10 Track 10

Review unit 3

fluency practice

Reading Reviews 6: Savory Chocolate

Page 123

Savory Chocolate

Candy, cake, brownies, ice cream, pie, fudge − these are some common uses for chocolate. But did you know that chocolate also has a savory side?

Michael Laiskonis, a pastry chef, says that while chocolate is certainly thought of most often as a sweet snack or dessert, it is being used more frequently in savory dishes.

Cocoa, and later chocolate, was first enjoyed by the Mayans and Aztecs of Central America, and then by the Europeans, particularly in countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

It makes sense, then, that many savory chocolate dishes can be found in these cuisines, most commonly in their sauces. This is because chocolate adds a dark, shiny color and a rich flavor to the sauce.

Mexican Malays are a good example of sauces that heavily feature chocolate. Moles are rich and spicy sauces that originated in southern Mexico around the 16th and 17th centuries.

They get their complex flavor and dark brown color from chili peppers and chocolate, much like the original cocoa drinks from Mayan times. Moles are commonly served with meat and rice.

Over in Europe, and Italian wine or vinegar sauce called agrodolce also uses chocolate, and is most often served with lamb and pasta. Some recipes for coq au vin, a classic French chicken dish, call for chocolate as well.

Chocolate is being used in less traditional dishes, too. Chefs and home cooks alike are rubbing steaks with cocoa powder and adding pieces of chocolate to meet stews.

Many recipes follow the Mexican idea of adding cocoa or dark chocolate, which has a bitter flavor, to spicy dishes, but it has recently become very popular in America to cover salty bacon or potato chips in chocolate.

This combination sounds odd but can actually be explained through science. Studies called “flavor-study research” have shown that certain foods with similar chemical structures taste good when eaten together.

For example, chef Heston Blumenthal combined white chocolate and caviar because he thought the two offered a tasty balance of sweet and salty. Scientists later found that these two flavors go well together because they have some proteins in common.

This is also the reason why scientists think cocoa tastes good with cauliflower and garlic.

This might all sound a little strange if you’ve only ever known chocolate to be a sweet treat. But it’s also good news for chocolate lovers − as Laiskonis says, “No matter what your mother may have told you, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat chocolate for dinner!”