Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review but I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my own and are based on my observations while reading the book. This post contains affiliate links, which are used to support this site.
Craft beer is an explosive industry as of late. Drive down the street of any large city and even many smaller ones and you are bound to spot at least one brewery or brewpub with many more in the planning stages. The coattails of this industry growth stretch widely and it isn’t surprising that the food industry has taken notice. Not only is more food being served with beer, but beer is also making its way into more foods. Making food with beer is easy and the endless possibilities are the subject of The Craft Beer Cookbook: , 100 Artisanal Recipes for Cooking with Beer, a book brought to you by Adams Media and written by The Beeroness, Jacquelyn Dodd.
From Breakfast to Dessert
The Craft Beer Cookbook is 223 pages in length and divides its recipes into chapters based on food type. Beginning with breakfast foods then continuing through appetizers, breads, meats, etc., all the way through desserts, this guide presents 100 different recipes calling for craft beer as one of the main ingredients. It could be amber ale added to a chicken dish or an IPA to spice up your next serving of chicken wings. Whatever the food item, The Craft Beer Cookbook has a recipe in mind to bring together the food you love with the beer you crave.
I love a great craft beer as much as the next person and I also love a recipe that introduces the right food to the right beer for a blissful state of matrimony. The ingredients present in beer make it a natural accompaniment to many different recipes and even the simplest, most basic beer can help make an otherwise ordinary food dish something special. The rise in popularity of craft beer has widened the possibilities and there are now a multitude of recipes that can be enhanced through the addition of a small amount of ale or lager.
The Right Craft Beer for the Right Food
Cooking with beer isn’t a new concept and there are countless other books on the topic, but The Craft Beer Cookbook has some specific features that make it better than the average read. First, the Craft Beer Cookbook is very good at explaining each recipe step by step. There is nothing to worry about because each recipe lays out the process, with numbered steps, explaining exactly what to do. Other cookbooks tend to explain the process in continuous paragraph form, but I like the numbered step method better because it is easier to follow. Second, each recipe has a brief but useful introduction and the ingredients are clearly listed. A good number of the recipes, but not all, also include a picture, for extra, visual stimulation.
As for the beer, The Craft Beer Cookbook makes its recommendations based on style- there is no mention of a specific brand, which is good- and it goes a step further by recommending a specific type within each style. For example, you might find a great recipe for beef that suggests using IPA and then wonder which type of IPA is best. This cookbook removes the guesswork by recommending a category of IPA, like an American West Coast India Pale Ale or an English style IPA. This is helpful because it lets the curious cook know which type of taste matches best with the food and other ingredients. You are still free, of course, to experiment and try something different, if you like. But these additional tips are useful for those who could use a little extra guidance.
Spruce up Your Next Meal
Beer makes for a great addition to many foods and The Craft Beer Cookbook is a very good guide for finding delicious recipes made with your favorite beer. Here at Great Beer Now headquarters, we have already sampled food from the book’s recipes- foods such as Maple Stout Baby Back Beef Ribs (shown in the image above) and Roasted Garlic Pale Ale Whipped Potatoes and we plan to try many more. The book could be improved with the inclusion of caloric and nutritional data, but The Craft Beer Cookbook is still a very good cookbook for those who want to experiment in the kitchen with their favorite foods and favorite brews.
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