Kentucky · Starter
Beer Cheese
- Easy
- 20 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a warm current of chile, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 400g sharp cheddar, grated
- 120ml flat beer, room temperature
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp Worcestershire
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- Pretzels, celery, and crackers
Equipment
Food processor · Grater / zester
The skills inside
The overnight rest: letting a dish marry
The words inside
Blenders: Immersion, High-Speed & Food Processor
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · fish · celery · mustard · alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Reviewed by hand
Method
- Let the cheese come to room temperature and grate it fresh.
- Put the cheese, garlic, mustard, Worcestershire, cayenne, and paprika in a food processor.
- With the motor running, pour in the flat beer a little at a time until it comes together into a smooth, spreadable paste.
- Taste and adjust the heat and salt.
- Chill at least 2 hours; it firms and the flavors meld. Serve with pretzels and vegetables. 120 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
The overnight rest: letting a dish marry 29 recipes
- Cooled quickly before it went in (spread out, decanted, or stood in cold water) rather than carried to the fridge hot in the pot it was cooked in.
- Protected from the rest of the fridge once cold: covered, or given space where nothing strong is sitting beside it. A rest this long is long enough to take on whatever it shares the shelf with, and some dishes want the open air.
- Given the whole time. This is the one technique whose entire content is waiting, and cutting it short leaves the dish exactly as it was when it went in.
- Brought back deliberately: reheated gently, or brought up to the temperature it is meant to be eaten at, rather than served straight out of the cold because it is late.
- Tasted and corrected AFTER the rest. Seasoning and brightness both flatten in the cold, so the dish is finished at the end of the wait rather than at the start of it.
Where it goes wrong It went into the fridge hot and covered. It held its own heat for hours in the range where food spoils, and the lid sweated and dripped back into it all night: what comes out is duller and wetter than what went in, which is the exact opposite of the point.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Alpine white (dry Riesling, Grüner)
- Also Right
- Champagne: bubbles scrub richness
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling apple
Melted cheese coats; acid and carbonation scrub: high-cut whites and Champagne keep the fondue from winning.
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