As National Ambassador for Kelly’s Jelly, one of my tasks is to find interesting ways to pair our Award-winning jellies and preserves with specialty foods… a task I gladly accept and intend to master…
This past week, we partnered with Kitchen Table Bakers to taste different pairing choices with their Award-Winning 100% Parmesan Mini Crisps…
KTB’s Mini Crisps are created using a proprietary blend of 100% parmesan cheeses made with rBST-free milk. These crisps are slow-baked in ovens (not in microwaves) to coax out the complexity of the cheese. The seasonings are top quality; the crisps are gluten-free, sugar-free healthy snacks with calcium and 7 grams of protein in every serving, which is about 15 mini crisps.
The three mini crisps flavors we tasted in the pairings were the aged parmesan, sesame flavor and jalapeno flavor. My favorite is the sesame; The Man chose the Jalapeno and Miss Anne aka mom chose the original aged parm crisps.
We paired the aged parm and the sesame with all eight of Kelly’s Jellies and Preserves; four spicy jellies and four seasonal preserves. Kelly’s Jellies are all natural, GMO-free and clean made in small batches with locally sourced seasonal fruits. Pairing savory and sweet plus sweet and spicy makes for a difficult decision when choosing favorites. Each of us had a couple of favorite pairings:
100% Aged Parmesan Mini Crisps: 2016 Good Food Award-Winner Habanero, Strawberry and Habanero, Marion Berry and Habanero and Pineapple and Jalapeno – note, all sweet and spicy. While each jelly paired well, we found the spice brought out a layering of flavor notes that set those pairings apart… or as Emeril would say… kicked these pairings up a notch…
Sesame Parmesan Mini Crisps: Here we split our choices evenly between the spicy jellies and the seasonal preserves: Again, the Habanero was our first pairing choice, followed closely by the Pineapple and Habanero, Tayberry and Marion Berry Seasonal Preserves.
Jalapeno Mini Crisps: Because these crisps abundantly explode with Jalapeno flavor, we found the seasonal preserves paired better than the spicy jellies… gotta save as many taste buds as possible for future tastings… Claiming first choice was the Blueberry-Lemon Preserves, the lemon notes played well with the jalapeno. The Tayberry was also a favorite
for Miss Anne and The Man swooned over the Marion Berry Preserves. The Strawberry Preserves with the Jalapeno flavor also made our favorites list.
Please check out my earlier reviews of KTB’s Parmesan Crisps here and here. KTB now offers more than ten flavors in addition to their original 100% parmesan crisps.
As mentioned above, Barry Novick and the fine folks at Kitchen Table Bakers partnered with Kelly’s Jelly to create these pairings; there was no pro quid pro; just the generosity of fine quality specialty food producers getting together to produce some fun pairings.
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