When we talk about food combinations, there are our all-time favorites like burger and fries, peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, pasta and cheese, butter and corn, and many more.
But we bet that this duo wouldn’t ring a bell for your taste buds…
May we present the odd combination of chili and cinnamon rolls.
It is definitely not the usual food tandem that you’d have in mind. Though you might have plenty of good sweet and savory combinations on your list, this one is out of the books- or is it really?
Most people see it as an odd combination, but not for the Midwesterners. To them, eating cinnamon rolls alongside chili is normal.
Yes, you read that right, they are used to eating those sweet and fluffy buns together with hot bowls of chili on their tables. Especially now that the weather is getting colder, this is just a perfect combination for them.
Did you know?
The chili and cinnamon rolls combo is not new at all, well at least, not for the people in the Midwest.
As written in an article in the Des Moines Register, back in 1944, a single mother of seven kids named Marietta Abarr worked as a school cook in the small southwest Iowa town of Clearfield.
Today I learned that people from Iowa dip cinnamon rolls into their chili. I am shook. pic.twitter.com/okdSKZ6AnH
— Whitley Ellison (@WhitleyLSN) September 24, 2017
To support her family, she worked on and off at the school for over three decades.
Marietta Abarr then became a local legend for her meals. In the fall of 1987, almost 200 people gathered to celebrate “Marietta Abarr Day.”
From all of her made-from-scratch meals, one stood out.
It became popularly known and hailed as the town’s all-time favorite. It was none other than chili and cinnamon rolls.
That is just one history about chili and cinnamon rolls.
Another one was way back in the 60s when some parts of Nebraska, Colorado, and Washington also served the same meal in their schools.
Darcy Maulsby, a writer, historian, and an author of A Culinary History of Iowa said:
“In the areas where this has pairing has been a beloved school lunch for generations, it has never gone out of style. This is certainly true in parts of Iowa, where this magical combination seems to be most prevalent, including my hometown of Lake City, Iowa.”
It’s a school meal favorite!
There’s nothing fancy about the preparation of this meal. Just like usual, you prepare a chili of your preference and pair it with cinnamon rolls. But for starters (like me), it’s highly recommended that they prepare beef chili.
As for the cinnamon rolls, there are still debates as to which type of sweet roll is best for such a combination.
Again, it all depends on your taste, there are no limitations when it comes to flavor and ingredients.
You are all probably wondering right now, how do you eat it?
Is there really a proper way to eat it? I am wondering too!
Well, we know now that it’s a school meal from back in the day, so we are guessing that they bite off a portion of the roll and dunk it into their chili cups.
We’re sure that kids back in the day were also playful, so it’s most likely that they ate it that way, or maybe not?
However, according to Maulsby, most Iowans eat them separately. She would finish her chili cup first, then enjoy her rolls after. So it is almost safe to say that the cinnamon roll is her dessert.
She also thinks that this combination is people’s way of reinventing home menus, “it reflects people’s interest in authentic food experiences and discovering foods that are connected to a specific region.”
Others, however, like to dunk chunks of their cinnamon rolls right into the chili, letting the sweet and savory combination explode in flavor when it hits their taste buds.
So, really, how you consume this Midwestern dish comes down to you and your preferences.
Below is a video made by a famous food vlogger, watch it to see how it’s done.
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