Do you cook with beer?

I’ll echo many of the same sentiments here. I use beer for brats/sausages, stews can get bigger beers for flavor, beer helps for batters for breading things and in cakes, and I’ll blend stouts into ice cream.

 

We have had great success with tenderizing meat and continue to use leftover saison for best results with steaks, and with slow cooker prepared stews. The latter gets particularly good results as it maintains liquidity over several hours in the slow cooker/crockpot.

Over many years, we have also obtained good results from barleywines, mixed culture wild ales including flavoured ones and from Belgians. Lagers not so tasty. Hoppy beers a big no-no, seems to impart bitterness and of course freshness is an overriding concern.

All of the above are through bottles properly closed to prevent evaporation of flavour. Cans, even with exchanging them into mason jars have not held up more than one day.

 

I use outdated ales to brine turkey breasts and pork chops. I also braised endive a few times with blonde ale when cooking for vegans. In the Good Food of Belgium cookbook by Louis Willems he calls for Rodenbach Grand Cru in his carbonade. I couldn’t bring myself to cook with that, don’t remember what similar ale I substituted.

 

Any reason that you specified ales, thus leaving lagers out of the picture?

 

Like most, the dishes I have made using beer have already been mentioned, predominately chili, select stews and brat simmering. There is also a fair number of beers consumed as part of smoking meats but I haven't personally braised with beer directly (in fairness, it all ends up in the same place).

 

I have done a little cooking with beer. Made a few beer breads using Belgian blondes and pancakes work well with this too.

My favourite dish I've done with beer so far is a porter braised brisket. Only done it a few times so still tweaking the recipe.

 

I'll add a light lager to my chilli and it gives it this amazing pop of flavor and umami you couldn't get otherwise. Also, every summer I make at least one batch of mussles with Sierra Nevada's pale ale - What flavor that brings to it. Plus, beer batter fish and chips!

 

I do and like to experiment with different combinations of beer and food. I find that beer is so much more versatile to cook with than wine because of the wide variety and strengths. I use Black Butte Porter or Creature Comforts Koko Buni Porter (seasonal beer) in my chili and it makes a huge difference. Of course, the chili takes three cans of beer. Two for the chili and one for the cook! Even my wife, who doesn't like beer, prefers my chili with beer in it .

Beer cheese dip for soft pretzels using Amber, Porter, or Stouts really enhance the flavor. Similar to wine, the alcohol in beer also helps tenderize meat, so even if you don't get the flavor and aromas you're looking for, it will help that. I do find that most AAL don't add much other than the tenderizing.

 

Lol!

 

Cans of Prost Vienna lager (one of my favorites lately) started disappearing from the fridge, and I realized my wife had a sourdough bread recipe and was using it for that! I quickly went to TJ's and bought her a 12 pack of Simpler Times, which should be interesting in the bread. Keep an eye on your beers--if the good stuff is going missing, you need to react quickly.

 

I've always thought that using the dregs from a gueuze or other lambic would be a great way to jumpstart a sourdough starter. Never tried it out, though.

 

Boiling brats in Spaten Oktoberfest is great because the beer cooks down to a sort-of beer caramel, which makes for a fantastic sausage topping.

 

Guinness is great for baking, in stews and for crockpot ribs or chili-just don't overdo it- you want the subtle flavor and essence of the beer not an overpowering flavor to your dish

 

Guinness bread is an absolute staple

 

I use beer for my bratwurst. I use Guinness in my chili. Occasionally, I will deglaze my sauteed mushrooms with beer.

 

I'll be doing my aforementioned braised short ribs tomorrow night. I have a year old can of Edmund Fitzgerald Porter that will be part of the braising liquid (though the vast majority of the braising liquid will be beef stock).

 

Beer cheese, chili, carnitas or other Mexican-style meat braises, beer battered fish and onion rings, I could go on. With that said, I’m usually using an amber ale or a Mexican lager, but I think that still counts.

Food and beer pairings still is a passion of mine. Over time, I’ve realized that getting that right can be challenging. While some foods, like pizza, burgers, fried foods, and other bar food pair with almost everything, several foods do not. For example, a significant portion of Italian cuisine has a harder time pairing well with a variety of beer. Alternatively, if you pair sweet with sweet (i.e. sweet stout with a sweet dessert) they conflict, resulting in one feeling less than the other. I really miss the old: “sharing your pairing thread”. That gave a lot of great food pairing inspiration.

 

I found beer makes a poor ingredient in the kitchen. Not to derail the topic but wine can make an excellent sauce.