Too much fruit

Oh man. I just made lemon chicken, and it was to die for. Are you sure you hate fruit?

SP: Take a hot dog, slit it. Put cheese in the slit. Wrap it in bacon and broil. Put it on a bun with cooked chili. There ya go.

Allrecipes has issues with cans of soup too. But I can usually find what I'm looking for there or on Epicurious if I search enough.

Have you tried the Food Network websites?

Canada: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/

US: http://www.foodnetwork.com/

I used to absolutely despise fruit with savoury dishes. It just seemed so wrong to me - turkey with cranberry sauce?? Pork with apples?? Ewww!
However I must say that I've come around and, I've found that I've really enjoy the contrasting tastes.

I think it started by liking curry - and the mixing of raisins with onions and curry with rice. Then I realized that one of my favourite meals that my mother made when I was a kid, was pork chops simmered in a green tomato apple chutney and served over rice. Soon I was branching out and ordering sword fish with mango salsa and once I had pizza with ham and pineapple - and liked it! One of my favourite appetizers is grapes encased in blue cheese and rolled in walnuts, another is a fresh date wrapped in bacon - there is something about the two -sweet and salty - together that is magical.

I think that sweet (aka fruit) with savoury is something that does take a bit of trying, you just need to keep trying - although I do draw the line at turkey and cranberries, that's just weird.

Check out Leite's Culinaria, Chow.com and Saveur.com.
You'll never look back at Allrecipes.

And they blow Epicurious away.

Oops, Chowhound, not Chow.

kikazaru said:

I think that sweet (aka fruit) with savoury is something that does take a bit of trying, you just need to keep trying -

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Yeah, this is what my mom told me about brussels sprouts.

She tried putting them on my plate until I left home. I'm a grown up now, I don't have to eat what I don't like.

I hope you get help eventually SP.

ETA: Yay! Helpful

My mother never served what "she" didn't like and as a consequence I never encountered brussels sprouts (and sweet potatoes, squash and spinach) until I was an adult. I love them all.

From the very different reactions that people have to the same dishes, it's clear that we humans taste things differently. For example, my youngest brother describes the taste of watermelon as "intensely bitter", which is not at all the way that I perceive the taste of that fruit.

I think that many of us do find that fruit can be used to advantage in savory dishes; otherwise, there wouldn't be half as many recipes as there are calling for various forms of fruit in savory recipes. I myself enjoy cooking and eating savory dishes with all sorts of fruit. But certainly there are many, many recipes for savory dishes that do not call for fruit. Perhaps you might consider looking into one or more cookbooks, rather than sticking with online recipe sources.

SPMiller said:

Sweet potatoes, spinach, and Brussels sprouts are not fruit. Squash are, but they're popularly considered vegetables. This thread isn't about those foods. It's about fruit.

I eat lots of fruit. I like fruit. I think it's great in desserts.

I just don't want fruit in my savory foods. I didn't think that was hard to understand, but apparently it is.

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My apologies.

If discussing the best chili and which kind of BBQ sauce didn't do it, I can't imagine needing to close a thread over fruitless recipes in 'Now We're Cookin'', of all places... but I'll do it if it's necessary.

What isn't necessary is condescension and/or the use of any form of the word 'fuck' anywhere in this room. I haven't seen this much ill will inspired in less than one page of posts anywhere else on AW, with the exception of PC&E.

Respect your fellow cook as you respect your fellow writer.

Ditto CatSlave's recommendations. Leite's Culinaria, Chowhound, and Saveur are really the only resources you need to find good recipes, fruit or no fruit. Smitten Kitchen and No Recipes are also two good blogs to check out.

C.bronco said:

SP: Take a hot dog, slit it. Put cheese in the slit. Wrap it in bacon and broil. Put it on a bun with cooked chili. There ya go.

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Nom, nom, nom!

I'm glad I didn't pitch in my citrus turkey recipe. Eesh.

I'm not a huge fan of savory + fruit combination either. You might try this one:

Mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin with a nice garlicky sauce.

It's pretty easy and it presents well. The sauce is amazing. The recipe also talks about celery root mashed potatoes, but I usually skip that part.

That Mushroom Stuffed Pork Tenderloin sounds delicious. I'm doing a pork sirloin roast today, brined in apple juice and rum with garlic, fresh rosemary, and pepper. The apple juice doesn't lend any sweetness to it that I can discern - and I don't like fruit mixed with my meat, either.

SPMiller said:

Watermelon is a cucurbit, and many varieties do indeed have bitter compounds that only a subset of the population can taste.

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Do you happen to know the approximate percentage of the subset? Seems to me that little fact might be useful in a murder mystery.

Remember, most recipes -except for baking- are just guidelines or approximations.
You follow the blueprint, but build the dish according to your own taste.
If you don't like the fruit, omit it or substitute another ingredient.

BTW, curcurbits are notoriously promiscuous and will breed with any cousin close by,
which can produce some awful-tasting produce.
For example, never plant melons and cucumbers in close proximity.

More accurately: The seeds of cross-pollinated curbits can produce monsters.

http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/2006/Curbits.shtml

Enough about growing, back to cooking.