Unusual food combinations Reddit users have championed range from the mildly adventurous to the genuinely baffling, and a recent dive through the platform’s threads turned up eleven pairings that people insist are worth trying. Some play straightforward flavour logic; others defy it entirely.
Pineapple on pizza and fries dipped in milkshakes have long since crossed into the mainstream. The combinations surfacing on Reddit right now are operating in rather different territory.
The Unusual Food Combinations Reddit Keeps Coming Back To
Several of the pairings lean on the sweet-salty axis, which at least gives them a structural logic. Pineapple with soy sauce is perhaps the most defensible: the salt in the sauce pulls against the fruit’s natural sweetness and pushes the whole thing towards teriyaki territory. Whether you eat the pineapple fresh or take it to the grill first is a separate debate.
Blue cheese and gingersnaps work on a similar principle. The salt and funk of the cheese set against the warm spice of the biscuit is, when you think it through, not far removed from a well-assembled cheese board. The problem is that nobody assembles it intentionally.
Oreos dunked in orange juice have their own following too. Given that Oreo has already produced apple pie- and chicken-and-waffles-flavoured versions of its classic cookie, a citrus pairing feels almost conservative by comparison. The flavour logic is essentially a homemade Creamsicle, which is harder to argue with than it first sounds.
Minnesota Sushi and Other Combinations With Devoted Followings
One combination on the list has already earned a proper name and a regional identity. Minnesota sushi wraps pickles in cream cheese and sliced ham, a snack that has developed a devoted following in the Midwest. The name is partly a joke, partly a badge of pride. It is, at minimum, more structurally sound than several others on this list.
Peanut butter appears in a surprising number of these combinations. It turns up alongside onion and tomato in a sandwich that positions itself as competition for the Elvis (peanut butter, banana and bacon). It also appears in a separate thread pairing it with tomato soup, a combination that draws a loose comparison to Panang curry, the roasted nuttiness of the peanut butter playing off the acidity of the tomato. Both pairings have found their advocates.
Mac and cheese with apple sauce sounds chaotic until you remember that cheddar on apple pie is a documented American tradition. This is essentially the same flavour pairing in a messier format. Strawberries with guacamole follow a related line of thinking: avocado is technically a fruit, lime and salt are already present, and soft strawberries are not an enormous leap from there.
Mushroom fettuccine with grated dark chocolate is the combination most likely to split the table. Dark chocolate and mushrooms do share an earthy, slightly nutty quality, so there is at least a flavour rationale. It still sounds like something invented under duress.
Bananas with ranch dressing and a sandwich built from crunchy peanut butter, iceberg lettuce and Miracle Whip round out the list. The ranch combination asks you to trust that the dressing’s tang and creaminess can find common ground with banana’s sweetness. The sandwich, meanwhile, reads like a refrigerator audit rather than a recipe, though crunchy, tangy, creamy and sweet in one bite is not an incoherent brief.
The full collection of threads is browsable on Delish, which compiled the Reddit findings. Whether any of them make it onto a weekly meal plan is a different question, but Minnesota sushi at least appears to have cleared that bar for a sizeable number of people already.