Beer As A Ingedrient- It Just Makes Sense

Cooking with beer makes sense: not only is it more flavorful than water, but it’s also more flavorful than any store-bought chicken stock and less ethically objectionable as well. And unlike wine or liquor, you can substitute beer cup-for-cup for stock or water when you’re braising or making soup. Yet like wine, beer is acidic, which comes in handy when you’re baking quick bread, cake or fried foods, because you need a little acidity to activate baking soda.

In fact, beer’s flavors are arguably more varied and complex than any ready-made liquid besides wine. And like bread, to which it’s closely related, beer loves to team with meat, cheese and strong flavors like onions, garlic and spices.

I knew all this in theory, and I had done some work on these things before contacting Garrett. For starters, I wanted to make a beer bread; a basic quick bread with whole-wheat flour and a little cornmeal. I had experimented with this a couple of times and loved both the ridiculously easy method (stir, pour, bake) and the finished loaf’s tender crumb and warm, yeasty flavor. (Yeast bread with no yeast. Interesting.)

Similarly, I had made carnitas — that irresistible Mexican pork shoulder braised for hours with spices, then fried in its own fat until crisp — with beer as the braising liquid, but I wanted further guidance. Lastly, a kind of old-fashioned cheddar-beer soup is less my style, but still intriguing — I was eager to try that as well. Most versions of this soup contain copious amounts of cream in addition to the cheese, but I was confident I could come up with a version using cauliflower to provide the velvety body.

The dishes I made were good but could be better; the difference could be the right beers. So I consulted Garrett, and he did not disappoint. In fact, he was so specific that I had to ask him for common substitutions for those of us who are not fanatics (see the recipes).

For the bread, he suggested a doppelbock (double bock), often referred to as liquid bread: a semisweet, supermalty, high-alcohol beer whose aroma reminds you of bread baking in an oven. Belgian wheat beer (witbier), he said, would be best for the carnitas, because these beers are often spiced with coriander and bitter orange, obviously akin to braised meat, Mexican-style; they are also a little sour, which lends the meat a nice complexity.

Finally, for the soup, he had me use Belgian dark abbey ale (and plugged his own, but, hey — we owe him that), whose yeast strain, he said, “has its own funky sulfurous quality and caramel notes” that show off both cauliflower and cheese nicely.

It’s delicious, but frankly this all gets a little over my head. You can use any full-bodied, full-flavored beer in any of these recipes. Rheingold, you’ll be pleased to know, is back on the market with a reformed recipe.

Easy Beer And Chocolate Pairing W/Chocolove

A few months ago I mentioned my new found love for chocolate and beer.

In that post, I explained how a gift of gourmet chocolate to my girlfriend woke me up to a world not too different from the beer world: mainstream crappy products sprinked with delicious gems.

I entered this unexplored world excited but a total noob, so I asked my chocolatier friend Jenny to help me out:

“Jenny”, I said, “What is some chocolate that isn’t hard to find, not too expensive, but is a good introduction to gourmet chocolate?”

“Chocolove”, she replied.

Chocolove: The Sierra Nevada of Chocolate
In that last post my buddy Rob commented that Godiva is like Sierra Nevada. I think that analogy can apply to Chocolove as well.

It’s high quality, reliable, and easy to find. It’s not quite Russian River (I don’t even know who the Russian River of chocolate is), but I just wanted something good and approachable for now.

You can find Chocolove all over the country and in any Whole Foods. You might even recognize the label as I did.

There are 18 different varieties so I knew there was a lot of fun to be had in pairing these up with beer. I also had a good variety of homebrew on hand so that is what I used.

I ended up trying 4 Chocolove varieties:

Rich Dark Chocolate
Paired with: Russian Imperial Stout

The dark chocolate bar is 65% cocoa which isn’t too high, but it definitely has a bit of an edge. I have a 90% bar that I’ve been nibbling on for 4 months. Now THAT is intense.

I needed a beer that could stand up to the intensity of the chocolate and had the perfect one for the job: my homebrewed imperial stout. The two paired well together but the chocolate didn’t stand a chance against the beer. I left it on oak for way too long and it tastes like a wooden plank. Hey not all the beer I brew is great ; )

The chocolate itself is good but a little uninteresting. I’d rather keep nibbling on that delicious 90% bar that I have than eat a whole bar of this.

Still, dark chocolate and imperial stout = win.

Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate
Paired with: American Wheat

I admit it – I got the idea for this pairing from those people that put orange in their wheat beers. But they like it for a reason, right?

The two actually did go well together. In fact, I wasn’t a huge fan of the citrus & chocolate combination but with the beer I really enjoyed it. I made the beer dry and a fairly acidic which had a good cleansing effect on the palate.

There’s something about citrus and wheat beer afterall.

Almonds & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate
Paired with: English Brown Ale

Now this shit is gooood. I was skeptical about the salt in the chocolate but it tastes amazing.

You know how salt makes you eat things faster? And how you can put down almonds rapid fire? Yea this chocolate bar didn’t last long….

The pairing with the English Brown Ale was perfect. The sweet caramel flavors from the beer really complimented the chocolate well, and the almonds in the chocolate brought out the nuttiness in the beer.

Raspberries in Dark Chocolate
Paired with:Raspberry Wheat

Another holy shitter. I was really expecting the raspberry to taste artificialbut it’s like they were picked yesterday.

The raspberry is rich, fresh, and it’s no surprise that raspberry pairs well with chocolate.

I was fortunate to have a few raspberry wheat beers left in my stash. The pairing was OK, but the wheat base wasn’t the best choice. If it were say a raspberry porter, then it would have worked out better. Hmmm a raspberry porter….

My favorites
The Chocolove bars stacked up as follows:

Salt and almonds
Raspberries
Orange Peel
Dark Chocolate

I recommend all of the pairings I tried, except maybe the raspberry wheat with raspberry chocolate. A standard porter would probably work better.

If you’re looking to get more into good chocolate then try these Chocolove bars.

Beer And Food Pairing

When suitably paired, delicious beers and incredible food really bring out the best in one another. As with wine, there are certain combinations that accentuate flavors and add depth and dimension to your meal. As you begin exploring which beer styles and flavors work well together, there are a few basic principles you should keep in mind.

1. Choose a beer that can stand up to the flavor of the food you're eating. If the beer will get lost completely, choose another style.

2. Don't necessarily try to pair beers with foods of the same flavor profile. Think of flavors that compliment rather than resemble one another.

3. Don't be afraid to try pairing styles with foods that other people might not recommend; at the end of the day, all that matters is which combinations taste good on your own palate.