Has Brewing Made You Into A Better Cook As Well?

[Bribie G]

I've always been the chef of the house (married several times, most couldn't cook to save their lives and 1 could cook 5 things that she learned in Home Ec so I have had to step up to the plate)

So I've been a reasonable to fairly good cook since my mid 20s. However over the last year I have been getting rave reviews and I put this down to my home brewing mindset carrying over into my cooking.

Example: it's winter so time for bacon bone soup. For years and years it has consisted of a pack of yellow split peas soaked till soft, bacon bones and a couple of onions cooked until soft then the flesh shredded and all ingredients into the slow cooker with appropriate amount of water and a bit of black pepper for six to eight hours.

This time, almost without thinking, I soaked the peas then did the bacon bone thing, then sauteed onions, finely chopped celery and a leek in olive oil, added turmeric and some coriander to colour and blended in pot with the rest of the ingredients plus two finely grated carrot and covered the whole lot with a litre of Campbells Chicken Stock.........The tasting crew went into raptures at dinner time.

Used to live on Nescafe, now I wouldn't drink an instant coffee if you paid me. Used to eat Dominos at least once a week, now I head for New York Slice if I feel like some Pizza. AARRGGGG

In my mind when I'm cooking nowadays I'm juggling flavours and textures and it's definitely hitting exactly the same spot as doing hop additions and working out specialist malts. Does anyone else find that their cooking brains have changed since taking up brewing? Chappo was saying that he's enrolled in a North African gourmet cooking course....

 

[troopa]

I critique the wife's cooking more these days like i do with a nice beer.. does that count?

BTW this usually doesn't go down too well with the chef

Tom

 

[Bribie G]

I critique the wife's cooking more these days like i do with a nice beer.. does that count?

BTW this usually doesn't go down too well with the chef

Tom

Especially if you start referring to her food as 'megaswill' h34r:

 

[Scruffy]

This time, almost without thinking, I soaked the peas for an hour then did the bacon bone thing, then sauteed some maris otter, finely chopped caraaroma and munich in olive oil, added carared and some chocolate malt to colour and blended in pot with the rest of the ingredients plus two finely grated Chinook Plugs and covered the whole lot with 27 litres of Campbells Chicken Stock.........Boil for 90 minutes, adding Styrian and fuggles...The tasting crew went into raptures at dinner time.

EFA...

Chappo was saying that he's enrolled in a North African Gourmet cooking course....

Quite...

 

[manticle]

Part and parcel. I've been interested in cooking since being a young lad, worked in kitchens for close to 10 years including half that time cooking. It's something I've never stopped enjoying and you should never stop learning or improving. I've only been brewing fo a couple of years but the interest in ingredients and process is what's pushed me away from kk as a cheap way of making booze into partial and hopefully soon AG brewing as a way of making good beer.

 

[chappo1970]

Actually I've always been the house chef and was into gourmet cooking long before homebrewing. But I reckon it's the opposite for me cooking has made me a better brewer. But the two arts certainly go hand in hand IMO.

Chappo

 

[mje1980]

Interesting thought. Im also the chef at home when not at work. I really enjoy it and 99% of the time that's my beer time, when cooking. I think the main thing is you realise fresh is better than canned, while being practical. I think there is something similar between the two for sure. Im cooking fried rice tonight, and i'll be smashing, ooops i mean drinking one of geoffi's mild ales. Only 2.4%, so im sweet to have a few!.

 

[Supra-Jim]

+1 for Chappo's comment.

I've always been a keen cook and probably done most of the cooking in our house. always like to experiment with new recipes and the like. I think that has been a positive influence on my brewing.

Cheers SJ

 

[Muggus]

For sure.
I think since i've got into good beer, i've also got into good food and wine.
And I think because I brew, I know what goes into and what it takes to make a good beer, and therefore have an interest how to apply that to food.
Also i love to try new ingredients and experiment with my brewing, and it's the same when cooking. Sure there's those dishes that you make all the time and they are no-fail dishes (pumpkin pesto pasta is mine), but I've evolved the recipe over time. Almost like going from Kit to Extract to Partial to AG sort of thing, probably not up to the AG equivelent, but I've moved from using pre-made pesto to making it myself and the results are so much more satisfying.

Edit: I also find i'm way more likely to use beer in cooking, and not just 'beer' but styles. Using rich stouts in casseroles rather than red wine, using pilsner or APA instead of white wine in sauces...that sort of thing. And having a huge supply of homebrewed beer saves having to buy wine!

 

[Bizier]

Yeah, I used some APA to deglaze a risotto last night because I had no stock left, and no wine on hand... Turned out great.

I reckon I'm thinking about my food cooking more deeply when I formulate a recipe. I used to just go with what I knew to be generally accepted complimentary flavours. Now I find myself thinking harder about isolated flavours and imagining how they will go together.

Hop additions have definitely trained me to prepare additions in advance and add them so many minutes before "flameout". I have also been experimenting with adding the same ingredient at different times to play with the different textures and cooking levels to create a more complex dish. This is directly a result of playing with hopping schedules.

 

[bum]

It definitely isn't doing anything for my cooking but it is opening up palate interms of merely thinking of things just as tasting good or bad. Perhaps that will eventuate in better cooking soon?

so I have had to step up to the plate)

Very enjoyable pun.

Yeah, I used some APA to deglaze a risotto last night because I had no stock left, and no wine on hand... Turned out great.

Been wanting to gave a go at this with Stones for some time but I think the boss would murder me.

 

[SDJ]

Dammed straight it has!! Ive been the one mainly in charge of the "outdoor" cooking, BBQ, campfire cooking the usual stuff, swapped over to ag a while ago and since then have made a meat smoker out of 44 gallon drum, got a weber amd a spit roast as well, its a regular thing around my place to find me brewing a batch of english county bitter, watching the spit roast turn (its almost hypnotic when you've had a few) and smoking some primo chilli beef jerky in the smoker.
Latest thing Im into is making sausages, gonna cook my first batch of chevap chi chi's tonight.
now where's those dehydrator plans??

 

[SDJ]

(--------- Damm fine boobs

 

[flattop]

I've been using beer in Risotto for some time, the Iti relatives love it.
I also use it in beef stews.
I am the primary cook in the house as the missus burns water but i think i've always had an interest in eating good food, my mother was an average cook for many years, meat and 3 veg every night makes you want variety. Used to love it when dad made shepherds pie for a change of taste.
That's the driving force for my experimentation, i hate eating the same stuff every day.

 

[warra48]

I love cooking, and experimenting with my own recipes, rather than cookbook/magazine stuff. Even mrs warra admits I'm a much better cook than her, but she doesn't enjoy the process, even though she does her share
.
Daughter dear (when she still lived at home) used to invite her friends for dinner, with the catch that her dad "makes the best lasagne ever".
I make soup every winter, with mince meat balls, home made stock, and loads of different veges and pasta. Brilliant, if I say so myself.

I love making Indonesian stir fries like Bami Goreng etc. I've recently discovered slow roasting of meat. Try a standing rib roast or a lamb leg cooked at about 130C for about 5 hours on the Weber. It just falls off the bone, gorgeous.

All that carries through into my brewing. I use others' recipes for inspiration, but my main love is designing my own. They don't always work, but I learn from each batch.

The two really go hand in hand. The cooking and brewing processes each make consumables, so they're not that different.
And in either case, the result is far superior usually to the main stream commercial output.

Edit: Spelling

 

[clean brewer]

Yes, Ive been cooking as my Trade for 15 years straight now and in a Fine Dining type of way normally, since ive been in the Bay, my Passion for cooking has dwindled somewhat due to the lack of demand for good food up here and the lack of quality produce...

But, i'm now putting more of my energies into Beer and refining/learning the brewing process as it really is like doing an apprenticeship again but its just a hobby which I love....

While I still enjoy cooking, id now/for now rather put my knowledge/brain into brewing beer...

CB

 

[daemon]

I'm still a very basic cook, about all I do well is steak and spag bol Wife does most of the cooking and is a bloody good cook. She likes most of my beers so it's a good trade. I do a fair amount of the gardening work too though, I try to grow as many fruit and veggies as I can (got a fourth veggie garden bed started) . It's a bit like beer really, there's a massive difference between dried herbs and ones picked minutes before use.

 

[Bizier]

Been wanting to gave a go at this with Stones for some time but I think the boss would murder me.

I think I remember someone using Stones in asian food. Unsure about ginger in a risotto, but I guess you could try some "90s fusion cuisine" angle.

I am keen to do APA steamed mussels because there is a killer seafood joint near me.

 

[bum]

Yeah, dunno if you stuck your beak into the thread where I was picking peoples brains on how to make Stones from scratch but I plan on using the non-wine part for stir-fries (I'm pretty sure that is grammatically correct but it still looks strange).

I know the ginger risotto is wrong but I can't help myself - I gotta try ginger in everything.

 

[Sammus]

mmhmm. expensive too. Now I have $4k worth of espresso gear, $1k of japanese chefs knives and whetstones, and a rediculous amount spent on cookware etc.. I don't know if I'm a much better cook, but cooking is one of my obsessions, so I like to imagine I'm better than average. I'm only young (relatively), but this is what I spend my $$ on instead of sick bodykits and spoilers and rims and subwoofers bro, like it seems so many others my age do.