Cooking with Beer: Welsh Rarebit

Great chefs say “You should never cook with a wine you would not drink”. I take a similar stance on beer.

When it comes to cooking with beer, it’s worth investing in a decent drop to make that extra bit of difference. Cooking with it generally suggests you are making a dish that is going to be shared amongst friends or family; a stew, a pie or maybe even a cake.

I worked with a great chef who, with a push in the right direction, started to experiment with different ales in his recipes. His sourdough bread with German smoked Rauchbier was divine, especially with the addition of coarse brown flour – the slight smoke added a depth to the flavour, creating a bread that was hugely popular with our customers. The smoked Rauchbier also works great in a Beef Chilli (more of that in a later post of ‘Cooking with beer’) and I recently tried reducing down a decent porter with some soft brown sugar and glazing a ham, which made a beautiful Sunday luncheon with a fried egg perched on top.

I hope to share a few recipes with you that all contain good beer. I thought I would start with the most important meal of the day – breakfast. I cooked this recipe for friends whilst on holiday and it produced lots of gratifying noises. As we shared the meal together, I smiled.

One of the secrets was good beer.