Friday, March 01, 2019

Food Pairings

I bought a local pale ale, as those are less hoppy than IPA's, which I had grown tired of.  I was irritated, because it seemed just as hoppy, and now here I am, saddled with six of 'em. But good news: My next spoonful of fish chowder was much better than the previous two spoonfuls. Aha.

I mentioned this to a friend who asserted that wine pairings are more subtle, and less reliable, because the taste of wines is across a narrower range (excluding such things a Bulgarian Raisin wines or whatever).  Beer flavors are more dramatically different, and so will complement or clash with foods more strongly.  This makes sense to me.

I am not a nuanced taster of anything - expensive high-quality stuff is wasted on me.  However, I do have my first lesson, which I pass on to you.  Hoppy beers go very well with fish chowders.

3 comments:

Donna B. said...

Apparently I have no taste in either beer or wine (what's wrong with a box???) except for the few brands/labels I've tried that were so bad I committed them to memory so I'd never experience them again. Thus, when laying in supplies for visitors I stock up on what they've all previously told me they like -- Fat Tire and Shiner Bock. For wine, Murphy-Goode for special occasions, Apothic for everyday. Brands don't seem too important for champagne or prosecco, as long as I buy the good OJ. I'm a sucker for cool names too -- Insurrection was a winner recently.

It's whisky where I get picky. I will occasionally pay outrageous prices. I'm probably a bit snobbish too, but there's only one whisky I've tried that is on my never-want-to-taste it again list and that's Tin Cup. I so wanted to like a Colorado whisky, but to me it's spit-it-out-and-pour-it-down-the-drain bad.

One thing I've never been able to come up with was a good beer or wine pairing for chicken fried steak. Nothing works but sweet tea.

Texan99 said...

It drives my husband crazy that i don't care what goes with what. I don't doubt that it makes a difference to him or to other with more sophisticated palates than mine, but I genuinely have no preference about which wine goes with which food, or which side with which main course. Also, although I have strong preferences for some wines over others, 'm a barbarian when it comes to beer and can barely distinguish one from another. In a cooler, I grab the first one that comes to hand. Has to be super-cold, though.

james said...

I'm glad you're hoppy with your discovery. My experience was a little different. I tried a sampler in a German beer garden, and tasted each variety with each type of food on the plate. No pairing tasted good. The food was fine by itself. The beers, by themselves, had a way to go before they rose to "meh." It was bottled water for me for the rest of the conference.