Food pairing by L Gros

November 1998 Volume 21, Issue 11

Food Pairing

by Lisa Gros

For the September meeting I put together a little food and beer tasting experiment. The goal of the experiment was to see if there was a common food/beer combination that people agree on, and if so, why.

Method:

Each person was given a plate of food consisting of melon wrapped in proscuitto, calamata olives, mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette, and slices of smoked turkey or black forest ham aram sandwiches. They were then given four samples of beer. (Don’t you wish you made the meeting!) They were not told the brand name or the style of beer; they were simply asked to pick which food went best with which beer and why.

Like the food, I picked a wide range of beer styles, from light to dark, from sweet to bitter. Also, I selected the Anchor products because they are well made, consistent beers. The Rogue beer was a crap shoot which turned out to be interesting as far as the experiment went, but I probably would not go out of my way to buy it, and I chose an IPA because IPA seemed to me to be the Chardonnay of Beers – varying widely in terms of bitterness and fruitness, and overall hard to pair with food. Lagunitas is a good IPA and it is not excessively hoppy.

Beer Number	Beer Name
1	Anchor Wheat Beer
2	Rogue Red Ale
3	Lagunitas IPA
4	Anchor Porter

Results:

Summary of Resuts
Food Name	Best	Worst	Comments
Melon	2	1	Beer 3 came in a close second
Olives	1 and 4	2	Beer 1 and 4 tied for best, although two people did not like 1 with the olives.
Salad	4	2	Beer 4 won overwhelmingly
Sand	2	2	No one dislike any of the beer with the Aram sandwiches, and only 3 out of the eight people even picked a worst beer.

Interestingly enough most people like beer 4, the Anchor Porter, with most foods, and this choice was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that it was most people’s favorite beer – especially Bob Wilcox. But the notion that dark beer goes with everything from appetizers to desserts is an anomaly. It is kind of like the Red Wine of Beers – the belief that you need rich strong flavors to stand up to the beer. However, what was also apparent is that some people went for contrasting flavor, while others tended to like more complimentary ones. With the olives, the Anchor Porter, which is a rich, malty beer with a roast character, stood up to the strong flavors of the olives and also there was little in the way of bitterness for the saltiness in the olives to enhance. The compliment of the salad and the porter is more expected. Again, the rich malt character complimented the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar, but the acid in the vinegar ensured that the sweetness was not cloying.

Beer 2 was a love/hate relationship. Its malty character and balanced nature paired well with the sandwiches and the Melon course, but not with the olives and the salad. The melon course contains sweetness from the melon, but also a saltiness from the cured proscuitto. This result gives us an important clue about pairing an amber ale with food. You probably want to pair this beer with foods that are more balanced in nature, or that err on the sweet side as opposed to the bitter.

Beer 1, the Anchor Wheat, is a neutral beer that is somewhat dry. I was very surprised that it paired excellently with the olives: the olives brought out the sweetness in the Anchor Wheat. Maybe wheat beer is not as good as you would assume it would be with sweet foods (It place worst with the Melon). Try spicy foods with wheat as it might neutralize salty and spicy foods

No one paired beer 3, the IPA, as the best or the worst combination . I thought that it paired well with the melon, surprisingly, because the sweetness of the melon mellowed the bitterness. Conversely, I did not think it went well with the olives because they brought out a weird bitterness in the beer.

Conclusions:

I think we were all surprised at the results of our experiment. We saw that dark malty beer pair well with a wide array of foods, where IPAs don’t pair easily with food. Balanced beers tend to go well with balanced food and try wheat beer with spicy foods. But what of the food. The Aram sandwiches were the most balanced of all the foods presented. They had elements of a wide variety of flavors and textures. This food went the best with all the type of beers and allow the greatest flexibility in pairings. The olives, a common appetizers, are hard to pair with beer, although it seem that the extreme beers, porter and wheat, went best with the olives. Most thought that the Melon was the worst combination to go with the beer.

In pairing, there are no rules, as we saw in our experiment. Individual tastes are quite varied. But it is always a good idea to try out your pairing combination before you serve them to your guests. Conclusive or not, our pairing prove to be a great source of conversation.

Detailed Results:

Melon Wrapped in Proscuitto
Name	Best	Worst	Comments
Bob J.	3		Contrast of flavors Bitter and Sweet
Lewis	2 (3,4)	1	Complimenting Floral Aroma. Beer 1 got overwhelmed
Charlie	2		Melon brought out the maltiness in beer 2
Bob W.	4		Toasted / roasted flavor went well. Liked beer 4 will all food
Darrel	2	1	Beer 2 complimented food. Beer 1 had too much contrast.
Bryan	2 (1)	3 (4)	Beer 2 was balanced and went well with melon. Beers 3 & 4 took away the malty sweetness.
Bruce	3 (4)	1	Bigger flavor held up.
Lisa	3	1	Beer 3 brought out the sweetness. Beer 1 brought out the harsh bitterness.

Calamata Olives
Name	Best	Worst	Comments
Bob J.	1		Lightness of beer 1 cut the saltiness of the olives.
Lewis	4	1	Beer 4 was the only one big enough to stand up to the olives. Beer 1 got overwhelmed.
Charlie	1	2 (3)	Salt in olives brought out the bitterness in beer 2 and 3.
Bob W.	4	2	Beer 4 complex enough to stand up to the strong olive flavor. Olives brought out the bitterness in beer 2.
Darrel	1	2	Beer 1 was a complimenting contrast.
Bryan	4	2	Beer 4 stood up to olives well. Olives threw beer 2 out of wack.
Bruce	4	1	Beer 4 stood up to olives; beer one tasted like mass commerical brew.
Lisa	1	3	Beer 1 complimented in a contrasting way. Olives brought out sweetness in beer 1 and the ugly bitterness in beer 3.

Mixed Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Name	Best	Worst	Comments
Bob J.	4		Roasted characters in beer 4 contrast sweetness of vinegar.
Lewis	3		Floral character in beer 3 made salad taste better.
Charlie	4	3	Beer 4 struck a balance between sweet malt and acid. The bitterness in beer 3 did not go with vinegar.
Bob W.	3	2	Salad brought out fruitness in beer 3, but the bitterness in beer 2.
Darrel	4	2	Balsamic vinegar went well with roasted character of beer 4, but was terrible with beer 2.
Bryan	4	2	Salad brought out roasted character of beer 4, but watered down beer 2.
Bruce	1 (4)	3	Salad left tart flavor when combined with beer 3.
Lisa	4	2	Salad and roasted character good combo, but brought out a funky bitterness in beer 2.

Aram Sandwiches with Smoked Turkey or Black Forest Ham
Name	Best	Worst	Comments
Bob J.	2		Most balanced beer with balance food. Complimentary.
Lewis	2		Beer 2 most neutral.
Charlie	2		Beer 2 heavier than beer 1, but in general went well with all beers.
Bob W.	2		See above
Darrel	3 (4)
Bryan	3	2
Bruce	1	3	Neutral sandwich with neutral beer. Sandwich accentuated bitterness in beer 3.
Lisa	4	2

Updated: October 27, 1998.