Skip to main content
RSS

Lobel's Culinary Club - Recipes, menu ideas, cooking techniques, meat selection tips, and more from America's #1 family of butchers.

Navigation

  • Categories
  • Archives
  • 175th anniversary
  • about lobel's
  • ask the butcher
  • autumn
  • bacon
  • barbecue
  • beef
  • braising
  • christmas
  • cinco de mayo
  • cooking tools
  • culinary classics
  • culinary diy
  • cut of the month
  • easter
  • entertaining
  • food history
  • food pairings
  • grilling
  • guide to meat
  • ham
  • hanukkah
  • holidays
  • lamb
  • lobel's prime meats in manhattan
  • new products
  • new year
  • passover
  • pork
  • poultry
  • recipes & techniques
  • recipes & techniques
  • roasting
  • sausage
  • seafood
  • seasons
  • smoking
  • social media
  • spring
  • stewing
  • summer
  • super sunday
  • thanksgiving
  • t-roy cooks
  • turkey
  • valentine's day
  • veal
  • videos
  • winter
  • yankee stadium
  • November 2021
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011

Links

  • Lobels.com
  • Lobel’s Facebook
  • Lobel’s Pinterest
  • Lobel’s YouTube
  • Home
  • Welcome
  • Articles
  • Contact Us

Welcome

Welcome to the new Lobel’s Culinary Club.

In the years since we launched our Web site and online butcher shop, the Lobel’s Culinary Club has become the cornerstone of our communications with our customers old and new. Our e-mails span the latest news about products and promotions to help you plan peak dining experiences for family meals, special events, and casual entertaining.

A fundamental part of the Culinary Club content comes from our unique perspective as butchers on meat handling and preparation. And while there are many recipes to share, we want to help you go beyond specific recipes to a wider world of in-depth explorations of cooking techniques. When you understand the fundamentals, you are free to invent your own culinary masterpieces.

We believe the more you know about preparing the finest meat money can buy, the more you will enjoy serving it to your family and friends.

With the launch of our expanded Culinary Club, we’ve created a living archive of knowledge that is gleaned from past e-mails and will grow with future e-mails.

Within the Culinary Club, we hope you’ll find numerous and useful resources to enhance your confidence in preparing the finest and freshest meats available, and ensure your absolute delight with the results.

For your dining pleasure,

lobels Signature

Stanley, David, Mark, and Evan Lobel

Lobel Family at the Carving Station

Articles by Month:

  • November 2021
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011

Articles by Subject:

  • 175th anniversary
  • about lobel's
  • ask the butcher
  • autumn
  • bacon
  • barbecue
  • beef
  • braising
  • christmas
  • cinco de mayo
  • cooking tools
  • culinary classics
  • culinary diy
  • cut of the month
  • easter
  • entertaining
  • food history
  • food pairings
  • grilling
  • guide to meat
  • ham
  • hanukkah
  • holidays
  • lamb
  • lobel's prime meats in manhattan
  • new products
  • new year
  • passover
  • pork
  • poultry
  • recipes & techniques
  • recipes & techniques
  • roasting
  • sausage
  • seafood
  • seasons
  • smoking
  • social media
  • spring
  • stewing
  • summer
  • super sunday
  • thanksgiving
  • t-roy cooks
  • turkey
  • valentine's day
  • veal
  • videos
  • winter
  • yankee stadium

Foam on the Range: Cooking with Beer

On December 29,2014 In beer , braising , recipes & techniques , roasting , st patrick's day , stewing , super sunday

You can do a whole lot more with beer than just drink it.

In fact, Men’s Health Magazine cites a total of 31 uses for beer, none of which have anything to do with tossing one down the hatch, yet 8 of which have to do with cooking—if you count the one about scaling fish (with the bottle cap, not the brew).

beer

It used to be “one beer fits all.” You’d buy a six-pack or a case of your favorite beer—your all-purpose beverage for drinking with just about any food you consumed be it hot dog, steak, pizza, Asian food, Mexican food, barbecue, comfort food, seafood, and absolutely everything else.

Pairing? Sure, pairing wine with food is age-old. But with the rise of artisan craft beers, microbrews, worldwide imports, brew pubs, and home brewing, pairing beer with food became a conscious coupling that left us shaking our heads, wondering, “Why didn’t we think of this before?” The nuances of flavor interplay between beer and food have become a wide-open endeavor of culinary exploration bringing pedigree and respectability to a blue-collar beverage.

And so we ask: Does the beer elevate the food? Or does the food elevate the beer?

Why cook with beer in the first place? Beer adds a spectrum of flavor notes that complement a variety of inherent flavors. From the earthiness of hops and yeast, beer imbues savory stews, braises, soups, and sauces with herbal complexities and a richness that doesn’t depend on butter fat.

At the other end of the spectrum, dark, chewy-chocolatey brews spanning to fruit-tinged varieties work their way into sweets, pastries, and beverages where you’d least expect them with surprisingly tantalizing results.

The first rule of thumb when cooking with beer is the same as for cooking with wine: Don’t cook with any beer you wouldn’t drink. In fact, also as with wine, it is good to serve beer-cooked dishes at table with the same beer you incorporated into the recipe.

In a Roasting Pan

One of the least-fuss methods of cooking with beer is in roasted meats and poultry. When adding liquid to the aromatic vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan, substitute beer for some or all of the stock, wine, or water you would normally use.

For something like a beef roast, you can choose a well-flavored stout, porter, or schwarzbier. Whereas with poultry, try something a bit lighter such as a pale ale, a lager, or even a pilsner, for example. What you will get are enriched pan juices that will, in turn, create a heady gravy to finish your succulent roast.

sized for blog - Leg of Lamb

In a Batter

Incorporating beer into a batter for frying foods gives the batter its own unique malty flavor while its effervescence adds a lightness to the batter that, depending on how much you use, approaches the airiness of a tempura batter.

Here’s an all-purpose beer batter that Martha Stewart uses for onion rings and other vegetables, as well as various seafood items.

sized for blog - fish n chips

In a Soup, Stew, or Braised Dish

As in roasting, substituting beer for part or all of the liquid used for soups, stews, and braises will imbue unique flavors as well as having some measure of a tenderizing effect.

A carbonnade is a beef and onion stew of Flemish origin and a cousin of the French boeuf bourguignon. The point of departure is a hearty Belgian beer that is the core of the carbonnade, rather than red wine as in the boeuf bourguignon .

Here is noted chef Charlie Palmer’s recipe for carbonnade.

In this unique braising-roasting recipe, our good friend Troy Smith from T-Roy Cooks braises Lobel’s fresh Berkshire Pork Belly with a combination of apples, garlic, shallots, fresh herbs, and a mixture of white wine and apple ale. Then he roasts the belly to crisp the top skin to crackling goodness. Serving the belly on mashed potatoes, Troy tops everything with the pan sauce redolent of herbs and apples—thanks, in part, to the apple ale added during cooking.

In a Sauce

Beer is a great medium for deglazing pans when making a pan sauce for a sauté dish. You can also substitute beer for another liquid when making sauces. For example, use beer instead of milk when making a roux-based Béchamel sauce. Once the sauce starts to tighten up, add cheese to turn it in to a beer-cheese sauce for finishing roasted meats or steamed vegetable dishes.

Welsh Rarebit is a classic beer-cheddar dish from Great Britain with the consistency of fondue and typically served on buttered toast points. In fact, add more liquid and you’ll wind up with beer and cheddar soup.

In this adaptation of the English classic, Alton Brown uses a full-flavored porter as the basis for this stick-to-your-ribs entrée.

sized for blog - cheese sauce

As a Steaming Liquid

Mussels, crabs, clams, and all manner of shellfish have a particular affinity for being steamed in beer which accentuates the inherent sweetness of seafood. The broth from such dishes is hearty and welcoming and so good you won’t want to leave a drop.

In this recipe, Samuel Adams Boston Ale perfumes mussels and adds flavor and richness to the steaming liquid. Don’t forget the crusty bread for dipping and mopping!

sized for blog - paella

 

What is your favorite way of cooking with beer? What’s your favorite recipe or dish that incorporates beer? What beers do you like best for cooking?

Leave Your Response

* *

© Copyright 2018
Lobel's Culinary Club.
All Rights Reserved

Lobel's of New York