The Naked Pint (42 page)
Authors: Christina Perozzi
We’re here to help beer claim its rightful place at the table. We offer you some beer and food pairings and recipes featuring beer that will get your creative juices flowing. If you already consider yourself a chef or a foodie, this part of the Beer Journey may be your favorite. We’ll talk about what makes a great food and beer pairing and how professional chefs use beer to enhance flavors in food. You can combine your kitchen know-how with your newly gained beer knowledge. This is your chance to get creative and to let craft beer breathe new life into your culinary experience.
A Perfect Match: Artisanal Beer and Food, Together at LastS
ome people have found their way to pairing a Pale Ale with a burger. But has the cheese on the burger been considered? And how hoppy is that Pale Ale? Is the beer interfering with the flavors in the burger or is it complementing it? Would the aged Gruyère on that burger be better paired with a Belgian Dubbel? We’re going to show you how to get specific about pairings in the same way that you’ve gotten specific with beer flavor profiles.
ome people have found their way to pairing a Pale Ale with a burger. But has the cheese on the burger been considered? And how hoppy is that Pale Ale? Is the beer interfering with the flavors in the burger or is it complementing it? Would the aged Gruyère on that burger be better paired with a Belgian Dubbel? We’re going to show you how to get specific about pairings in the same way that you’ve gotten specific with beer flavor profiles.
Not only is beer as great as wine with certain foods, but it sometimes makes an even
better
pairing than wine. The effervescence of beer can cut through heavy foods in a way that wine cannot. Fermented grape juice is not always the best complement to a dish. (We know some wine enthusiasts are fainting right now.) Certain foods that are historically hard to pair with wine, like asparagus, artichokes, eggplant, and some spicy foods, harmonize wonderfully with certain beers.
better
pairing than wine. The effervescence of beer can cut through heavy foods in a way that wine cannot. Fermented grape juice is not always the best complement to a dish. (We know some wine enthusiasts are fainting right now.) Certain foods that are historically hard to pair with wine, like asparagus, artichokes, eggplant, and some spicy foods, harmonize wonderfully with certain beers.
Unlike wine, there are no hard-and-fast rules that govern beer pairing (which is good because we both have issues with authority). But it does behoove us to follow some well-established food-pairing guidelines as a base for choosing a beer. Here are the things that we take into consideration when we’re deciding which beer to serve:
BALANCE IS EVERY THING.
We’ll say it again. Just as we discussed in Chapter 2, the key to all food and beer pairings is balance. Take strawberries, for instance. The best strawberries are the ones that are both sweet and tart. If the strawberry is picked too early, the sugars won’t have had time to develop, leaving the fruit too sour. If the strawberry has become overripe, the flavor is too sweet. The strawberry is considered at its best when both the sweetness and the tartness balance each other. The same applies to beer. The sweetness of the malt in beer needs the dry and bitter balance of the added hops. If the beer didn’t have this sweet-bitter balance, the beer could end up tasting like syrup—overly sweet and cloying, without much complexity or nuance. Think about contrasting flavors or mouthfeel. In addition to considering how the beer and food will complement each other, think of pairings in terms of what is missing from one that the other might fulfill and therefore provide balance. For instance, roasted pork is traditionally served with sweet baked apples. Why not pair that roasted pork with a beer like Unibroue Ephémère Pomme, made with green apples? Or what about pairing a hot, spicy curry with a refreshing and cooling Witbier?
We’ll say it again. Just as we discussed in Chapter 2, the key to all food and beer pairings is balance. Take strawberries, for instance. The best strawberries are the ones that are both sweet and tart. If the strawberry is picked too early, the sugars won’t have had time to develop, leaving the fruit too sour. If the strawberry has become overripe, the flavor is too sweet. The strawberry is considered at its best when both the sweetness and the tartness balance each other. The same applies to beer. The sweetness of the malt in beer needs the dry and bitter balance of the added hops. If the beer didn’t have this sweet-bitter balance, the beer could end up tasting like syrup—overly sweet and cloying, without much complexity or nuance. Think about contrasting flavors or mouthfeel. In addition to considering how the beer and food will complement each other, think of pairings in terms of what is missing from one that the other might fulfill and therefore provide balance. For instance, roasted pork is traditionally served with sweet baked apples. Why not pair that roasted pork with a beer like Unibroue Ephémère Pomme, made with green apples? Or what about pairing a hot, spicy curry with a refreshing and cooling Witbier?
LET THE FOOD AND BEER ENHANCE EACH OTHER.
Some pairings are awesome when the food and the beer share similarities. Perhaps it’s the spice profile or the aromatics or the mouthfeel. Think of how a toasty Porter would work with a nutty Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or how a Chocolate Stout would pair with a double chocolate cake, or how an earthy, pungent Orval Trappist Ale would go with a mustard sauce.
Some pairings are awesome when the food and the beer share similarities. Perhaps it’s the spice profile or the aromatics or the mouthfeel. Think of how a toasty Porter would work with a nutty Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, or how a Chocolate Stout would pair with a double chocolate cake, or how an earthy, pungent Orval Trappist Ale would go with a mustard sauce.
THINK ABOUT YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
Just like you think of white wine in the hot summer months and associate red wine with getting cozy in the winter beside a roaring fire, you need to take your environment into consideration when you’re pairing food and beer. A big, heavy Russian Imperial Stout with a braised roast, or turkey and stuffing paired with Tripel White Sage Ale, is probably not something you’re going to be down with in 90°F weather. But in the chill of winter, these pairings could be perfect.
Just like you think of white wine in the hot summer months and associate red wine with getting cozy in the winter beside a roaring fire, you need to take your environment into consideration when you’re pairing food and beer. A big, heavy Russian Imperial Stout with a braised roast, or turkey and stuffing paired with Tripel White Sage Ale, is probably not something you’re going to be down with in 90°F weather. But in the chill of winter, these pairings could be perfect.
MATCH INTENSITY LEVELS.
You don’t want your beer to overpower your food. It’s no good if your beer has taken your palate hostage. You also don’t want the beer to disappear in the pairing. It’s important to think about the intensity levels of both the food and the beer. A big hoppy Double IPA would kill all the flavor in kampachi sashimi, and a soft Kölsch would taste like water after an intense concentrated demi-glace sauce.
You don’t want your beer to overpower your food. It’s no good if your beer has taken your palate hostage. You also don’t want the beer to disappear in the pairing. It’s important to think about the intensity levels of both the food and the beer. A big hoppy Double IPA would kill all the flavor in kampachi sashimi, and a soft Kölsch would taste like water after an intense concentrated demi-glace sauce.
GO CRAZY WITH UNPREDICTABLE PAIRINGS.
Mismatches sometimes make the greatest pairings. We’re talking Bogie and Bacall here, not Minnelli and Gest. Sometimes the beers and foods that you thought wouldn’t go together in a million years end up making the most amazing flavor combinations. Think salty, briny oysters and a dry Stout, or smoky Rauchbier and vanilla ice cream!
Mismatches sometimes make the greatest pairings. We’re talking Bogie and Bacall here, not Minnelli and Gest. Sometimes the beers and foods that you thought wouldn’t go together in a million years end up making the most amazing flavor combinations. Think salty, briny oysters and a dry Stout, or smoky Rauchbier and vanilla ice cream!
As we said before, there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules when it comes to beer pairing. The best and only way to really learn how to pair beer with food is by experimenting. You can start slow with familiar beers and small bites or cheeses (see page 184), or you can dive right in. Go to a restaurant that has a reputation for serving excellent food and great beer. Knowing what you now know about the general flavor profiles of different beer styles, take a stab at ordering a beer based on what food you’ll be getting. You’re not always going to get it right (we are still smarting from the chili beer-red curry incident of 1999). But we can assure you that if you put some thought into your pairings and use the techniques we’ve discussed, you’ll make many more good pairings than bad. Economist Irving Fisher said, “Risk varies inversely with knowledge.” If you’ve read this book, you’ve probably got more knowledge than your waiter. Your risk is mitigated. Listen to Fisher, even though he was a Prohibitionist.
The chart at right gives a few of our favorite pairings and why we think they are so damn good.
CHEESE LOVES BEER AND BEER LOVES CHEESE
Beer Pairing Philosophy from Cheesemonger Andrew Steiner
Every major beer expert has had their own favorite special moment with beer and cheese. Ours was with a Mothais goat cheese, which was aged in 100% humidity, and a funky Cantillon Iris Gueuze. To get the skinny, we talked with Andrew Steiner, one of Los Angeles’s most notable cheese authorities. Andrew was maitre d’fromage at the world-famous Patina before opening his own store, Andrew’s Cheese Shop, in Santa Monica. Here’s what he had to say:
I think that pairing cheese with beer is like cheating. Fermented products tend to have many flavor similarities. This is why cheese, wine, bread, and beer all work together on some level. Classically, wine and cheese is the go-to pairing, but you have to be careful because many flavor clashes lurk out there. It is also not uncommon for the power or texture of a cheese to overpower those same attributes in a wine (or vice versa). This is rarely the case with beer. The main reason for this is the bubbles.
The two major ingredients of cheese are salt and fat. Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but that’s the way it is. This also happens to be why cheese is so delicious. The bubbles from beer cut into the fat for contrast, and salt does the same little dance on your palate as the bubbles. I think far too many people are terrified of getting their pairings wrong. Some of the most inspired pairings I have experienced came from the most unexpected risks. Remember, we’re talking about beer and cheese here. We’ve got alcohol, fat, and salt. If you screw up the pairing, what’s the worst thing that will happen? The truth is, I have learned so much more from getting it wrong than getting it right.
The most important factor to consider when pairing cheese and beer is weight. Low-alcohol beers, like wheat beers or blondes, tend to work better with milder and gentler cheeses, like fresh young goat’s milk cheeses or triple-crèmes (a little hint, triple-crèmes work with everything). Call me a traditionalist (you’d be the first), but I love Belgian and Belgian-style ales with Trappist style cheeses. (Many Trappist breweries also make cheese.) These are probably the most natural pairings due to their similar origins. I have a picture in my mind of lots of happy monks somewhere in Belgium drinking lots of beer with some nice, smelly cheese. One of my favorite pairings is always sheep’s milk with a nice, hoppy IPA. Sheep’s milk cheeses usually have a touch of bitterness on the finish, and the hops really work to enhance this flavor. My final beer/cheese marriage is always the last one in my Grilled Cheese and Beer events. We pair blue cheese with something big and chocolaty like a Stout, London Porter, or Chocolate Bock. You get those nice, big roasty-sweet flavors to offset and match the power of the blue.
If you are interested in nibbling at Andrew’s Cheese Shop or his Grilled Cheese and Beer events, go to
www.andrewscheese.com
for information, shopping, Cheese 101, and to join his Cheeses of the Month Club.
www.andrewscheese.com
for information, shopping, Cheese 101, and to join his Cheeses of the Month Club.
HEY, THERE’S FOOD IN MY BEER!
We can’t talk about using beer in food without talking about the beer that was made with food: Oyster Stout! Originally named thus because of the popularity and ubiquity of both oysters and Stouts in the pubs and taverns of the United Kingdom, these beers were meant to be consumed with and to complement oysters. But the New Zealand brewer Young and Son Portsmouth took the idea a bit further in 1929 and made a Stout using actual oysters in the boil.
It’s a bit counterintuitive to imagine how oysters and Stout taste together, but along with Barleywine and blue cheese, this match is one of the great traditional food pairings of the beer world. The toasty, roasty, and dry finish of the Stout contrasts with the salty, briny, sweet flavor of the oyster and provides a lovely taste treat.
Nowadays, finding this style of beer is rather challenging. Most Oyster Stouts are not made with oysters, but some bold microbreweries still add a dozen or so oysters, or ground oyster shells, to the brew, which can balance any sour flavors. The resultant beer rarely tastes at all fishy, and oyster flavors are very difficult to detect in the finished beer.
Some pubs offer Oyster Shooters. These aren’t the vodka- or hot-sauce-inspired shooters that you’ll find in trendy restaurants. This is a glass of Stout (we also like Porter) with a nice plump raw oyster in the bottom. This is obviously not for the weak of heart, but if you like oysters, you will definitely want to try this exotic treat. We’ve done a couple variations of this idea that we loved, using the Deschutes Black Butte Porter with Malpeque oysters and the Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale with Kumamoto oysters. Forget about it.
A
s with much of the ritual that surrounds beer, the history of cook ing with beer is long. The oldest beer was probably thick, bread- or porridge-like, almost a meal in itself. Beer was refined over the years and often stepped in to flavor meat or help create tenderness in dishes. Beer can be used in many recipes that call for a liquid, like wine. Think of cooking with beer whenever you might use a reduction, sauce, marinade, or dressing. Try it in soups and stews, where wine is often used; the right beer may just improve the dish. British-style onion and cheese soup benefits from a nice bottle of Bitter dumped into the pot. Mussels cooked in Witbier is a classic dish from Belgium. And if you’ve never had ice cream made from a chocolaty Stout, you don’t know what you’re missing.
s with much of the ritual that surrounds beer, the history of cook ing with beer is long. The oldest beer was probably thick, bread- or porridge-like, almost a meal in itself. Beer was refined over the years and often stepped in to flavor meat or help create tenderness in dishes. Beer can be used in many recipes that call for a liquid, like wine. Think of cooking with beer whenever you might use a reduction, sauce, marinade, or dressing. Try it in soups and stews, where wine is often used; the right beer may just improve the dish. British-style onion and cheese soup benefits from a nice bottle of Bitter dumped into the pot. Mussels cooked in Witbier is a classic dish from Belgium. And if you’ve never had ice cream made from a chocolaty Stout, you don’t know what you’re missing.
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