Food Blog

I’m glad to be the next one to step up to the plate and praise What to Drink with What you Eat, the newest book from Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. A book about beverage pairings is not unique, I’ve seen lots of them, but what makes this book worth its weight is that it’s not just an arbitrary list of what goes with what, it’s the collected and categorized knowledge of many of the greatest beverage experts.

I certainly can’t add more praise than they’re receiving during their virtual book tour. I agree with everybody else who’s said it - this book will become the resource on beverage pairing, for both drinkers and those who serve them. Studded with quotes and an occassional recipe, it’s quite an education.

My only slanted opinion about the book is its concentration on wine. They’ve done a great job on beer and other beverages, and unlike most fine restaurants’ wine lists, they haven’t pushed beer to a half page at the back. Even with poor Karen’s hop allergy, they managed to cover most beer styles in their lists.

But as someone who’s ordered beer in places like Per Se, I would have liked to have seen more specific brews listed. But then I would have wanted the whole book to be about beer.

The last chapter of the book is titled “the Best on the Best”, desert island lists of the 12 bottles some of America’s leading beverage experts wouldn’t want to do without. A few of them threw in a beer among their Lafites and Gruner Vetliners and a couple of them did all-beer lists. I thought I’d add my own beer only list.

Desert island list - beers

1. Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock with venison loin barded with guancale. Celebrator is my favorite beer. And not because each bottle comes with a little plastic goat. If you look it up on the interweb, they’ll tell you the first smell will bring visions of greaves lard, which is kind of a chunky animal fat. While the aroma is complex, foamy and massively malty, I’ll need to try it again to look for a lard smell. Nevertheless, this stuff will blow the socks of anything but a hearty dish. Garrett Oliver, the Brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery has it on his Desert Island list with a pork with pipian (pumpkin seed sauce) dish but he’s also quoted in the book “Venison meets its closest [beverage] partner in Dopplebock”.

Karen recommended Garrett Oliver’s book The Brewmaster’s Table, so I’ll have to check it out.

2. Whitbread Mackeson Stout Milkshake. This dark stout has a real milky mouthfeel, and is probably great with anything that goes with milk - oreos, chocolate, brownies etc. Not cloyling sweet. Put a few scoops of vanilla ice cream and half a shot of Bailey’s into a pint of McKeson and you’ve made something very addictive.

3. Goose Island Pere Jacques with a honey braised wild boar. The strong Belgian-style Pere has massive caramel honey over-tones but still has enough of a clean finish (with 9% alcohol) to contrast any amount of fat. Its complexity comes from rare Belgian yeast. This is one of the greatest Belgian style beers made in America and is too often overlooked. Goose Island’s Matilda is a similar Belgian, but in a more Farmhouse style and is mellower and slightly less alcoholic, with banana notes. You can find that at Spring where it’s a good match for Shawn Mclain’s “Hot Pot, with market fish and shellfish, country sourdough and spiced aioli”

4. Guinness Stout, with raw oysters. Classic pairing. Although if you fried them or forced me to use cocktail sauce and horseradish I might move to a porter, like Fuller’s London Porter or Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter.

5. Bell’s Oberon with soft shell crabs. Two things as seasonal as you can get. I haven’t actually tried this pairing, but I’m guessing the wheaty citrusness of the Oberon goes nicely with lightly sauteed, paper cripsy, yet melt-in-your-mouth crabs.

6. Duchesse de Bourgogne – Flemish Red Ale with a grilled cheese sandwich made with toasted sourdough, stilton and cognac infused prunes. This is the aged balsamic vinegar of beers - quite literally, tart yet fruity and complex. It’s a blend of old ales matured even longer in oak casks. Credit for the sandwich goes to Debbie at the Knot.

7. New Belgium’s Fat Tire with fried chicken. Fat Tire is often described as ‘biscuity’ so it’s an obvious choice with fried chicken. This beer has gained a lot of hype as it becomes available across the country, and many feel it’s undeserved. It’s not intensely complex and I could probably come up with 3 or 4 better American ambers, but it is a great drinking beer, and an excellent food beer. There must be something to Fat Tire, since it’s listed by two of the experts in the book.

8. Trappistes Rochefort with crown roast. Serious complexity with raisin and black currant, a huge dark red Bordeuax of beer.

9. New Glarus Belgian Red with Cherried pork loin. The subtle fine points of this unique beer might get lost with a heavy dish, but a light pork dish might work. Almost more champagne than beer, it finishes dry and slightly sour, even though it has a pound of cherries in it.

10. Two Brother’s Domaine DuPage. My first though was with a Provencal roasted chicken, to go with the French country theme (Domaine DuPage is a French country style ale) but the toasty, sweet maltiness goes perfectly with bread and shellfish, coincidentally both found in the shrimp and crawfish po-boy at Prairie Moon

11. Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA or Bell’s Two Hearted Ale or Three Floyds Alpha King with a blisteringly hot Thai red curry. Get one of these serious hop overloaded ales near a spicy sweet curry and the contrast is so intense that they marry.

12. Samichlaus with a dark chocolate molten mousse. Thomas Hardy as an after dinner cognac or maybe Gulden Draak, or Goose Island DunkelWeizenBock or Chimay Grande Reserve or…

I don’t think I have to convince anyone that beers are great with food, and it works the other way around too - we all know that’s it’s pizza, pretzels or brats that turn bland, ricey, Budweiser into the King of beers.

Andrew and Karen’s book, like Culinary Artistry before it, does more than educate, it inspires. One quick read through the lists and I feel confident enough to delve into the farther, previously unknown depths of the wine list, and inspired to try.

But right now I’m inspired to go down to Goose Island and keep trying until I figure out the best pair for their brat on a pretzel roll.