are prepared with it;
• cheese + grapes - a combination served with wines as an independent snack, but is often used in salads for the richest taste;
• rosemary + game - rosemary is a very bright spice, but in this combination it complements meat very well;
• potatoes + nutmeg - the spice will highlight the aroma of potatoes cooked in any way;
• potatoes + dill - dill is a very successful combination with boiled potatoes, the same applies to salads that include this ingredient;

• beans + walnuts- an interesting combination that complements both vegetable dishes and those that contain meat. Nuts are suitable for both green beans and grains;
• lemon + fish - in this combination you can use lemon juice or stuff the fish with citrus slices, the effect will be the same - the flesh will become tender, the fishy smell will not be so noticeable.

With spices

Properly selected spices can combine with other products interesting combinations, enhancing their taste, complementing and allowing the aroma to unfold. The system of combining spices and products is based on the same principles - many seasonings can speed up the processing of products, and can whet the appetite or replace sugar, which is only a plus when dietary nutrition. Here are the most common food combinations with spices:

Principles of combining products from Maya Gogulan

Maya Gogulan is a famous journalist and supporter of the principle of separate nutrition. Her system is a combination of products based on nutritional components. The main combination rules look like this:

• carbohydrates should not be consumed simultaneously with carbohydrates (for example, eat porridge and pasta with bread);
• eat proteins at one meal with carbohydrates (for example, do not eat fish as a snack with bread, but oatmeal with chicken);
• vegetables can be combined with each other and with any other products;
• Vegetable and animal fats are well complemented by carbohydrates or protein.

In addition, Gogulan advises completely eliminating sugar from the diet, reducing the amount of salt and spices, which lead to increased appetite. Make the choice of products towards unprocessed ones. Oatmeal is a good example—coarse, unrefined flakes are better than processed ones. It is necessary to leave the table slightly undernourished. There must be a desire to do something. Drowsiness and laziness are signs that a person has overeaten, and this is not beneficial.

Many experts also advise paying attention to the method of preparing dishes - reducing the consumption of fried foods, replacing boiled

Table of food combinations for separate meals according to Shelton

To make it easier to navigate among a variety of products and stick to healthy eating, Herbert Shelton developed a special table that allows you to determine the compatibility of certain components. It is very simple to use - select a product in the first column and see which of the components listed above it is combined with.

Gradually you can remember all the listed components and their features. The basis of their combination is the acidic or alkaline component, which decomposes in the stomach for a certain time.

Rules

• choose only natural and fresh ingredients for cooking;
• do not overeat - leave the table with a slight feeling of hunger and lightness in the body;
• bad signals are the desire to sleep and heaviness in the stomach - this is evidence of overeating;
• you need to eat often, but little by little; take into account the acidity of the product when adding it to a dish;
• Fresh vegetables should make up a large proportion of the diet.

The principle of combining foods can facilitate the digestion process without spending a lot of energy on processing foods, which can be usefully spent in other areas. By adjusting your diet, you will have additional strength and will be able to live an active life.