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Monday, January 21, 2008

Salt

There's just something about the savor of salt in the midst of sweet. I'm enjoying a dark chocolate-covered pretzel, one of the last of a small box my wife got me for Christmas, the product of a local chocolatier, Newtown Chocolates (if you're local, they're worth a trip: very nice). I don't know if chocolate-covered pretzels are a Pennsylvania thing, but if they are, the rest of you are missing something. The crunch of the pretzel is great, the dark chocolate is delish, but the thing that makes it is the unexpected hit of salt in the middle when I bite a crystal on the pretzel. It makes the whole sweetness even better, even tastier.

I get the same thing in my wife's state fair-winning molasses cookies (really, they were, she was in 4H). Your basic molasses cookie is good, but the small dose of salt in hers makes things all the more so.

If you're waiting for me to turn this into something on beer or whiskey, I don't have it. I was eating a chocolate pretzel, and thought about how the salt contrast works with Cathy's molasses cookies too, and here we are. Maybe there's something about how the bitter and sweet in beer work, or the sweet and tannic components of whiskey come together...but right now? I'm just finishing up my pretzel.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How very random! Will Cathy share the recipe for those molasses nuggets?

Anonymous said...

I've picked up Herr's Chocolate covered pretzels, Chocolate covered potato chips and Chocolate covered peanut-butter filled pretzels on various occasions and also liked the salty-sweet combo.

But I absolutely love Stutz's (PA product)versions of these as well.

Lew Bryson said...

Good call, Bill -- Stutz's makes some very nice candy.

Lew Bryson said...

I'll ask her, Sam: she's kinda cautious with how she hands it out.

Matt said...

Right on Lew! The only thing that makes a pretzel hand-dipped in dark chocolate better is if you then roll it around in almond pieces.

Boak said...

The nicest icecream I ever had contained salted peanuts and chocolate sauce. It just works.