Pairing Beer with Food: Take-out

You’ve just ordered your dinner and you are waiting for the delivery person. Time to take a look in the fridge and choose a beer. What did you order?

Pizza

The classic delivery option; it is a favorite of mine. Surprisingly, pizza is not an easy match for beer. Acidity, like that in tomato sauce can clash with some beers and create an unpleasant aftertaste. You could just grab a macro lager, it’s cold and refreshing, but it adds nothing in the way of taste. I reach for an amber lager like Brooklyn lager or Yuengling lager. They are easy drinking and they bring a good balance of sweetness and hops that doesn’t clash with the pizza.

Wings

Wings and beer can be tricky. In general, stronger flavor the foods go well with stronger flavor beers. However beers with a strong hop flavor can often intensify the spiciness of foods. The might work for some people, but it can easily be overpowering for others. So if you are looking for big and bold go with an IPA like Clipper City Loose Cannon or an American Pale Ale like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. If you are looking for more balance, go with a dry stout like Guinness Extra Stout or a porter like Tröegs Dead Reckoning. I find the dry roasted malt flavors to be a nice complement to spicy foods because it provides a cooling contrast.

Chinese

Chinese take out is a broad category of food. For you basic beef and broccoli or chicken and vegetables you really can’t go wrong with a German Helles Lager like Spaten or Paulaner. They provide a great clean straight forward flavor, and a crisp finish that enhances the simple goodness of these dishes. For their spicier counterparts, like kung pao chicken or pepper steak, I like a Belgian Wit like Allagash White. They provide a more complex flavor with their variety of spice and floral flavors that complement that of spicier Chinese dishes.  For Peking duck I like a maltier flavor like that of a Munich Dunkel Lager, Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel for example.

These are just a few examples. But I hope you’ll see that it’s not just home cooking and five star cuisine that can be enhanced with a great beer.

Crispy Nutella Wontons

This is a great dish. Not only does it taste great, but it can be either an appetizer or a dessert. It only takes a few ingredients, but you really get a lot of bang for your buck.

Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
16 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten to blend
1 cup Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread

Pairing Beer with Food: Steak

A great cut of beef perfectly cooked is a thing of beauty. I’m getting hungry, and thirsty just thinking about it. Great beer makes an excellent complement to steak, no matter what cut you are talking about. When choosing a specific beer to pair with your steak, the cut one of the factors. Seasoning is the other factor.

In general, when cooking a steak you are going to be creating a nice flavorful crust on the outside of the meat. The sweet smoky flavors developed by this caramelization are going to match well with the sweetness and earthiness of maltier beers. For more tender cuts like filet mignon that have a more subtle flavor you want a more subtle beer like a brown ale or amber lager. For more flavorful cuts like flank steak and skirt steak you want a beer with a stronger flavor like a stout or Belgian strong dark ale. Similarly for seasoning, when minimally seasoning a steak with just salt and pepper you want a more subtle beer. The more additional flavors, especially bold flavors, you add to the mix the more flavorful beer you want.

Here are some examples:

• Rib Eye lightly seasoned and Chimay Red
• Fajitas and Tröegs Hopback Amber Ale
• Filet Mignon with a pepper crust and Unibroue Maudite
• London Broil marinated then grilled and Gulden Draak
• Sirloin medium seasoning and Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale

Pairing Beer with Food

Great food and great beer are two passions of mine. Put the two together and you’ve got a recipe for a great dining experience. I’ll be exploring this topic in more detail, but for  now i’m just going to share some of my resources for pairing suggestions.

BeerAdvocate.com – My primary source for beer news and information

CraftBeer.com – Great PDF of pairing suggestions

The Brewmaster’s Table – The go to book for pairing advice

Pit Beef

It is a little known fact in the Baltimore area that pit beef is a regional thing. You won’t find it much, if at all in, Virginia or Pennsylvania. This article from the New York Times explores the subject in detail.

One of my favorite places for pit beef is Fast Eddie’s in Fallston, MD. I like mine cooked medium, with onions, horseradish, and barbeque sauce, on a kaiser roll. Fries or onion rings, and coleslaw are the standard accompaniments. I have yet to venture is to making my own, but when I do, I’ll share the results.

Grilled Rack of Lamb with Fennel Slaw and Citrus Sauce

This dish was made for a beer dinner back in June 2008. I love the balance in this dish. The rich meaty lamb goes really well with the bright citrus and the freshness of the fennel. If you’ve never segmented citrus fruit before, it can be a little tricky. But otherwise, don’t over cook the lamb (med. rare is perfect) and this dish please a crowd. Flavorful and hearty, perfect for a cookout.

Yield: 4 servings

Lamb and Citrus Sauce

Ingredients:
2 racks of lamb
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons virgin olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons

Tuna Roll with Dipping Sauce

I made this recipe for a beer dinner a few days ago. It was a great combination of flavors and textures. The thin crisp daikon contrasts with the texture of the tuna. The pickled ginger and the sprouts bring a lot of freshness and zest to the roll. The dipping sauce rounds it out with a little heat from the thai chile, and the saltiness from the soy.

Yield: 4 servings of 4 rolls

Ingredients:

1 daikon radish

12 oz tuna, cut into 16 matchsticks, 1/2 x 1/2 x2

1/2 cup radish sprouts

Mini Sweet Potato Tart

These tarts are a great fall time appetizer. They are simple to make. They are a great combination of sweet and savory.

Yield: 30 Tarts

Ingredients:
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans

Iced Gems Cupcake Truck

This truck roams Baltimore delivering well crafted sweet treats. They tweet their location (@icedgemsbaking) and bring the goods. I had the chocolate hazelnut when they were in the area last week. It was just what I was hoping it would be. I’ll be back when they come back for sure.

Global 7″ Vegetable Knife

This knife is amazing. I’ve been using it for six months now and could never go back to using anything less. It is incredibly sharp, perfectly balanced, and comfortable to hold. It is great for chopping up vegetables in the medium to large range. It has a wider blade than your standard chef’s knife, making ideal for scooping up your chopped produce. I was making a cauliflower soup, it mowed though two heads of cauliflower in no time. I would recommend this knife to the home cook who likes to cook for a lot of people.

Global 7″ Vegetable Knife (G-5)