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Cooking with beer might seem like another good excuse to open an extra bottle. At least that is what my friends tell me when I share my cooking experiences. This is not entirely wrong, as sipping a beer in the kitchen while preparing dinner has always been part of my culinary pleasure.
Dishes prepared with beer sprinkled here and there in the pot, taste better, because one can taste the malt, hops. and yeast. However, the taste of beer is only part of the benefits that beer brings to dishes.
Cooking with beer is fun and can yield great results if you choose the right beer for the right food. With the most suitable cooking technique. you can not only make food taste better but also improve it: crispier batter-fried food, softer bread and cakes, flavored risotto and innovative desserts. For meat eaters, cooking with beer makes meat more tender, baked chicken juicier and crispier, mussels meatier and beer sauces more balanced.
I dusted off my cookbook and reorganised my beer recipes published on Fermento Blog, to discover how cooking with beer improves food. Here are the results of my findings.
Why does cooking with beer make so much sense, besides giving the food flavour?
For example, some traditional, Roman fried dishes involve adding beer to the batter: courgette flowers, artichokes, and stockfish. The batter for these preparations is very simple, quick to prepare and consists of flour, salt, eggs, and beer. The food is then deep-fried in hot oil.
The result is amazing. Preparing batter-fried food with beer makes it crispier and less oily. The secret lies in the beer bubbles that get trapped in the flour of the batter, forming small pores during frying. Excess oil escapes through these small holes, making the fried food non-oily.
Which beer to use? Pilsner Golden Breeze from Fermento, malty and non-bitter, is the best for this purpose. Eat your battered fried food very hot and enjoy both the crispness and the extra malt flavour of the beer. It’s fantastic!
Beer makes bread and cakes softer
Nowadays it is very easy, with the help of a bread machine, to make good bread at home and to experiment with ingredients. I recommend baking bread overnight and have it ready in the morning for breakfast. I make it and I love the fragrant smell of bread in the morning. It is a great start to the day.
I am very intrigued by the many recipes available on baking with beer. Some bread recipes avoid using yeasts to ferment the dough. Beer completely replaces water, so that the bubbles and added baking powder leaven the dough and make it soft.
In other recipes yeast is used. Unfiltered beer (also containing yeast) is added. The amount of yeast is thus increased, and the resulting bread is very soft, not to mention the extra aroma given by the beer.
For bread-making, I find Pilsner to be the best option when one wants to add just a little extra flavour. In contrast, stouts give an extra malt and roasted flavour, as well as making the bread darker in colour. The bread gives the impression of having been made with chocolate!
Baking cakes with beer produces a similar effect to baking bread. I made a delicious doughnut using our honey beer Ventuno and baking powder. The cake is softer than usual thanks to the beer’s bubbles and the flavours of malt and honey are pleasant and delicate. This cake is for everyone, children and adults, because it is alcohol-free as the alcohol evaporates at high oven temperatures.
Beer enhances quality of sauces by providing sourness and umami.
The idea of making a beer sauce came to me after visiting Canada. I tried a beer sauce from a large stout company and found it incredibly sweet. Obviously, the ketchup was more noticeable than any other ingredient.
To make a well-balanced beer sauce, in collaboration with Gipfelhirsch, we cooked it using Liberica stout, balsamic vinegar to increase the sourness, (real) tomatoes for a touch of sweetness, and a little fermented Habanero pepper to give it a slight spiciness. The result is simply amazing.
This beer sauce has a great umami taste coming from yeasts, still present in the unfiltered craft beers, and responsible for the ‘delicious savoury taste’. Cooking with beer, therefore, can enhance the saltiness, sweetness, and savory flavours of a sauce prepared for grilled and BBQ meat, sandwiches, or raclette cheese.
Cooking with beer and water (poaching) removes fat from sausages
Cooking with beer and water (poaching) removes the fat from the sausages and allows the meat to acquire the flavours of the beer. In a frying pan, add finely sliced onions, Italian or Würst sausages grated with a knife, beer (3/4) and water (1/4) in that order to cover and heat over low heat until half cooked. The sausage releases its fat into the cooking liquid. After being removed from the cooking liquid, it is then placed on the grill or BBQ to complete cooking. This way the sausage has much less fat, is flavoured with beer, and acquires a more golden colour when grilled.
I recommend using Fermento honey beer Ventuno to prepare sausages with a delicate and not too aromatic flavour or Liberica stout for a more intense flavour.
Beer makes fish and meat tender
Beer makes meat and fish tender and just to the right consistency we all like. There are some techniques to achieve this, and they are all very easy. Marinating meat with beer for a minimum of 6 hours (optimally 12 hours) tendonises the food due to the natural enzymes in the beer and its acidity, which break down the tough fibres in the meat. In addition, together with herbs, spices and flavourings, beer imparts flavour.
Great news is that scientists have discovered that beer-marinated meat also has health benefits because it prevents the formation of carcinogenic compounds when meat is grilled or barbecued. According to these findings, cooking with beer is good for your health!
I recommend mild beers such as Pilsner which only give a delicate flavour. Modern amber ales and stouts impart a stronger flavour of hops and malt or roast and chocolate notes, respectively.
A classic of Irish cooking is an excellent example of this cooking technique: Irish Stew. The principle of the stewing technique is simple: pieces of lamb (or beef) are browned in oil and, together with vegetables and herbs, are covered with beer and cooked at a low temperature. The effect of beer to tendonise meat is similar to that of marinating, the difference being that in stewing this occurs during cooking. Cooking with beer sometimes requires patience: Irish stew can take up to 5-6 hours to cook.
The best beer for this recipe is obviously an Irish stout and I recommend the Irish-inspired Fermento Liberica, which gives the meat a pleasant savoury, aromatic malt flavour. Finishing drinking the bottle of beer used for the stew is certainly a good idea before it loses gas, while drinking for the full 6 hours is not advisable, lest you forget the pot on the stove….
Braising with beer tenderises even the largest pieces of meat (e.g., beef). To try your hand at this recipe, you have to be very patient, because it takes even longer. It involves marinating the meat in beer for 6-12 hours before browning it in oil. During the slow cooking process, pouring in the beer forms a sauce that is then used to moisten the meat regularly with a spoon.
I consider this to be a truly extraordinary dish because the meat is roasted on the outside but retains a tender texture on the inside. The meat is served in slices and the beer sauce is served on top of it, making it more juicy and with a malty flavour.
The amber ale and the honey beer Ventuno are my favourite for braised meat and are excellent to drink with this dish. The amber ale confers to the meat hop aromas. The honey beer gives an extra touch of sweetness and extra browning to the braise.
Basting with beer browns the meat and makes it moist and tender
Basting involves the preparation of a mixture of beer and butter that is brushed over grilled or barbecued meat during the cooking process. This mixture seals in the meat’s natural juices and browns it. I find that barbecue chicken is great cooked with the basting technique because it makes it crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside.
When I cook this recipe with Ventuno honey beer, the chicken takes on a mouth-watering, caramelised flavour thanks to the sugars in the beer.
Steaming with beer makes the meat more tender. An American recipe that I love is Beer Can Chicken. The chicken, previously marinated, is ‘sat’ on a can of beer or a special pan in which beer is poured into a container where the chicken is placed. While the meat roasts and becomes crispier on the outside, it retains a moist texture on the inside, as well as absorbing the flavours of the beer. The dish is very scenic when presented on the table and you are sure to get a positive reaction before and after eating it.
For this recipe, use Pilsner Golden Breeze or Amber Ale for an aromatic and more hoppy flavour.
Steaming with beer for cooking seafood
Steaming with beer is also a popular technique in Belgian culinary tradition where mussels are steamed in a beer sauce. The recipe is very simple and consists of heating a cap of beer in a pot, seasoned with onion and herbs. Bring the liquid to the boil, then add the mussels to allow the steam to open and cook them gently. Cooking with beer in this way ensures that the mussels are velvety and do not become hard, as might happen if they are cooked in copious amounts of liquid. I recommend using mild beers for steaming the mussels,
such as the Pilsner Golden Breeze with a low level of bitterness. The sauce is very delicate, and tastes of malt and seafood. When I use the Weizen Mistral, the sauce is enriched with a fruity flavor. Enjoy it with toast or the Belgian way by dipping chips in it!
Beer added to desserts gives an extra alcoholic touch
Beer added to desserts gives an extra alcoholic touch. Rather than cooking with beer, these recipes involve using beer directly in the preparation.
It is quite common to use liqueurs in sponge cakes, rum in Baba, and to add a little Marsala (a kind of port wine) to the ladyfingers in Tiramisu. Alcoholic shots improve the tasting experience and the perception of flavours. In other words, they enhance taste.
Together with the chef Janneke Peters we prepared a delicious Birramisu using the Fermento Liberica. This stout, with its coffee and chocolate flavour, complements the taste of the classic tiramisu and increases the whole taste intensity.
A more ‘exotic’ dessert with beer is the beer float. This American recipe is intended for the most curious and beer lovers. Beer float consists of a scoop of ice cream dipped in beer.
The beer float is a taste experience not to be missed: the beer bubbles and alcohol enhance the freshness of the ice cream and the excellent overall flavour. Beer floats and beer desserts described here are only for adults because they contain alcohol.
The choice of the beer and ice cream for the beer float can be very creative. My favourites are the Fermento Liberica Stout with vanilla or chocolate ice cream, which taste like a cold, fizzy latte and coffee respectively… with alcohol.
I also enjoy and recommend Fermento Mistral with strawberry, lemon, or banana ice cream. This wheat beer has a mango flavour and the mix with ice cream creates a delicious fizzy fruit cocktail.
Cooking with beer just for the flavour
Of course, cooking with beer can also be done just for the sake of flavour. A good example is the blending of rice with beer in the preparation of risotto. Risotto is a work of art and the recipe has precise rules. Beer is obviously not included in the traditional recipe. However, to add a great beer flavour, after roasting the rice well in a pan, add beer (instead of white wine). The alcohol has time to evaporate and the rice absorbs the aromas and flavour of the beer.
The absolute best for beer risotto is the pilsner Golden Breeze or the honey beer Ventuno. My advice is to avoid any bitter beer (e.g. IPA) because it imparts an unpleasant metallic taste.
Cooking with beer goes beyond giving flavors
There is beer for cooking, from starter to dessert! Dishes cooked with beer are suitable for everyone and are alcohol-free.
Choosing the right beer is crucial to get a great cooking experience, because the beer’s flavours transfer into the food and make it taste better. For best results, aim for the best craft beers and avoid the neutral-tasting beers of the big brands because they do not give flavour and the result will be disappointing.
Enjoy cooking while sipping your beer and keep an extra one to drink with your food. You are sure to surprise yourself and your friends. We look forward to hearing your comments on how you liked it!