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Does cooking drive off the alcohol?
There is no such thing as a culinary disaster!
First and foremost beer can impart interesting new flavours to dishes –
bitterness from the hops and/or sweetness from the malt.
Enzymes in the beer have a tenderising effect which makes it a valuable
ingredient in marinades.
Beer can be used in a whole range of cooking
techniques including baking, braising, batter-frying, deglazing, marinades,
poaching, sauces, salad dressings and simmering. I have read of folk
steaming their shellfish - and even hotdogs - over beer!
We are not trying to say that beer is ideal for
every dish – some ingredients do not mix well with beer – and it is important
not to allow the flavour of the beer to overwhelm the other ingredients.
While a glass of beer is a great accompaniment
to a meal, it is not always necessary to serve the same beer which has been used
in a recipe along with the finished dish. Sometimes using the same beer can
complement the recipe; on other occasions you may prefer a contrast.
It may take time and much testing to find out
how best to use beer as an ingredient in your cooking style but we are convinced
that if you try some of the recipes here, making your own adaptations, you will
come to value beer as a versatile companion in the kitchen – at the very least
the occasional mouthful can be most refreshing while slaving over a hot stove!
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Beer is by nature bitter. It comes from the
hops. Malt adds a sweet flavour that counteracts and harmonizes with the
bitterness. The balance between these elements is one of the main factors in
defining the character of a beer, and this is why different beers used in the
same recipe can produce very different results.
Sweet foods can profit from being offset by
the hops' bitter taste. Include sugary vegetables like onions, carrots and
sweet corn, and even add some honey, molasses or sugar. Caramelised onions
are a classic example of a sweet vegetable which makes a perfect match with
beer. (Home-made burger, smothered in caramelised onions, accompanied by a
nice pint of bitter – bliss!)
The bitter hop flavour also helps counteract
the richness of creamy, oil-based or cheese dishes, but use it as sparingly as
you would a squeeze of lime or touch of vinegar. In such recipes add the beer
very gradually, tasting as you go – it’s easy to add more, but very difficult
to take some out!
Acidic foods like tomatoes, citrus fruits,
vinegar and mustard can compliment the sweet flavours, adding balance and
depth to the dish.
The yeast in bottle-conditioned beers lends
itself to baking and battering. Breads, fritters and pancakes profit from
being made with very yeasty brews, which lighten the texture and make for
tender, tasty crusts. Baked goods using beer generally have a moister texture and a longer
shelf life.
In batter
coatings for fried foods, the yeast in the beer acts as a mild leavening
agent, causing the batter to puff up, as well as enhancing the flavour.
Beer has
wonderful tenderising properties, making it an excellent choice for a marinade
– you can save money by buying cheaper, tougher cuts of meat and they will
still make an impressive dish if you marinade them well.
Game marries well with beer, but so does
chicken and fish. If you are hesitant about beer cooking start by simply
marinating different meats in a variety of beers – it’s a great way to gain
experience of the range of flavours at your disposal.
The more the beer is cooked and reduced, the
stronger its flavour will be. If the dish requires long cooking and reduction,
be cautious about using too strongly flavoured, or too bitter a brew, as it
might end up overwhelming the dish. A useful technique is to start off with a
small amount of the beer with the liquid made up with appropriate stock. Then
more of the beer can be ended later in the cooking time which ensures it will
provide a more subtle flavour
If you’re
cooking a savoury stew with beer and it tastes too bitter, remedy that with
some pureed, sautéed carrots, a few drops of lemon juice, and extra spices
(rosemary or thyme).
If you’re
making a sauce with onions or mushrooms, and the beer turns the flavour too
bitter, add a splash of sweet Madeira or sherry to round it out.
When you’re going to add beer to a mixture
use a larger-than-usual mixing bowl - bottled beer is likely to foam up on
contact with other food ingredients! If that causes problems you could try
whisking your beer in a separate bowl to release some of the excess
carbonation, and let it settle before measuring into your recipe.
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When you cook with beer you are adding liquid to your recipe and there can be a dilemma – how do you get those extra flavours without ending up with a runny mess? The answer is to have a range of thickening techniques at your disposal.
When making a soup or stew, adding
too much beer at the beginning can make the stew watery. Worse still, if you try
to boil off the liquid to reduce the stew volume, it is likely to become too
bitter. The answer is to stir in a few handfuls of dried potato flakes
(Cadburys ‘Smash’ works very well!), or take a small amount of the watery broth,
mix it with corn flour, then stir that mixture back into the stew pot. Keep
stirring for a few minutes while simmering gently and it will thicken up nicely.
When making a sweet dessert or confection that will be chilled, use unflavoured gelatine. The key is to mix the gelatine with just two tablespoons of water for a few minutes, until softened and not grainy. That's because alcohol can make the gelatine gummy and coarse, rather than dissolving smoothly. Then add the softened gelatine to the beer which should be at room temperature - if it is too cold, the gelatine will become lumpy.
Does cooking drive off the alcohol?
Many people think that cooking destroys the alcohol content of beer (or
wine) used in cooking but this is not necessarily true. It is a fact
that alcohol is sensitive to heat, and the longer you cook a dish and the higher
the cooking temperature, the smaller the amount of alcohol that will remain in
the finished dish. The U.S. Department of Agriculture compiled the chart
below which gives some insights. The tests on which the chart was based
used wine but the effect with beer will be broadly similar.
Alcohol Burn-off Chart | |
Preparation Method | Percent Retained |
alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat | 85% |
alcohol flamed - only applies to spirits, might be difficult with beer!!! | 75% |
no heat, stored overnight | 70% |
baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture | 45% |
Baked/simmered dishes with alcohol stirred into mixture: | |
15 minutes cooking time | 40% |
30 minutes cooking time | 35% |
1 hour cooking time | 25% |
1.5 hours cooking time | 20% |
2 hours cooking time | 10% |
2.5 hours cooking time | 5% |
So, taking as an example an Irish stew made with a whole bottle of Black
William: The bottle contains 500ml of beer of which 5%, or 25ml, is
alcohol. The stew would be slowly simmered for at least one and a half
hours and the chart shows that only 20% of the alcohol would remain in the
finished dish. 20% of 25ml is 5ml - which is about a teaspoon, and as the
recipe makes two portions each person would get half a teaspoon of alcohol.
As we can see, some alcohol may remain in the finished dish, but the amount is
not likely to concern most people. However, the considerate host should advise
guests that dishes have been prepared with beer just in case small amounts of
alcohol could prove to be a problem for some.
If you want to do your own calculations for other recipes, here's where to find the alcohol contents of all the Adur Brewery Beers
Taken in moderation, beer can be a very healthy food. It's full of vitamins and
minerals which are good for nerve production, help you concentrate, increase
blood circulation, and stimulate the metabolism. The hops, low alcohol content,
and carbonation help relax the body.
A glass of beer has fewer calories than the equivalent amount of whole milk or
apple juice, and far fewer calories than in spirits which have little if any
compensatory benefits. Alcohol is said to raise the levels of HDL (good
cholesterol) thus benefiting the heart and circulatory system - see the
report by
the BBC on an article which appeared in the Lancet.
If you are interested in the health aspect a Google search on 'beer and health'
will bring up hundreds of articles. Bear in mind that most of them are
produced by people with some vested interest, whether for or against, and anyone
who quotes the health benefits also adds the vital phrase "in moderation"!
So don't think that this gives you an excuse to head for the pub and sink
several gallons while claiming it's benefiting your health!
A
good way to start is to sample a range of beers and think about the flavours.
If you can imagine a beer going well with a particular dish as a beverage,
then it will probably make a good ingredient as well.
A golden ale, such as Ropetackle Gold, is
easy to use in a wide range of dishes but we have found ourselves using a lot
of Merry Andrew because its sweet/dry balance of hoppy/fruity flavours are
great with a lot of meat dishes.
If you are adapting an existing
recipe it would seem simple enough to substitute beer for the stock or other
liquid in the original. However it needs a bit more consideration of the
recipe and other ingredients. If you are simmering shrimp, it’s no problem to
use 100% beer, because you are only cooking the shrimp for a few minutes or
so. But if the recipe requires boiling for more than an hour it’s best to plan
a way to add the taste of beer late in the cooking process otherwise it will
become too bitter.
Think about your other
ingredients and perhaps consider adding a complementary sweetener to
counteract bitterness. These can include molasses, honey, malt extract, maple
syrup, Demerara sugar, roasted root vegetables, oven-dried fruits - all these
sweeteners can impart an interesting character. However, as mentioned above,
some ingredients such as carrots and onions can also offset bitterness.
If devising a recipe from scratch the following suggestions of complementary ingredients may help.
All beers: mustard, roasted root vegetables and just about every member of the allium (onion) family which includes onions, shallots, leeks, scallions and herbs such as garlic and chives.
Ropetackle Gold: chicken, fish, ham, mango, honey, pineapple, vanilla, cinnamon, roasted sweet corn, chèvre (goats cheese), paprika, shallots, tarragon, basil, curry, lemon
Black William: with lamb in genuine Irish stews, with resinous spices such as rosemary, cloves, also garlic; strong meaty and smoky flavours such as bacon, grilled portabella mushrooms, caramel flavours such as sun dried tomatoes, and in desserts, ginger, chocolate and walnuts - or even ice cream (check out the stout-chocolate float!) Try lamb chops marinated in Black William with rosemary and a bit of garlic.
Velocity: chilli, cumin, red currants, Worcestershire sauce, toasted pine nuts, grated Cheddar, and in any kind of batter
Merry Andrew: most game but especially venison, in carbonnades and stews, with wild mushrooms, browned butter, caramelised onions, pistachios, cashews, thyme, nutmeg and grated Parmesan cheese
St Cuthmans: coriander, mint, melon, orange, brown sugar, pomegranate juice, oven-dried plums, raisins, some varieties of peppers, soft ripened cheeses
There is no such thing as a culinary disaster!
Even if you’ve kept a beer too
long, or left a bottle open and it’s ‘gone off’, it may still have a use in
cooking. If it’s flat, as long as no off-flavours have developed, it will be
useable in most recipes as a flavouring. And if the beer has acquired vinegar
tastes, it may still lend itself to salad dressings and vinaigrettes, or
marinades.
If, during cooking you have problems – too thin, too bitter etc – look through
the list of tips above for ways to rescue a dish, and, who knows, it may even
improve on the original. Many great dishes of the world were developed by
accident!
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So get to know the capabilities of
your beers in different roles,
don’t be afraid to experiment,
and above all
have fun Cooking with Adur Brewery Beers!
John & Jeannette Simpson
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