Why Chocolate And Bacon Pair So Well Together

It's like they say: everything's better with bacon. The same is true for chocolate, even if it's not quite as common a saying. Almost any food can be enhanced by one of these two all-star ingredients, yet they truly shine when the two are combined. Bacon and chocolate pair surprisingly well together, creating a sweet and savory combo that can make even the most stalwart of health nuts drool. But why?

It should come as no surprise that bacon and chocolate are a winning combination. They're two versatile, beloved staple foods with complex and nuanced flavor profiles, ones that contrast with but also complement each other in the best of ways. When using the right type of chocolate with bacon, the smoky, savory, salty bacon helps cut through the rich sweetness of the former, creating something more elevated than the sum of its parts.

And of course, salty and sweet are already a classic flavor combination that goes together like few others. We need only look to the array of chocolate-covered pretzels and potato chips available on grocery store shelves for proof of how beloved salt and sugar are together. Of course, salted caramel has also become a popular flavor combo for much the same reason. We think you'll be hard-pressed to find better representatives of salty and sweet than bacon and chocolate, though, so it's no wonder that the best of each flavor create such a good snack when they're put together.

Bacon and chocolate are a delicious combination, but don't think that you have to limit yourself to dishes as simple as chocolate-covered bacon, as good as they are. You can combine them in countless ways. For example, bacon is already often served alongside pancakes, including the decadent breakfast treat of chocolate chip pancakes. Why not combine the two for a stack of delicious chocolate-bacon pancakes that turn your breakfast into a sweet and salty heaven?

And of course, there are plenty of other chocolatey dishes that can benefit from a strip or two of crispy bacon. Believe it or not, brownies, cookies, fudge, and other chocolate-based baked goods can all be enhanced with a sprinkle of crumbled bacon, perhaps both in the mix and on top for extra crunch. A great bacon cooking tip, especially when using this cured meat for baked goods, is to first caramelize it with brown sugar. You can even sprinkle some bacon bits or bacon salt over a three-ingredient chocolate mousse to give it an extra je ne sais quoi.

As good as bacon and chocolate go together, however, not every recipe with one benefits from the other. For example, adding chocolate to bacon-wrapped scallops may not be the most appetizing bacon-chocolate combination, unless you really like a fishy flavor. You might also want to use a more complicated dark chocolate than a simple milk or white chocolate. Of course, at the end of the day, everything does come down to taste, so don't be afraid to experiment with different ingredients. Who knows? A combination you didn't think would go well together might become your new favorite snack.