What does cooking with beer do?

Mango salsa with lime and lager

I’ve recently been experimenting with beer in my cooking.  I’ve done lots of baking with beer, but not as much cooking with beer – it felt a bit gimmicky.  We use wine in cooking, so why not beer?  But what does beer actually do to your cooking?  Today we are going to look at the ways beer affects your cooking and why you should cook with beer!

Beer brownies with stout

Beer as a leavening agent

There are three reasons to use beer in your cooking – as a leavening agent, as a tenderiser or to add flavour.  Let’s start with leavening.  Beer contains yeast which can add to anything you are cooking that needs to rise.  The carbonation in beer can also make baked goods light and fluffy.  Beer bread is an obvious example of this, as well as pizza dough (check out my recipe for beer pizza dough that I shared here).  You still need to consider flavour when you add beer as a leavening agent, however.  Bitterness and strong flavours from the beer will be imparted into your cooking and baking.  I’ve tried a hoppy IPA in my pizza dough and I could taste the citrus and the bitterness from the hops – it was ok, but I prefer the grainy malt and subtle floral notes a pilsner adds instead. 

Beer brining chicken breasts

Beer as a tenderiser

Beer can also be used as a tenderiser.  A beer brine can add flavour to meats but also alpha acids and tannins help to break down the fibres in the meat, making it more tender and juicy.  My current favourite thing is to create a beer brine for chicken breast before I roast it or put it on the bbq.  I partially cover the meat with whichever beer I have chosen (my current fave is an old ale for the dark flavours), add salt, sugar, garlic powder and crushed garlic, then top up with water to cover the meat.  I leave this for a minimum of 1 hour in the fridge but prefer overnight.  The beer adds a rich flavour to the chicken as well as making it juicy and succulent.

Slow cooker beef stew with gnocchi and old ale

Adding beer for flavour

Our last reason to cook with beer is the flavour it can add.  Beer can be used to replace some of the liquid in a recipe or used in the same place as wine.  As mentioned with baking with beer you need to consider what flavours the beer will add – a bitter, hoppy beer will add that bitterness, which may not be desirable.  You also need to be aware that the aroma will not be conveyed into the cooking, so a beer may smell like pineapple or mango, for example, but this may not come through in the actual flavour.  The aroma will be the first thing to go when you cook with beer.  Bitter beers can be used in very sweet recipes to add balance, however.  The alcohol can be cooked off when using beer in your cooking, but perhaps not all of it, so consider this when you are serving food to guests as well.  Beer can be used in marinades to add flavour or used to simmer vegetables and meat.  I’ve added a splash to stir fry and risotto to add richness.  Beer mac & cheese is my husband’s current favourite way for me to cook with beer.  I use a stout, amber ale or best bitter to add malty, nutty flavours to it, pairing well with the cheese.  If you do replace the liquid in a recipe with beer, consider what that liquid was there for, for example, if it was adding fat, beer cannot do this so you may need to add both or do a half and half mix.

Beer mac & cheese

So, those are ways you can add beer to your cooking.  Remember to match the flavours of your beer to the other ingredients of your dish and don’t be afraid to experiment!  Beer adds complexity to your recipes and usually there is some left over… so you will just have to drink it!  I’ll be sharing my cooking with beer recipes on the blog as I continue to experiment with it, so keep coming back to see those.

Have you cooked with beer lately?  What’s your favourite recipe you’ve cooked or baked?  Let me know in the comments!