Many yummy dishes we enjoy have rather surprising "secret" ingredients.

Years ago, I remember it odd finding a recipe for moist chocolate cake that called for Hellmann's Mayonnaise. Another Chocolate Cake called for VINEGAR... another for Campbell's Tomato Soup.

I remember as a youngster how weird I thought it that most eggroll recipes use peanut butter to bind together their fillings... Also- there was a post some time back about Paula Deen's Fudge that called for VELVEETA!

What recipes do YOU use that call for unorthodox ingredients that might surprise some?

Also, here's a fun food QUIZ- Click & Try it! Maybe you'll be stumped!

Recipes - Trivia Quiz: Strange Ingredients - ArcaMax Publishing

Hey, I only got 7 correct.

Question 4, btw, does not have the correct answer. Kishki is a Jewish sausage-type dish. Because pork is forbidden them, the filling goes into the large intestine of either a cow or a lamb.

Odd, now that you bring it up. I know there were ingredients that I thought were strange or unorthodox at the time. But I can't recall a specific instance.

I'm always more surprised, I think, at the differences technique can make in a final dish. Such as separating eggs for a noodle pudding. Or crushing spices in a mortar, by hand, instead of grinding them in a coffee mill.

We don't really know what searing does to a piece of meat. But it makes a difference to the final taste, that's for sure. And baba ganoujh made from eggplants that have been charred over a charcoal fire is not the same dish when the eggplants are charred in the oven, or over a gas flame.

Etc.

Jeez, Brook- I only got 5 correct! I guess I'm a dumbazz!

I always thought searing was a way to cauterize the meat so as to keep the juices from running out so much during cooking.

As for secret ingredients, I myself and always surprised how many prepared/semi-prepared foods contain corn in some shape or form.

Jafo we all grew up with the idea that searing seals the meat to prevent juices from escaping.

Turns out that's wrong. Several food-scientists and writers have done extensive work on that topic. Searing caremalizes the surfaces, and makes it taste better. But it doesn't actually seal it.

And it has some effect internally, because if you take two of the same cuts, sear one but not the other, and otherwise cook them the same, the seared one willl taste differently internally as well as at the surface.

To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been an explanation for that taste difference. Which is why I said we don't know what searing does, except make the meat taste good.

>I only got 5 correct! I guess I'm a dumbazz! <

Nah. Just means I guess gooder than you.