Good Food and (scroll down a bit) Good Beer

Good Food

Drink Your Beer & Eat It Too!
by
Joanie Steckart
1995, Nob Hill Press

A Beer Lover's Cookbook with the Beer Facts

  Let me say right off that this book is not wholly oriented towards British cooking, but it does use beer in every recipe, so I think it can be included here. Plus there are a few British-type recipes, so all the much better.
  This book has been in my beer library for years now, but to tell you the truth, I really can't tell you all that much about it, other than it is full of great recipes with beer as a main ingredient. "Drink Your Beer & Eat It Too!" by Joanie Steckart, was published in 1995, so it has been around a while. You know how most books have that blurb in the back titled "About the Author?" Unfortunately, this book has none, so I know virtually nothing about the author or why she decided to pen this cookbook. She does provide a brief anecdote acknowledging her mother, who liked to cook, and her father, who liked beer, as her inspiration for writing her book. Her mother liked to try new recipes, and after first baking beer bread, and then a chocolate cake made with beer, she continued to try new beer-based recipes. All, of course, with the approval of her husband. Other than that, I know not a whole lot about Ms. Steckart. Oh well, the main thing is that this book is filled with a great variety of interesting recipes.

  The range of recipes in this book runs from soups, to sauces, to meats, to breads and desserts. I have made many of these, and have found the recipes to be relatively straightforward and easy to whip up. And, may I say, I think most of these recipes can be described as being quite hearty. Nice thick soups and stews, meat balls and meat loafs, steaks and roasts, veggies and desserts - all those things that make the kitchen smell great. There are also several recipes for marinades, glazes and BBQ sauces, all of course, using beer as a central ingredient.
  The subtitle to this book is: A Beer Lover's Cookbook with the Beer Facts. Each recipe, and there are well over one hundred of them, is accompanied by a short snippet of beer history, legend and lore. So you can cook a great meal and learn a little beer trivia at the same time. Perfect!
  So, while I don't know much about the author and her background, I can honestly say that she has written a great cookbook. Pick up a copy if you can find one And, if you happen to run into the author, have her drop me a line. Cheers!

Great British Cooking
A Well-Kept Secret
by
Jane Garmey
1981

  As the cover of this book notes, the recipes presented are adapted for American cooks. Hmmm - I thought. Other than a few differences in things like measurements, what could be so different between and English and an American cook.  According to Ms Garmey there really is not too much of a difference, and most recipes are easy to prepared regardless of which side of the pond one lives on. However, there are some ingredients that are not all that familiar to an American cook. Ms Garmey mentioned that she opted to omit the recipe for Fidget Pie, which calls for the addition of two larks. Are larks readily available in the UK? I have done my share of traveling in the UK and have never run across larks at the butcher shop. Maybe I just wasn't looking.
  I ran into this need for not-so-common ingredients when I selected a recipe from this book to give a try. I decided to try out what is called Poacher's Pie, a rather rustic one-pot dish that called for one 2-pound rabbit. So off I went. I tried the big grocery stores, the high-dollar grocery stores, my local corner grocery store, and even a dedicated butcher shop. Nothing. Actually, my local corner grocery had some frozen rabbit imported from China - pass!
  Ms Garney mentions that chicken may be substituted for rabbit, although she is not certain it could be considered a genuine Poacher's Pie. Evidently the basis for a Poacher's Pie was that the meat - rabbit - could be poached from the wild or off some rich landowner's estate. Chickens are not known for wandering about in the woods. Anyway, faced with using some dubious frozen rabbit I went with chicken instead. My Poacher's Pie came out great. It's easy and quick to make - just layer all the components in the pot (below, left), and pop it in the oven for a couple of hours. Wonderful (below, right).

Harrods Book of Traditional English Cookery
By
Hilary Walden
1986, The Ebury Press

  Perhaps some of these dishes are familiar to an Englishperson, but for us North Americans many of them sound quite strange. Actually, I did a little test not too long ago with a couple of British friends of mine, people who at the time were around 50 years of age, so they weren't exactly youngsters. I asked them if they had ever heard of Salamongundy, Meat Olives or Pan Haggerty. Most replies were somewhat in the affirmative, but with a bit vague, "Yea, I think I've heard of that." Of course, notwithstanding the fact  that the UK is an island about the size of our Northeast U. S., it should be pointed out that there are regional varieties, and regional names for many dishes, and that if you go a couple of hedgerows away the people may have never heard of it, or maybe call it something else. 

  Now knowing what the above-mentioned dishes are, combined they would make a darn good meal. Salamongundy is sort of a cold chicken and fish salad, while Meat Olives are stuffed meat rolls, which would go nicely with a side of Pan Haggerty, a potato dish cooked with bacon droppings and layered with onions and Cheddar cheese. Selecting a good ale is all that remains to be done.
  Part cook book, part history book, Ms Walden's book brings us old and traditional recipes, coming from the humble cottage kitchen all the way to the royal dinner table, some of which date back to medieval times. Each recipe begins with a short history lesson as to the dish's origin, its regional variations and how a modern cook can recreate this little piece of British heritage. Even if can't cook (nonsense, everybody can cook) this book is interesting simply from the point of view of social history, as well as being a chronicle of food, eating, and cooking habits from days gone by.  The author does mention when she updates a recipe to make it more adaptable to today's available ingredients and cooking styles. For example, I asked my local grocer about the availability of hare - complete with a portion of its blood - to make a batch of Jugged Hare. He gave me with a quizzical look, to say the least. The author mentions you may need to order the hare in advance.
  So, when selecting a recipe to try, we narrowed it down to the Meat Olives, maybe just because of the rather strange name, and as it turns out there are no olives in this dish at all. The name came from the fact that the meat rolls sort of look like big olives, although the author does note that this is not for certain. Meat Olives are basically rolled steak strips stuffed with bacon, onion, herbs and other good things, slowly cooked in a bath of stock, red wine, Marsala and root vegetables . A very hearty dish that's kind of fancy, but really easy to make.

Introducing: Dave's World Famous Scotch Bar-b-Que Sauce

  It's a well-protected secret - more protected than the Crown Jewels, and more secret than the combination to Fort Knox. What is it, please tell me? Well, ask anybody from the professional to backyard enthusiast, and they will tell you there is nothing more dear to them than the recipe of what exactly goes in their Bar-B-Que sauce.
  I have always found it quite humorous when watching a television show about BBQ, as the host asks the BBQ dude about what goes in his sauce. The BBQ dude will shoot the host a look non-verbally transmitting that classic old line, "I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you." It's all in good fun.
  As a reasonably skilled BBQ dude myself, as well as a student of the all things grilled, I can say that most all BBQ sauces start out with the same basic components, and are then personalized by changing up the proportions and finally made unique by the addition of herbs and spices and other stuff. There are, of course, regional style variations, such as North Carolina versus Kansas City sauces.
  My wife has always believed that if you take a previously published recipe and change a few ingredients you can then call that recipe your own. True that, I mean think about the basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. Sure it may not be your recipe, but then if you add something - say butterscotch chips and cashews - then you can call the recipe your own. Of course, if you dig around enough you will probably find someone who has already thought of your idea. C'est la vie!
  So, with that concept in mind I took a basic bourbon BBQ recipe I knew of and changed it up a bit. I swapped out a few US ingredients with more UK/Euro-based ones, and tweaked the spices, to make my Dave's World Famous Scotch BBQ Sauce. No worries, if you make this recipe or change it to make it your own, I won't hunt you down. So here we go....

1/3 cup Scotch Whisky of your choice
1/3 cup HP sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons of good honey
2 tablespoons French Dijon mustard
1/2 to 1 tablespoon onion powder
A pinch or two of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste

  Mix everything in a heavy saucepan, bring to just a boil, and then turn heat down to a low simmer (enjoy that aroma). Simmer for at least 20 minutes or so. Be careful not to let it get to a rolling boil as it may burn.
  Use your preferred technique on the grill, but remember to reserve a portion of the sauce for dipping. Personally, I have changed up my own recipe by swapping Irish whiskey for the Scotch, swapping maple syrup for the honey, and by experimenting with other spices. It's all good.
 Finally, I am sure there is a Scotch aficionado out there who is crying foul about using good Scotch in a sauce. Hey, a sauce is only as good as its ingredients, so you might as well take it easy, and use the good stuff. Go ahead, take a little nip from the bottle if no one is looking, and relax.

(The) Irish Pub Cookbook
by
Margaret M. Johnson
2006

  Here's another cookbook that you could enjoy just sitting down and reading, even if you don't bother to go near your kitchen, even if you don't try a single recipe.  Like the best cookbooks, The Irish Pub Cookbook is part culinary manual, part history book and part of record of one aspect of human life, in this case Irish pub life. One should, however, give these recipes a try.
  The are dozens of recipes in this book, and each one reads as sort of stand alone snippet of an Irish pub. Simply open the book at random, and read. On page 100 there is a recipe for making Dublin Coddle, described as a, "hearty pork, potato and sausage stew." Heck, this sounds great without reading any further. However, if you read a bit further you will find that Dublin Coddle dates back to the 18th Century, and was often served as a special Saturday night supper. The author notes that this particular version of Dublin Coddle was adapted from the meal made at St. John Gogarty's pub, in Dublin.

  Ms. Johnson has also been so kind as to include a glossary in the back of her cookbook, just to help us Yanks figure some things out. For example, although many have the idea that there is something odd, at least to Americans, about black pudding, the glossary confirms that pork blood is one of its main ingredients. Yep, sausage, oatmeal, spices and pork blood, the last component giving the dish its characteristic color. Oh go ahead and give it a try sometime, if you get the chance, it's actually quite tasty.
   Of course, any Irish cookbook must present some variation of the classic Guinness Beef Stew, and that is the first recipe we made. One thing I really like about Irish and British cooking is the use of a variety of root vegetables. Yes, we have mostly  the same veg over here in the North America, but at least when and where I was raised, we didn't use much more than carrots and potatoes (ok, yes a potato is actually considered a stem vegetable or a tuber) on a regular basis. Things like turnips and parsnips, let alone a rutabaga, while I had certainly heard of them, were not often used, which is a shame because they are all quite good. Actually, back when I was a kid I used to spend a few weeks every summer staying with my grandparents in Iowa. Although they actually lived in town - it was a small town - they tended to a huge vegetable garden, and they grew all of this stuff. Back then people like my grandparents - certainly not affluent in any sense of the word, but who had a patch of ground - grew their own produce. Perhaps having lived through the Great Depression tended to make people a bit more self-sufficient. Or maybe it was just because the like fresh vegetables. Anyway, they grew all of these different root vegetables.
  Ms. Johnson's recipe for Guinness Beef Stew consists of all this good stuff, well no rutabagas, but most of the rest, including a healthy portion of Guinness Stout. It was quite simple to make, and the results were wonderful. I plan on delving deeper into this cookbook in the near future. I will keep you posted.

Good Beer

Brown Ale
History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes
by
Ray Daniels and Jim Parker
1998, Brewers Publications

Classic Beer Style Series - Number 14. 

   As with all the offerings in this catalog of books, Brown Ale, starts off with a history of the style, noting, in this case, the fact that almost every other style of British beer is somehow connected with brown ale. The authors also note, however, that like with most beer styles, that today are now precisely defined, trying to find the exact origin of what constitutes a brown ale, one that is made in England, is an exercise that presents more questions than answers. One thing for sure, if one categorically states that certain beer style was developed on this date, information exists that will prove you incorrect.
  Around the year 1700, with a fundamental change in the way some malts were dried - using coke instead of wood - some British brewers began to use what was known as pale malt, and the resulting beer was paler in color - a pale ale. Does this mean that all beers made before circa 1700 were darker, brown ales. Well sort of, but going with the idea that brewing history is a not-too-precise story, the answer would tend to be "no." Indeed, the authors note that there is a really old lease document that dates from 688, saying that part of the lease payment was: "12 casks of strong ale [and] 30 casks of small ale." What those ales were, well the world will probably never now. Needless to say, the topic of brown ale is one which should result in a pleasant discussion, and to this end, the authors will take you through over a thousand years of British brewing history, giving their insights on the making of brown ale

  One interesting tidbit related by the authors is that before the widespread use of hops by British brewers often used herbs and spices in their beer recipes. Whether this was to offset the overly sweet nature of the beer, or just to make a mediocre beer taste best, is a matter of debate. Today, I don't think I have ever seen a herbed or spiced version of the classic British brown ale. Some modern brewer out there has surely substituted elderflower, hart's horn or sweetbrier for the more standard hops. I would like to give that a try.
  You have to love the title of the second chapter of this book - "Brown Ale Profile: It's Brown, It's an Ale - Are We Going Too Fast for You?" The authors say the easiest way to define brown ale is as follows: "Brown ale is any beer made with an ale yeast, that is brown in color." That said, they do go on to say that defining the color brown is the hard part. When trying to define the profile for brown ale, the authors do say: "simplicity eludes us." What they do, after inviting the reader into the discussion, is to breakdown a number of modern brown ale profiles, including Northern England (read Newcastle) style, London style, as well as American brown ales, and how they compare to their British cousins. The comparison, it should be pointed out, is concerning the profile of the brown ale, and not whether it is any good, or not. Taste is left up to the drinker.
  Next are several chapters on how to make brown ale - recipes and techniques. One thing I found illuminating is the short section on how to roast your own malt. Many darker malts are hard to come by, so why not make your own. There are chapters cataloging commercially available brown ale - on both sides of the pond, brown ale and food, and more. All told, it's a great book on a great style of beer. 

Farmhouse Ales
by
Phil Markowski
2004, Brewers Publications

Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradiation

  Many beer enthusiasts simply demand that the beer they are drinking must fit a certain set of objective criteria. Their beer must be defined. Well, if you are one of these folks you might as well just skip even trying to understand a farmhouse ale. Heck, even the author - Mr. Phil Markowski - in his book Farmhouse Ales has a hard time arriving at even a vague description of what exactly makes up a farmhouse ale. Throughout his book, Mr. Markowski continuously relates that the farmhouse ales of today may, or may not, have any resemblance to the farmhouse ale of days of old. Like the India pale ale of old, we simply don't know what they tasted like (my words, not the author's).
  This, of course, has not stopped a few breweries from labeling their beer as a farmhouse ale, even though as the author notes: " Some French brewers see the claims of historical ties to old time biere de garde as pure marketing." He continues: "Certainly brewers all over the world have been known to seize a popular beer or style name in an effort to capitalize on its popularity without paying mind to stylistic accuracy."
   So, with the data we have available today, what is a farmhouse Ale? Well, in the most basic sense, a farmhouse ale was a beer that was, and in some cases still is, brewed in the rural farm houses in areas of France and Belgium. Like the beer itself, defining the exact limits of this area is also an estimate, at best, particularly when considering the region's history. These ales could be a light, low strength, beer produced as a refreshing drink for farm hands, while not impairing their ability to continue working in the fields. Or, it could be a stouter ale served during the months of the year when the fields were idle. The author notes: "Few documents exist that describe the types of ale made on the farm breweries of Flanders. Their rural origin and peasant nature precluded them from serious scholarly interest."
  Certainly, the majority of the beer produced was consumed on the farm, very little being sold to outsiders. Then as now, these beers have gone by a number of monikers, including biere de garde (mostly French), saison (mostly Belgian), biere de Mars and beire de table (again, usually French), among others. One must always remember that plugging any of these beers into a precise pidgin hole of exact style is not possible. Here's the funny thing - when the original brewers of the beers where brewing their beer, they often didn't give it a name at all. Only when commercial brewers got in the game was it necessary to give these beers a name.
  So my advice is to pick up a copy of this book, read it and make up you own mind. Like all the books in this series there is plenty of history about, in this case, farmhouse ales, and the past and present brewing of the variety. Although the author is quite honest in saying that defining a farmhouse ale is rather problematical, he does attempt to narrow the genre a bit, and offers a number of recipes for the home brewer. I think I will get out my kettle and brew up a batch. 

Michael Jackson's Beer Companion
by
Michael Jackson
1993, Running Press

The World's Great Beer Styles, Gastronomy and Traditions

 Being published in 1993, some 25 years ago, this book could today - 2017 - almost be considered a retro history book on beer. "Michael Jackson's Beer Companion" - written by the same man in the title - carries the subtitle: "The World's Great Beer Styles, Gastronomy, and Traditions," which just about sums up three of my favorite things, among others, namely beer, food, and history. I really like this book because it harkens back to a time before there seemed to be a beer explosion. I am not even sure how to define a beer explosion, perhaps it is in the same vain as the gin explosion, the vodka explosion, the rum explosion, etc... Now, don't get me wrong, I love the beer explosion, since it is this worldwide interest in beer that is bringing some of those great British ales to North America, and thus to me in my garage pub. Heck, back in the mid-1970s, when I began my quest for good beer, I had to search far and wide to even find a bottle of Bass Ale.
  Logically, Mr. Jackson organized his book by beer styles - his Great Beer Styles of the World. There are ales, porters, stouts, wheats, lambics, lagers, etc... In each category he expounds on the many brewers making that particular type, whether they be in Britain, Belgium, the United States, and even sometimes in India or Australia. One thing I enjoy is that the author includes a healthy portion of history about these brewers. And, remember, this was back in the day before the mega-conglomerates began snapping up smaller breweries - and their heritage - to add to their portfolios. Anyway, I like to know the traditions and history of the beer I am drinking.
  Another thing I like about this book is that although Mr. Jackson does comment on the various beers he is profiling, he is not over critical and demeaning of beers that he may not particularly like. To me, whether you like a beer, or not, is purely a personal thing, a subjective matter of one's own taste. I think it is a more modern trend, especially in this day - post beer explosion - where every beer that is produced must be analyzed down to the gnat's arse. Often times a reviewer may not even note whether or not he or she even likes the taste of the beer, usually rating a beer on a purely analytical level. Heck, what's the point? You know that several hundred years ago most, if not all, monks did not know anything about chemistry, but they still made a dang good beer. In my beer library I have several books that go the route of using over analysis to determine if a beer is any good, and I find them quite tedious and really boring, and needless to say, they don't get much use. Not so Mr. Jackson's book. His is an enjoyable, informative and entertaining read, and is indeed a great "companion" for the beer enthusiast, all without the know-it-all attitude professed by many, more modern day, beer writers. It is one of my go-to books on beer.
 I am almost certain that "Michael Jackson's Beer Companion" is out of print, but keep an eye out in used bookstores, and pick up a copy if you can.

Pale Ale
History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes
by
Terry Foster
1999, Brewers Publications

Classic Beer Styles Series - Number 16.

    Yes, a good pale ale - not too sweet, not too hoppy - will always be one of my favorite styles of beer. Although memories dim with time, I think that many moons ago a Bass Pale Ale introduced this midwest suburban youngster to the joys of British Beer. And I have been drinking it ever since.
  I have always been a pale ale fan, starting many decades ago with my first taste of Bass Ale (at the time, I was driving a Sunbeam Alpine, and watching Monty Python on broadcast TV - on the public TV channel. No, no, no not at the same time). Back in the mid 1970s, finding a British beer of any kind was difficult for a person living in your standard, Midwestern American city. One could find, with some searching, a six pack of Bass, perhaps along side a dusty four pack of Guinness Stout (dusty because few people even knew what it was). I remember the day, growing up in Omaha, that Coors finally began to distribute their beer into our part of the state, heck, for some, it was the cause for great celebration. British beer, on the other hand, was something that was just not all that sought after.

   Like many ancient beer styles, the story of pale ale is shrouded in a goodly amount of mystery, and is the subject of much discussion amongst beer aficionados. I really like the line penned by author Terry Foster in the opening paragraph of this book: "Defining a beer style on the basis of it history is an invitation to error." He goes on to say that, even so, one should never ignore the history of a beer style, if one truly cares about one's beer. In short, a beer style as old and venerable as pale ale, that has been made in many different places, by a diverse number of brewers, is just hard to define and categorize.  Is a beer that is brewed today, and is called pale ale, anything like the pale ale brewed back in the days of old? Good question.
  In the most basic sense, an ale is a beer without any added hops, and it is generally assumed that hops crossed the English Channel from Europe sometime around the fifteenth century. Most of these old ales were likely to be a bit dark, due to the fact that the malt tended to be wood roasted to a darker color, thus a darker ale. Add some hops and you have brown beer. Sometime around the late 1600s, coke was first being used to roast malt, and since coke was easier to control in the oven, the malt began to be a more uniform, and paler, color. Viola - pale ale, although, since hops were now more widely added, maybe it should have been called pale beer. Such are the vagaries of history. Anyway, according to the author, the first recorded sale of pale ale reportedly occurred in 1623, at the Peacock Inn, on Gray's Inn Lane. Well, there you go.
 Like all the books in this series, in addition to a great chapter on the history of a particular style of a beer, there are detailed instructions on how to brew your own, various style notes (including, in this case, the ever popular India Pale Ale), as well as a chapter covering current examples being brewed both in the UK and in the United States. And, like all the books in this series, I can highly recommend picking up a copy. Cheers!