My mother's coworker's child made a bacon bundt cake, and specifically sent a piece for her.
I agreed to eat it with my mother out of solidarity.
Honestly, she's like, 9 or something, and did a great job of it. Kinda had a bacon pancake going, didn't have many tunnels or anything. Would be a great dessert for a barbecue, that kinda thing.
But no one in my immediate family is that into bacon, let alone being combined with sweets.
Growing up my mother would occasionally make a dish my father enjoyed that she called “Depression Dinner”. It was mashed potatoes covered in fried ground beef with beef gravy poured on top of it.
I like mashed potatoes. I like using ground beef in a variety of dishes. And who can say anything bad about gravy? But mix those three together — ugh, no thanks. It was like baby food for adults. There was a reason why my brother and I took to calling it Depressing Dinner growing up.
Similar to beef mince, onions, gravy and mash for me. My da loves it but I found the combo depressing despite the fact I used to eat mash out of the pot with a spoon. And yes I'm Irish.
Yeah, the mistake here is in putting the beef and gravy on top resulting in mush. Putting the potatoes on top and allowing them to crisp would really change the flavor and texture.
Oh certainly changing the presentation, texture, and separation of the ingredients can make a big difference in a dish! I’d say the difference between “depression dinner” and Shepard’s pie is like the difference between cake batter and cake — they’re both made up of the exact same stuff, but one is a gloopy mess you’d probably not want to eat a whole bowl of, and the other is delicious cake you’ll want a second serving of.
I hear ya, altho at the same time your DD as is doesn't sound that bad to me.
Of course, I'd want to drain the hell out of that ground beef and cook it with some chili mix, too. Without some simple steps like that I could indeed see how it might taste more like oily Gerbers.
To be clear — Mom’s “Depression Dinner” was in fact just greasy fried ground beef poured over mashed potatoes. No spices. I don’t even think she used any salt or pepper. Oily Gerbers would be a perfectly apt description!
A number of years ago when cupcake shops were opening everywhere, there was this one called Mancakes that did "manly" cupcakes (think bacon and alcohol). I finally broke down one day and decided to try one. I went with the "Buffalo wings" cupcake which turned out to be what I guess was Frank's Red Hot flavoured cake, topped with icing and some sort of crispy sprinkles (chicken skin?), and stuffed with (to my gagging surprise) blue cheese icing.
I love hot wings, I love blue cheese dip, and cupcakes are just fine.
But a buffalo wing cupcake has to be the nastiest concoction to be called a cupcake that I've ever tasted.
Cookout pasta salad. I like pasta, mayo, corn, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, onions, whatever else goes in normally, but pasta salad is just so disappointing.
I am the opposite about a Reuben- I’m not especially a fan of pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, or thousand island dressing, but fuck if it’s not incredible together.
I like your idea of reversing the question. On their own I'm not big on sour cream or mayonnaise, but either of them mixed together with the right seasonings or sometimes even together with some seasoning and I can't get enough. Mayo is nasty, but a garlic aioli? Fricken great. Plain sour cream? A tad on a baked potato is fine, but a chipotle lime crema? I might lick that up off the floor...
Oh I feel you! I ate spaghetti Bolognese ice cream a couple of years ago and I couldn't stand it. Ice cream is great and Bolognese is great but not mixed together.