I sincerely hope the committee that hands out Nobel Prizes in the science fields have taken notice of one Texas chef who recently achieved a gastronomical breakthrough: deep-fried beer.
That’s right. According to this report: The beer is placed inside a pocket of salty, pretzel-like dough and then dunked in oil at 375 degrees for about 20 seconds, a short enough time for the confection to remain alcoholic. When diners take a bite the hot beer mixes with the dough in what is claimed to be a delicious taste sensation.
Inventor Mark Zable said it had taken him three years to come up with the cooking method and a patent for the process is pending. He declined to say whether any special ingredients were involved.
Zable will introduce the dish at a fried-food competition in Texas later this month. He’ll serve five of the ravioli-like bites for a very modest $5. If any of our Texas readers plan on attending this food festival, please report back to the Wild Chef (fswildchef@gmail.com) and let us know how they tasted.
This dish sounds like the perfect hunting camp side dish. But the question is, what wild game do you think it’d go best with? I’m thinking it’d taste mighty fine next to a slab of grilled backstrap. Any other suggestions? —Colin Kearns
I hear it is a bit of a disappointment from someone in the know. Now, if they wanted to make a good fried beer they would have wrapped the pocket around an oyster and then injected beer and then deep fried it. but my understanding is the beer squirts out everywhere on the first cut with the fork and just makes a mess.
They did deep fried thick cut bacon the year I worked the Fair. Damn tasty stuff. Might have to run over there this year to try the two winners this year. Along with the beer, which won most inventful, deep fried frito chili pie won the best overall fried dish. Best time I ever had was working the State Fair. I remember on the last night, the catfish nugget vendor came by and asked if anyone wanted the leftover live catfish. Went home with a mid-size cooler filled with catfish.
You’ve got to get proper bacon though, not the belly bacon we grew up with. Just fry up a few pieces and have yourself a bacon sandwich. Unbelievably good.
Yes it is. :) He can call it whatever he likes though, it’s delicious. I live in a neighborhood with a bunch of Irish guys who work for microsoft, they helped him with taste testing to get it right. He drives a truck up once a month to deliver to the MS campus, there’s a huge list of people who order every month. I glom on every now and then, the sausages are really good too.
And if I could get a sample of some Taylor Ham he’s willing to try making that . . . ;D
I like bacon sliced relatively thin and fried on an iron skillet. There has to be a significant fat content in it for it to have savory flavor. Like this.
There’s a fantastic restaurant in Montreal called Au Pied du Cochon, they serve a fried foie gras, comes in a little cube, I believe it’s flash fried - I think frying something slowly or at a low temp would be bad bad bad with this.
Theoretically, you could fry beer by itself, but you’d need to gelatinize (NOT Jello, actual gelatin; comes in sheets) it first, and then get it super cold (but not frozen) so the gelatin holds up to the heat. coat it in flour, then dip it in (beer? buttermilk? etc?) then back in the flour. Fry it in a deep fryer. That should work.
Maybe I’ll try this sometime next month. Also of note, you’d probably need to use flat beer. Not sure how the carbonation would behave with the gelatin.
I’ve eaten there MANY times. Love the confit lamb shank, the fries cooked in duck fat, and yes, the foie gras cube! It’s tough to get a seat in there sometimes, no matter what day of the week it is.
