(dramatic music)
- Stop it!
(all laugh)
- Hello, everybody.
- In an attempt to broaden our horizons,
today we're gonna be taste testing
some of the weirdest flavour combinations
that internet has to offer.
(upbeat music)
Lift the cloche on number one.
(cloche tings)
- Bacon.
It's gonna work. - Strong start.
- It's going to work.
- Steady on.
- Okay.
- It's bacon, what's not gonna work with bacon?
- Sorry, what?
Candy Can,
bubblegum drink.
- [Jamie] Bubblegum.
- [Barry] Bubblegum flavour.
- Bacon and bubblegum (laughs).
Thoughts?
- What is bubblegum flavour?
- Well, I'm glad you asked, Barry.
Bubblegum flavour seems to be a combination of
banana, pineapple, cinnamon, cloves, and winter greens.
Winter greens are basically a really aromatic plant.
- Is it so strange,
'cause as soon as you have bubblegum...
- [Mike] You know it's bubblegum, right?
- Exactly, that's so sweet.
You know exactly what that is,
it's the aftertaste of bubblegum.
There you go.
- So I know we all laugh because Jamie loves bacon,
lo-lo-lo.
But there is theory to the madness in the fact that
bacon as a salty... - Yeah.
- ...product goes very well with sweet stuff.
Bacon and maple syrup.
- Yes.
Can you see it going with bubblegum?
- I think it can, 'cause you get candied bacon.
So sugared bacon and bacon strips,
I had it in America once upon a time
where it was actually properly candied
and we dipped it into like a peanut butter sauce.
And that was great, because it was so sweet and so salty,
it worked really well together.
I feel like this might do the same thing.
- I've never had bubblegum drink,
and this particular one is quite aromatic.
I always thought bubblegum just smelt of sugar,
but it does have a little bit more going on.
So that might help some complexities.
- What do we know about flavour?
What's the one thing Ben has taught us in 13-years?
- You can do this.
- Never trust him on a night.
(Barry laughs)
Any night.
80%.
- 80% what?
- Of flavour comes from aroma.
- [Mike] Yeah, and the remaining 20% is taste.
- Taste, yeah.
- I think that might work.
- Yeah, 100%.
- Okay, Spaff, you mentioned candied bacon earlier.
Do you wanna reduce some of that down,
and then glaze your bacon and see if it works?
- What, turn it into a syrup?
- [Mike] Yeah.
- Perfect.
(upbeat music)
Whilst we wait for the scientific part of the experiment
with the reducing of the drink,
shall we just do a (can clicks)
taste test?
- Yeah!
- Yeah.
- It dissipates too quickly.
- Yeah, there's not enough of it to test it.
So we're doing the right thing.
- Yeah, I think so, you need it to be thicker.
This is science, boys.
- The thing is, I have no idea the contents of this drink.
So we could just be reducing it down to nothing.
- It's not sugar free, is it?
- [Mike] It is.
- Zero sugar. (spoon clatters)
- It's zero sugar, we can't make a syrup from zero sugar.
- [Mike] There should be something in it.
- So we've added some sugar because that will help.
- [Barry] That's good.
- We've now got something a bit more syrupy.
- It's hotter than anything else in the world.
Now that is very sticky now.
- [Jamie] Okay.
- Right, cheers. - Cheers.
- Can you taste anything except sweetness?
- I can't taste bacon anymore.
The saltiness brings out all of the
fruity flavours... - Fruity Flavours.
- ...from the bubblegum.
- No way, give us some of that.
- I'm now getting pineapple and banana.
- [Mike] Really? - Yeah.
- I don't want the bit you chewed.
Gimme a fresh bit.
(Jamie laughs)
- It's just a vehicle for salt to unlock more flavours.
- It tastes very sweet.
Very intensely fruity as well.
Slightly artificial.
But then right at the end I go,
"Yeah, that's bubblegum."
But up until that point, I'm like,
ma-ma-ma-ma!
- As an experience, I liked it.
I wouldn't drizzle it over my breakfast,
I don't think, no.
- It's too sweet for me to be
a normal flavour combo that I'd go for.
- So bacon bubblegum as a flavour pairing, does it work?
- It's bacon me happy.
(symbol crashes)
Strangely, yes,
and more than just for the sweet salty combo.
It actually brought out more of the flavours of bubblegum.
- It's helped me understand what bubblegum flavour is.
- Yeah.
- There are only three-days left
to our live streamed event, the Wild Weekender.
Jamie, tell them about it.
- Two-full days of livestream fun
from a house in the countryside.
There's gonna be Pass It On - Kids Takeover,
Pass It On - On Fire, the Olympicnic Games,
Janice's late night pub trivia quiz,
Poker Face Extreme by the pool,
quiz cup brain freeze, Kush skinny dipping,
Kush being a science man,
Ben doing a recipe rumble with Jan,
Ben cooking up Momos,
James Curry doing a sub 10-minute burger challenge,
Mike Huttlestone doing a sub 10-minute burger challenge,
Barry and I reviewing crazy things
that you've sent us in the mail.
I think that might be it.
- The time is running out,
you can get your tickets right now.
Just scan the QR code or the links are downstairs.
You do not want to miss this chaos.
(energetic music)
(upbeat music)
- Okay, next up.
- Apples. - Apples.
- And...
- Pepper.
- Salt and pepper, seasoned apples.
- Seasoned apples.
- Just slices of apples with salt and pepper on them.
Thoughts?
Let's talk about the five tastes,
you've got sweet, salty, sour, umami and bitter.
- Yeah.
- [Mike] Where does an apple sit on that graph?
- Mostly sweet, but not overly sweet.
- Tangy as well, where does the tang come in?
- [Mike] Sour.
- Yeah. - Sour.
It's already well-balanced.
- Green apples are more sour than other varieties.
Go really well with honey.
- Pepper, it's the pepper that's throwing me.
- Pepper, yeah.
- Well, let's try it.
I have no idea what to expect here.
Does an apple need improving?
The internet says yes.
(upbeat music)
- But do you want a control group?
- Control group.
- Very nice
- Science.
- Salty, and then salt and pepper.
- Hang on a second, do you want
control, salt, pepper, salt and pepper?
- Let's do that.
Salty apple, peppery apple.
- Salty...
- And peppery apple.
Doesn't feel right, does it?
- That does feel very strange actually.
- Apple. - Apple.
Tastes like apple.
- Very sweet.
It's like sourness tang there.
- Drying as well.
- [Jamie] Salty.
- I've lost the sourness. - Yeah.
- The sourness has been replaced by saltiness.
- Yeah, but I've still got the sweetness.
- Yeah, less drying because I'm salivating more.
- Yeah, the salt is helping to salivate.
- [Mike] Interesting.
- No better though. - No.
- [Mike] Worse? - Different.
- Yeah, probably worse,
from what I want from an apple (laughs),
you know what I mean?
- When you bite into an apple, you're not going,
"It's missing the salt."
- You're eating an apple
because you want something that isn't salty sometimes.
- The salt is not bringing out more apple flavour.
- [Barry] No.
- It's adding more salt.
- [Jamie] Yes.
- Which is overpowering the sour.
- [Jamie] Yes. - Interesting.
- I'm not sure about this one.
It's fragrant.
- I actually quite like that.
- I quite like pepper.
- It's adding the slight spiciness to it.
- Yeah.
- [Jamie] So you're getting a bit more savoriness.
- Sour and the pepper are working together
to make something spicy.
Getting less sweetness this time.
- Yeah, definitely less sweetness.
- The sweetness, that's weird,
the sweetness is gone,
you're now left with sour and heat,
and you get a little woo!
- But still not as drying...
- No. - ... as just on its own.
- Wow, group four, this is the one.
- Where are we gonna go?
- [Mike] This is the internet one.
Shut your mouth.
Shut up!
No, gimme some of that.
- The pepper and the salt are now balancing out the flavours.
And you're getting a bit of sweetness, a bit of sourness,
a bit of heat now.
- Yeah.
- Do you like it?
- I really like it.
- Give us a bit.
- You gotta go through...
- [Mike] No!
- You've gotta go on the journey.
- Give him a good one.
- Because now, this is an even more scientific test.
I'm a placebo for group one, two, and three.
- You know what it reminds me of is a crisp thing.
- Yeah, it's like a crisp,
you know when you get the root vegetable crisps.
- Cider vinegar crisp. - Yeah.
- That is exactly what it's like.
- Yeah, like a crisp.
- That's mad.
- Yeah, cider vinegar. - Cider vinegar.
- A little bit less pepper.
- Yeah, the pepper is quite spicy.
- It's quite overpowering.
So if you reduce the pepper a little bit less,
everything works in harmony.
The sweet, the spiced, the salty and the sour.
- We lifted the coche...
- I know you were underwhelmed.
- Massively, I was like, "This is not gonna work."
- You have removed my scepticism.
Maybe the internet is a good place.
(Mike laughs)
- You can create a tarte tatin,
and finish it with salt and pepper.
- Yeah.
- You could do something really interesting
with that in a dish.
- You put apples in the salad, don't you, sometimes?
- Yeah, like Waldorf. - Yeah.
- A peppery olive oil.
- Look at us.
- If a chef was here, they'd be going,
"Well obviously." - Yeah, exactly.
That's why this is so much better.
(all laugh)
- [Narrator] If you are enjoying this,
there are some small things you can do
to make a big difference to us.
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Thanks.
(upbeat music)
- Flavour combo number three.
Lift the cloche on number one.
- [Barry] Ready? - [Jamie] Go for it.
- Glass of coffee. - Coffee.
It's coffee.
- [Barry] Hang on a minute.
- It just sounds like breakfast.
- Yeah.
Side by side, never as one.
- On a plate and in a cup.
- Avocado is not an offensive flavour.
It's a creamy texture that goes with most things.
- You know when I say things taste red,
I feel like avocado tastes creamy green.
- Yeah, creamy green.
- Does creamy green go with coffee,
which we know is bitter?
- I'm not convinced by this one at all.
- No.
- Seeing as we are three basic (bleep),
why don't we take a slice, dunk it, eat.
- No!
- And then I'm gonna get you to do something cool with it.
(upbeat music)
I feel we might run into the same issue
that we did with the bubblegum soda,
which is by the time you've tasted both together,
the coffee's dissipated.
It's probably a stronger flavour.
But, hey, as we're here, first steps,
give it a dunk, give it a taste, see what we get,
and then we'll try something else.
(Barry and Jamie laugh)
- It's really slippy.
- [Mike] No!
- I got it, come back.
It's got latte vibes in terms of it's creamy,
it's coffee-y.
- But the bitterness of coffee isn't outweighed
by the creaminess of the avocado,
'cause avocado's not sweet,
so it's not counteracting the bitterness,
it's just adding a creamy texture to coffee.
- Yeah.
If you blend the avocado up with the coffee and add...
- [Jamie] (bleep)
- I know. - That's really slippy.
- [Mike] Keep going, Baz.
- And add in some sweetness, I could see you can make
some sort of supernatural....
(record scratches)
- Supernatural?
- No, you can make some sort of...
- You started so well and the you just...
- No, you can make some sort of super berry...
- It is actually an Indonesian drink called Jus Alpukat,
which is a coffee drink which combines milk,
sweetened condensed milk, fresh avocados,
and strong espresso.
Shall we try a version of that?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I think this will make sense.
Let's do it.
- It didn't work on its own,
so I'm hoping that this does work.
- [Mike] Four shots of coffee, half an avocado,
condensed milk and milk in equal measure,
and some vanilla paste.
So this is a take on the Indonesian drink, Jus Alpukat,
which I'm 100% mispronouncing, terribly sorry.
Please don't take it offensively.
- I don't think the avocado's gonna add much flavour to this,
'cause there's so much flavour from the coffee
and the condensed milk.
I think it'll make it extra creamy.
- Cool.
(mixer hums)
(glasses clink)
How does it smell?
- Lot of coffee.
- Sweet coffee. - Sweet coffee.
- Not getting any avocado.
Oh, quite like that.
- So I'm still definitely getting
the bitterness of the coffee, that's still coming through
in a way that you wouldn't have in a normal latte
or milky coffee drink.
- The sweetness is all coming from the condensed milk.
We're so used to having coffees with syrups and so on,
that's actually quite a savoury...
- Yeah. - ...coffee,
even though there's condensed milk in it.
- I'll tell you what it reminds me of, Michael,
it reminds me of Matcha.
- Yeah, okay.
- So I'm getting like the grassy-ness,
the earthiness.
- Without the drying.
- And it adds that creamy smoothness
right at the end, doesn't it?
But I can't taste the flavour of avocado.
- No. - No.
- But I know it's there,
having watched it gone in, obviously.
- I eat a lot of avocado,
and the flavour avocado comes out when you add salt to it,
especially in the UK, we don't get flavoursome avocados.
- I'm just thinking.
- So now we're moving into territory
of the seasoning triangle, sweet, salt, acid.
- Does help, doesn't it?
- It does help.
- Does help make it taste more...
- Avocadoy?
- Not avocadoy, more rounded.
- It does benefit from a little bit of salt.
- Flavour, 80% aroma, 20% taste.
That taste has to be balanced.
And that's when we use the seasoning triangle
to help balance the taste.
It's almost like after 13-years we're learning.
- Maybe we didn't need Ebbers after all.
- We've literally just figured it out for ourselves.
- Yeah.
- Avocado and coffee as a flavour combination,
do they work?
- Avocado and coffee are two flavours that don't not work,
but they don't compliment each other,
they don't add anything new at all.
- No.
- They need a supporting cast
in order to shine.
- [Barry] Yeah. - [Jamie] Yeah.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, final combination.
- Cool.
- [Mike] Lift the cloche on on ingredient number one.
- I'm gonna go soy.
- He has nailed it.
- It's only bloody soy.
Soy sauce with...
- So soy sauce we know salty used to season stuff.
Vanilla ice cream, so you've got vanilla,
which is sweet, aromatic, floral, fruity.
- So that's also poured over, you're asking me,
it seems a bit too much to me.
- Don't you think temperature plays a part in this.
But when something's colder it tastes of less,
you get less from it.
- It might take away too much of the sweetness
of the ice cream.
- Lots of people say you shouldn't have whiskey cold.
You shouldn't put an ice cube in whiskey or other spirits
because you'll numb the flavours of the spirit.
I wonder with this, are we numbing the flavour of vanilla
by having it in ice cream?
- You think that might bring the flavour of vanilla out more?
- Yeah. - Interesting.
- Question is, is that soy sauce gonna bring out
more of the vanilla flavour of the ice cream
or the sweetness?
(playful music)
- Clotted cream.
- That is clotted cream ice cream, mmm.
- I really don't want ruin it.
We're going for a little drizzle of soy sauce
on one of the balls.
We're not fully committing yet.
- No.
- When I see it, I look at it and go, ooh!
- Syrup. - Yeah, coffee syrup.
- Lovely, cheers.
- No, no!
Oh, gets better.
- Gets better.
(all laugh loudly)
- [Mike] That is a journey.
- That is a long journey to go on though,
'cause when you go...
- It is (laughs).
- When you put it in your mouth,
and you're instantly soy sauce.
Soy sauce, and you go, oh,
and now that soy sauce is really cold,
and then the soy dissipates
and you're left with the creamy ice cream.
- It's a journey to go on,
but the first part of the journey is so uncomfortable,
I'm not sure it's worth it.
- I would describe that as getting cramps.
(all laugh)
You're walking along and you're fine,
suddenly, oh, worst pain in the world for two-seconds,
then it dies down and you're like, ah, amazing.
But did you need to do it in first place?
- [Barry] This will be fun.
(Barry and Jamie laugh)
It's using a tiny little amount of the soy sauce,
because for me I was getting salted caramel vibes,
but there was too much soy sauce,
so therefore I was getting a really miserable journey.
But then turning into something really cool.
- It's like a punch in the face,
and then, here have some nice ice cream.
- It's given me an idea.
So it's reminded me of something that I think could work,
'cause it's playing off the same stuff, the same flavour.
Drizzle it like chocolate sauce.
- Oh God, I hate Marmite.
- I love Marmite.
I can't do it, can you undo it, Jamie, for me.
Double dad.
- Barry, Barry, Barry!
- [Barry] As it gets cold it doesn't quite...
- [Jamie] It doesn't drizz.
- This is extreme, based of the same logic,
I think this might work and create
a more pleasurable experience for me,
'cause I like Marmite.
- This ice cream is made from clotted cream.
Clotted cream is generally used like butter on a scone.
Butter is what you put on toast.
You've made Marmite on toast without the bread.
You're gonna make me try this, aren't you?
- Well, you don't have to.
- It's science.
- Just inch on the sauce
- Oh! (spoon clatters)
No, 'cause what happens is the ice cream
makes the Marmite hard,
and then it gets stuck in your teeth
and it won't disappear.
- So what happens (laughs) is as the journey goes,
it's the other way round.
(Jamie chokes)
It starts off really nice,
because you get all the ice cream,
and then Marmite just kind of disappears
until the ice cream goes,
you're left with just pure Marmite.
(Jamie groans)
And if you like Marmite, it was worth the wait,
if you don't like Marmite, (bleep) journey.
- I reckon that's interesting enough
and transformative enough
to possibly be able to use in other recipes,
because you think you've gotta create caramel, add salt,
then add that to something.
Well, if you can add a tiny amount of soy sauce
to something sweet and get salted caramel vibes,
then that's a shortcut.
It's just one ingredient added.
- It provides layers.
- It's seasoning, not a flavour.
- Yes.
- Whereas that is an abomination.
- Quite like it.
- I think with all of them today,
it's that thing where looking at ingredients
as the job that they are doing,
rather than this tastes of apple,
and then finding something else that
does another job to pair with it
that can either elevate it or compliment it.
And that's what I don't do often enough at home.
- No, 'cause you're normal.
You ask anybody, "What does an apple taste like?"
- Tastes like an apple.
- Yeah, it's a silly question
until you break it down and then you can play with it.
- Yeah, the apple was the best one.
- Salt and pepper and apple, the best one, by a long way.
- Well, if you thought this video was simple, yet effective
please like it.
And also use the comment section to tell us
other flavour combinations that you've heard
may work for us to test next time,
and we shall do show, so.
(dramatic music)