Cooking With Beer
Mary Vuong of the Houston Chronicle talks to chefs and brewers about how cooking with beer can enhance the flavor of food. But if beer is so great to cook with or in food pairings, why does everyone always choose wine? "Marketing, Wagner replies. "Beer historically has done a lousy job" of selling itself as a serious beverage. People associate it with hot dogs, pizza, buffalo wings, bikini-clad women, juvenile humor, sporting events — nothing that suggests you stop and appreciate the drink."
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2 Comments:
I've been making a stew with the broth consisting mainly of 2 bottles of young's double chocolate stout. toss in some brown sugar and slice up a jalepeno pepper for a little spice, and i've never had a complaint yet!
big fan of cooking with any and all alcohol!
goat at 9:42AM on 03/16/07
Harry from Schnack here.. We are know for our Beer Milk Shake and we are also known to braise short ribs with very hoppy amber beer like Sam Adams. Cooking with beer is an area that is barely been touched. Esp. the way various hops can flavor and perfume a dish.
That said, I think cooking with Beer is very different that pairing food with Beer. I come from the school that says you can put almost anything with anything else.. But there are so many levels to wine from price, to taste, from sweet to acidity that really makes it easy to pair with. Beer has it's range but it's not as well known.
We also cellar some beer esp. World Wide Stout and Aprihop from Dogfish Head; a year or two in the bottle can really make a difference. I think the idea of putting away beer for a few years, or 10 or 20 would sound very odd to most people. On the other hand, I think most would except that wine should have at least some age to it. Then again I’m known for favoring Madeira made in the mid 1800's and early 1900's.
Chef Hawk at 4:00PM on 03/16/07