1. Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Created when: During WWI, in the 1920s.
Created by: American housewives, trying to pinch pennies. White bread, American cheese, and condensed tomato soup were all cheap, even during the war.
Nothing is better on a cold day than a perfect pairing of crispy, melty cheese and creamy soup.
2. Salt and Caramel
Created when: Popularized in the early 1990s.
Created by: Traditional French dessert, popularized by pastry chef Pierre Hermé.
A sprinkle of salt makes the buttery caramel flavor even sweeter and richer, aka even more impossible to stop eating.
3. Peanut Butter and Jelly
Created when: 1901.
Created by: Julia Davis Chandler, in the Boston Cooking-School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics.
Every time you think you're mis-remembering how good the PB&Js of your youth were, make yourself one. They. Are. Flawless.
4. Wine and Cheese
Created when: As early as 6,000 B.C.
Created by: Wine merchants, who used the adage "Buy on apples and sell on cheese," meaning wine is at a disadvantage taken with raw apple, but tastes its best with cheese.
The fattiness of cheese showcases the acidity of wine to its best advantage, because cheese is like the superhero of foods. It can do anything.
5. Espresso and Chocolate
Created when: The 18th Century.
Created by: The Caffè Al Bicerin, the arguable creators of the Italian drink bicerin, which layered milk, drinking chocolate, and espresso.
Whether it's in a warm mocha or a handful of crunchy chocolate-covered beans, the sweetness of chocolate matches the bitterness of espresso punch for punch.
6. Eggs and Bacon
Created when: Originated in the late 1800s among wealthy landowners, popularized in the 1920s.
Created by: Popularized by PR man Edward Bernays as a doctor-recommended breakfast in order to boost bacon sales.
You like fried eggs? Fry an egg in leftover bacon grease, and never go back to your old heathen ways.
7. Chocolate and Peanut Butter
Created when: 1922.
Created by: H. B. Reese.
Nothing else need be said about this marriage of the gods.
8. Caramel and Popcorn
Created when: 1893.
Created by: F.W. Rueckheim, the brother of Louis Rueckheim (who invented Cracker Jack in 1896).
The saltiness of the popcorn perfectly offsets the sweetness of the caramel. Double super extra bonus? The caramel binds clumps of corn into perfect bite-sized bits.
9. Chicken and Waffles
Created when: 1790s.
Created by: Thomas Jefferson, by some accounts, when he brought a waffle iron back from France.
Waffles? Why, yes, thank you. AND CHICKEN? *head explodes from happiness*
10. Ice Cream and Hot Fudge
Created when: 1892.
Created by: Though it is hotly debated, John M. Scott and Chester Platt of Ithaca, NY have the earliest printed record of a sundae.
Cold ice cream paired with warm, thick fudge is food temperature nirvana.
Captain and Cola
Created when: 1944
Created by: Lovers of flavor everywhere.
The spiced rum picks up the sweetness of the soda and turns it into a mouth party.