Secret Ingredients

Over a lifetime of cooking and ever-increasing study of food, I have found that certain ingredients just love each other. When trying various things to make a dish work, certain flavorants work with the main ingredient to bring it alive, make it taste more like itself. Sort of like an additional note resolving a chord. Below are some of the pairings I have found. Some are cooked in with the main ingredient, others are added as sauce or garnish. What are some others you have discovered?

Fruit dishes

Apples: cinnamon
Berries in trifle: Galliano liqueur
Cherries: almond extract
Oranges: Galliano or Amaretto
Peaches: mace

Meat dishes

Beef: garlic; horseradish
Beef Stew: porter or barley
Fish, battered: malt vinegar
Fish, naked: dill
Ham: mustard
Pork, generally: apples
Venison: garlic; rosemary

Veggie dishes

Greens: bacon grease
Leeks: bacon
Peas: pepper
Pinto beans: cumin
Potatoes, boiled: parsley
Potatoes, fried: ketchup
Stir-fry: ginger
Tomatoes: basil

Other combinations

Chocolate: bourbon
Pancakes: vanilla