Yankee Brew News Archive

Book Review: Cooking & Eating with Beer

Originally Published: 08/97

By: Gregg Glaser

Book Review

Cooking & Eating with Beer: 50 Chefs, Brewmasters and Restaurateurs Talk about Beer and Food

by Peter LaFrance, John Wiley & Sons, 1997, 211 pages, $24.95

Reviewed by Gregg Glaser, Yankee Brew News Staff

Peter LaFrance, a beer, wine and spirits journalist and a beer consultant to restaurants and beverage companies, has written an entertaining and informative cookbook and guide to beer. "Good food and good beer form, in every sense of the word, a perfect 'marriage,'" states LaFrance in his Introduction. "My aim in writing this book is to offer an intensive look at what is involved in the 'perfect' pairing of beer and food."

Organized to resemble a menu, "because beer goes with everything on the menu," Part One of Cooking & Eating with Beer is titled Conversations with Chefs, Brewmasters and Restaurateurs. LaFrance covers Beer Basics with an overview of the ingredients of beer, the brewing of beer, a brief history of beer and a description of beer styles with commercial examples listed.

A chapter on Cooking with Beer follows, in which LaFrance interviews sixteen chefs on how they use beer in their recipes. Beer Menus follows. Here are thirteen complete beer dinner menus, with LaFrance's tasting notes, from restaurants across the country. The New England region is represented with three menus from The Parker House Inn in Quechee, Vermont, and one from the Alden Country Inn in Lyme, New Hampshire.

The next eight chapters cover Raw Bar & Appetizers, Soup, Fish, Fowl, Meat, Salads, Breads & Cheeses and Desserts. Each chapter includes interviews with chefs and how they use beer with these dishes. In all, LaFrance has interviews with over 50 North American chefs in this book.

Part Two of Cooking & Eating with Beer is the guts of the book, The Recipes, with 75 listed including White Bean and Tasso Soup with Amber Beer, Baked Salmon with Hefe-Weizen, Sweet Corn and Fennel, Breast of Duck with Fresh Cherries and Kriek Beer, Grilled New York Strip Steak with Sam Adams Triple Bock Onion Confit and Madagascar Sauce, Mesclun Greens Salad with Cherry Wheat Vinaigrette, Stone Beer Bread and Irish Stout Cake. New England craft breweries whose beers show up in these recipes include Catamount, Sam Adams, Nutfield, Long Trail, Harpoon, Redhook and John Harvard's Brew House.

LaFrance's appendices cover Weights and Measures, Alcohol Content, a Glossary and six (yes, count them, six) indexes cross-referenced as to Beer, Chef, Recipe, Restaurant by Name, Restaurant by State and General. Covering all his bases, LaFrance has made sure you can find what you're looking for.

**Sidebar**

From Cooking & Eating with Beer, here's a New England chef's and restaurant's recipe with a New England craft beer as an ingredient:

Summer Porter Chowder

Chef Laura Simoes

The Inn at Maplewood Farm

Hillsborough, New Hampshire

This is a vegetarian alternative to chowders made with chicken stock. This is an ideal soup for a hearty luncheon or supper entree.

Ingredients

2 TBL olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

4 scallions, chopped

1 zucchini squash, sliced into thin round shapes

1 summer squash, sliced into thin round shapes

3 ears of corn (remove kernels and reserve)

6 ounces Catamount Porter

4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

salt & pepper to taste

Process

Heat the olive oil in a deep fry pan over medium high heat. Sauté the onion and scallions until nearly soft. Add the zucchini and summer squash and sauté for about 5 minutes or until al dente. Add the corn kernels and porter. Stirring occasionally, cook over medium heat until the liquid is absorbed/evaporated. (This vegetable mixture may be served as is. It makes enough for 4-6 servings as a side dish.) Put the vegetable/porter mixture in a blender or food processor and puree. Add the milk slowly while blending and then return the chowder to the heavy pot. While reheating over a low flame, stir in the heavy cream and add the salt and pepper.

Serves 4

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