mckenzie, how could I knock anyone with that Lady and the Tramp avatar?
Yeah, I'm not going to mention my turkey fryer either, even though this time of year we've moved them to the front porch on top of the old TV.
Thanks ossobucco for the info. I would think putting beer in a crock pot on a low setting is a bad idea. I got the recipe here
www.justslowcooking.com .
I guess I just don't care for the taste of alcohol in my food. I've noticed I can detect its distinctive smell in any preparation and it doesn't agree with me. I'll stick to spices.
Actually, beer is appropriate for cooking certain things, like the famous Belgian dish, Carbonade a la Flamande. There are many recipes for this, and the important thing to keep in mind is that the beer called for should be Rodenbach, a Belgian beer sadly not widely availible outside of Belgium. I have good success with Chimay Red, and in a pinch, Stella Artois will do, but you won't get the proper depth of flavour or colour.
Carbonnades de Boeuf Flamande
(Serves 6 to 8)
3 pounds sliced beef from chuck or round (slices should be about 1/4 inch thick by 3 to 4 inches in diameter)
1/2 stick sweet butter
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup flour
3 cups thickly sliced onions 1/3 teaspoon thyme 2 bay leaves 2 to 3 cans beer
Melt the butter in a frying pan. When it sizzles, add half the meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper and brown lightly on all sides. Stir in half of the flour and remove to a side tray. Repeat the process with the remaining meat. Brown the onions in the drippings of the meat. Place a layer of meat in an earthenware kettle. Cover with onions. Then a layer of meat, then onions, etc., until all the meat and onions are used. Put the thyme and bay leaves on top and cover with beer. The meat should be completely immersed. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, and simmer for I 1/2 hours. It is usually served with boiled potatoes.
Good point cavfancier about the kind of beer. I suppose it makes a difference, though my recipe made no hint of any such kind. I just poured in a can of Bud, and thought it "said it all".
The kind of beer makes all the difference in the world. Think of an Irish stew cooked with a beer other than Stout? It just wouldn't work. There is a little more flexibility when cooking with wine, because you don't really need to buy incredibly expensive wines to cook with. Just don't buy anything you wouldn't drink yourself.
I'm not overly concerned about cooked alcohol served to an alcoholic, though. No one who has been over to my place for beer can chicken has yet been found three days later sleeping in his car recovering from the latest binge.
It does matter to some recovering alcoholics.
My mom used to make baked beans with Kahlua, always a hit, maybe not the height of culinary art but delicious none the less.
I'm a recovering alcoholic and I have no problems at all with food that's been cooked with alcohol. But that's me. I know others who wouldn't touch such food with a ten-foot pole if they knew it contained anything alcoholic. I will also drink non-alcoholic beer (e.g. O'doul's, Kaliber, Clausthaler etc.) and non-alcoholic wine. It's never made me want to go and start swilling the real stuff. But, again, that's just me.
