Certain foods should never be burned. Obviously, burnt fish is a tragedy. And if you burn a perfectly good steak then it should be a national law that you get flogged with it. That being said, some foods not only taste good burnt, they actually taste better then if they were cooked “properly.” Below, in descending order, are the top seven foods that taste better when you burn their tops off. So instead of viewing the scorching of your cuisine as a mistake, look at it as a purposeful, culinary technique to enhance the flavor profile.

7) Burnt Brussels Sprouts – Burning your Brussels sprouts to a crisp is not only the best way to eat them, it’s really the only way. Brussels sprouts need a lot of help in the taste department and burning them to within an inch of their life is a sure fire way to enjoy them.

6) Burnt Marshmallows – It’s obvious that toasted marshmallows are WAY better than marshmallows straight out of the bag, but a completely blackened marshmallow is even better than a toasted one. In fact, you can’t burn a marshmallow enough. The only way to improve on that taste is to eat the burnt marshmallow when it is actually still on fire.

5) Burnt Ends – These are the ends cut from a smoked brisket and they are a godsend. Considered by many to be a delicacy of Kansas BBQ, and those many would be right. Seriously, you could just spend hours smoking a brisket to perfection, cut off the burnt ends and dump the rest in the trash. Burnt ends are where the true happiness lies.

4) Burnt Chocolate Chip Cookies – To be fair, chocolate chip cookies are amazing no matter how you make them, but a burnt one gets the slight edge here. There’s just something about a chocolate chip cookie that has been completely charred that is so comforting – it reminds one of home (if you were in a home where cookies were constantly being burnt).

3) Burnt Potato Chips – A true rarity to find a burnt potato chip in an entire bag, but when you do hold on to them as if they were gold – burnt gold. The smoky blackness of burnt potato chips gives them an extra crispness and – dare I say – an umami that all other “normal” chips lack.

2) Burnt Cheese – Every reheat a pizza in the oven and the cheese gets all burnt on the tray? Who doesn’t love peeling off those blackened nuggets of dairy goodness? Most of the time it’s better than the actual pizza itself.

1) Burnt Chicken Wings – The best part of a chicken becomes the best food of all time when it’s been burnt to high hell. All of that charred skin and crunchy bone and blackened cartilage – that’s just a big bag of yum.  Popping an entire burnt chicken wing into your mouth is more addicting than popcorn…which of course we all know tastes terrible burnt.