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Waiter, there's a hog in my forest

Waiter, there's a hog in my forest

what grows together goes together

Dennis Lee's avatar
Dennis Lee
Jun 06, 2025
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Food is Stupid
Food is Stupid
Waiter, there's a hog in my forest
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Hi, clowns!

This week, we are traipsing through the forest. No, we are not foraging to play a little game I like to call “mushroom roulette,” we are actually wandering through the Black Forest of Germany.

Even though the Black Forest sounds like a place where Baba Yaga would have a wonderful little summer cottage, it’s also a locale that has inspired all sorts of interesting foods, some of which we enjoy in America. One of them is a delicious lunch meat, Black Forest ham, which was created in 1959 by a fine gentleman named Hans Adler, who used to send these hams by mail order. Who doesn’t love forest-flavored ham? (That’s what it is, isn’t it?)

Then, there is Black Forest gateau, aka Black Forest cake. It is that very nice chocolate cake with cherries, Kirsch (cherry brandy), whipped cream, and shaved chocolate on top. Black Forest cake is Davida’s birthday cake of choice, in case you celebrate her birthday (as you should).

In very sophisticated food culture, there is a saying that goes, “What grows together, goes together.” That means, using some sort of childlike logic, if ingredients are cultivated near each other, they should theoretically pair well.

Since both Black Forest ham and cake originate from the same geographical region, these two things would then make a good flavor coupling. I mean, food experts even have a cute saying about it. That is why I decided to incorporate Black Forest ham into a Black Forest cupcake by using a very special method — I’d turn it into a surprise filling.

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