So no chicken-and-cheese unless you’re eating chicken-and-cheese -and-pasta?
My personal rule is food-and-other food-and-cheese is probably going to be pretty damn good (if the right cheese is chosen). If it’s wrong, I don’t blame the cheese, I blame the chef for picking the wrong cheese.
It is a rule, and it is often a bad one, akin to French chefs being appalled that Americans put cheese in a cake. Many seafood dishes are elevated by cheese, especially the combination of shrimp and feta (especially with added tomato and ouzo). Still, in a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for this, they begin “We don’t usually mix fish and cheese… but this is a perfect pairing.”
Well somebody was: the food judge on Chopped mentioned in the OP. And apparently a lot of other chefs treat it as gospel.
I never understood sour cream on Mexican food. It’s not like there’s a big Russian community in Laredo.
Speaking of, I hate it when people turn up their noses at Tex-Mex because it’s not authentic Mexican food. No, you twit, it’s Tex-Mex, and it’s wonderful.
Sour cream is definitely used in Mexican dishes, though I don’t typically see it on tacos. I doubt there’s any definite rule about it. Go to any Mexican grocery around here and you’ll find multiple brands and styles of “crema agria.” I know I’ve had tacos with Mexican crumbling cheese (like cotija or queso fresco) on it and my Mexican/Spanish-language book on tacos (La Tacopedia) has a couple recipes that also use Chihuahua on the finished taco. It’s not a typical topping, though and it seems only certain tacos are topped with it (not like the American default – which the Mexican places around here call “gringo” – of lettuce, tomato, and cheese.)
And, yeah, Tex-Mex is fine.
I had no idea there was such a rule, but i do follow several recipes that adhere to that rule, and rather like them. The two do different things to a dish, and… Yeah, i often don’t want to pair them.
Of all of the 'you’re doing it WRONG!" complaints I get on my recipe/food videos, by far the most pained and impassioned complaints I see are from people who say they are Italian - and of these, it’s most often complaints about deviation from ‘proper’ styles, recipes, ingredients etc.
Like most things, I think it’s probably only a very vocal minority, and it’s also the internet, so I try to be really careful not sweep the brush of my perception across Italian people in general, but there are certain national biases in the complaints I see, and for Italy, it’s very often “You must NEVER do it like that. STOP doing that!”
Personally, I think there are times when a cheese sauce is an improvement over a bechamel - Lasagne and fish pie (especially if it contains smoked fish) are two examples.
I think there’s a certainly an argument that Italians seem highly resistant to food-change, and at times that could be to the detriment of their creativity. I wonder where it comes from? The French can also be a little like this, but not quite as rabidly. Is it simply national pride? ie when all else goes to shit, they can still point at their food and go ‘See? See? We win!’
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Italian food (and Italy, hence my moniker), but the slavery to certain food ‘rules’ is quite tedious.
I think with France, it’s easy to understand any prescriptivism, since a lot of culinary schooling arises from there, along with the whole Michelin stars thing. Having said that, my experience of French commentary is that it seems mostly open minded.
I think it comes down to whether a person considers cooking to be a ‘solved problem’ or an ongoing and continually developing art.
The quality of the finished dish should out weigh some stupid “rule”. Did the guy try it?
It’s probably along the same lines as “no beans in chili” coming from Texas chili purists. Yes, it was traditionally done as a sort of stew, with beans served as a side dish alongside, because beans were considered a side dish in the Texas-Mexican cooking of the era.
But that doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with adding beans. It’s just not authentic, strictly speaking. It’s certainly a venial chili sin, unlike some others I could name…
I imagine cheese with fish is similar; probably a very regional sort of thing, and probably originally specific to certain dishes, and then generalized outward from there without necessarily a lot of reference to the original dishes.
I mean, it’s certainly not “no cheese with seafood” - I had cuttlefish in Florence with a sprinkling of Parmesan on it, and I had a tuna and onion pizza (with cheese) in Rome that was stupendously good.
Here’s an article on it:
Was amusing to hear the Italian Ambassador to the UK squirming on BBC Radio 4 yesterday when asked what he thought of pineapple on pizza and cream in carbonara. Let’s just say he was very diplomatic.
This is begging for a counter example. But,
This is the answer. If particular cheese doesn’t enhance a dish, it’s because it’s the wrong cheese.
That was Scott Conant, a ‘modern’ Italian-cuisine chef who very notoriously has a bug up his ass on this subject.
You’re probably familiar with this hilarious clip of an Italian chef’s reaction to a recipe suggestion. It’s only a minute long and seeing D’Acampo’s face and then the two hosts absolutely lose it on camera gives me a belly laugh every time.
I get a taste for those gringo tacos (& with crema) every once in a while. The ones at my local (wow, 12 locations) tend to be overstuffed and I especially like them dressed that way for sort of pasty fillings like picadillo and chorizo.
That said, if making tacos at home, I’ll tend heavily toward onion & cilantro… with a light smear of sour cream as the first thing on the warmed tortillas. I made some about two weeks ago where each had 2 tortillas slightly wetted and steamed in a dry skillet. Then, the smear of sour cream, a few chunks of grocery store-bought carnitas, onion, cilantro, with salt & lime to finish.
Every so often I get into “American taco” mood, too, although through the lens of Japanese cuisine in the form of Okinawa taco rice. If you don’t know what that is, basically, make your typical Lawry’s taco seasoning packet type ground beef (or whatever meat you like) filling, serve that over rice, and top it with shredded lettuce, tomato, and cheese. Feel free to add sour cream, salsa, whatever hot sauce you like (the traditional one is a rice spirit infused with chili peppers, called kōrēgusu. It’s a hit with the family. You can also add a bit of soy sauce to the taco meat.
Also eyeroll-worthy: when reviewers on Yelp or TripAdvisor preface their (usually negative) comments about a Mexican restaurant by saying “I’m from California (or Texas) and I know authentic Mexican food”. No you don’t, you pretentious twit.
+1 to that!
well McDonald’s puts cheese on the Filet o’ Fish and they’re culinary experts so it must be ok