Beer

[danalwyn]

Today I bought beer for myself for the first time in my life. This also means that today is the first time I've tasted beer. My inability to consume alcohol means that this is not something I commonly engage in. After the first taste (wine-style, take a sip, swirl it around in the mouth, spit it out, wash it out), I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss is about, but I was never very good with wine either, so maybe I'm just bad with alcoholic beverages.

Comments

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

I should have made this clear earlier, I don't drink alcohol because my body doesn't metabolize it properly, it makes me horribly sick, so my use of them is purely culinary. That makes individual tasting a little more difficult because I can't actually swallow, I take a sip, and then decide whether or not it goes better with mushrooms or with onions (or with both). Right now I just need to figure out how much of the taste actually comes through into the meal, and what kinds of tastes (how much does the bitterness dilute, for instance). Those do sound like interesting choices though, I suspect I'm going to need a lot more experience then normal to do this because I have much less of an idea of what flavors I'm actually working with.

Not drinking beer leaves me with several social fallacies, but it does keep my expenses somewhat lower.

[aries-ascendant.livejournal.com]

I have a recipe for chocolate whiskey and beer cupakes. The Guiness gets cooked out, but it does have Bailey's in the frosting. I've never actually made them, (The "gourmentness" of them is still intimidating me) but the recipe says you can swap the Bailey's for milk. I can pass it along if you'd like.

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

Not up to baking yet (I generally don't bake because I don't like following recipes), but if it's convenient, sure, pass it along (I can always use more recipes).

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Ah, then of course you can't drink the stuff! Social fallacy be hanged, it's not worth being sick. I knew you had mentioned before that you don't drink, but not why. I took it as a matter of personal preference and left it at that -- people have any number of good reasons for being teetotal.

I have a relatively short answer set for you since I cook with beer.

(1) A medium brown ale like Newcastle goes with pretty much any recipe that calls for beer. You literally can't go wrong -- it might not be as perfect as if you get the exact beer match, but it won't be *wrong*. It is particularly good with hearty dishes that are meat/mushrooms/potatoes/onions sort of things. As an example, you know I love Guinness, but I'll actually use Newcastle (which is much lighter) instead in my recipe for beef stew (or bison or venison, take your pick -- even ostrich) that's basically brown meat with spices, brown onions and garlic, chop up parsnips and potatoes, add mushrooms, add crushed tomatoes and beer and simmer. Come to think of it I should make some again. :D
(2) For anything involving fowl use a lighter beer or a wheat beer. The citrusy wheat beers aries_ascendant was mentioning go particularly nicely, but you can use cheaper generic lagers as well. The various Mexican beers work well in this instance, and are cheap besides.
(3) If you you're looking for sweetness or richness in contrast (as with some cakes and puddings) use Belgian beers if you need paler, and oatmeal stout if you need darker. I actually have a recipe somewhere for a chocolate pudding (of the cakey variety) with oatmeal stout. It's Winter Solstice type fare -- rich and dark and sweet, fuel for when it's cold and miserable out.
(4) Seafood -- again, very light citrusy beers. If you're doing something rich like lobster it's worth going over into a citrusy Belgian beer, or just use a good white wine.

Edited to add: If you look in a larger grocery store you should also be able to find a good assortment of non alcoholic cooking wines -- I think I've still got some sherry kicking about myself for Ropa Vieja (http://latinfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/ropa_vieja.htm), since I don't care for sherry. They're not terribly expensive and you typically don't need much.