Bock to the Future!

By Carl Weiss

Image courtesy of Flickr

One of the reasons more than 300,000 people have watched my videos has to do with the fact that beer is an ingredient in more than a quarter of my recipes.  And why not, since it's a great way to add flavor to many dishes.  I mean, it probably won't enhance the taste of your cornflakes.  But it most definitely can add an extra kick to stews, soups, breads and barbecue, to name a few.  Since Octoberfest is right around the corner, I thought I would review some of the ways I have used the humble brewsky in a recipe or twosky.


Beer Makes for Better Bread

The very first recipe I made on the debut episode of Man Cave Munchies was beer bread.  That's because this recipe is so bulletproof, I don't even consider it cooking.  It's basic chemistry, where if you add the ingredients in the proper amounts and pop this bad boy in the oven for an hour, you wind up with crisp on the outside, soft on the inside bread with no yeast required.

What I failed to mention in the video was the fact that by changing the beer, you change the character of the bread.  There is a world of difference between bread made with pale ale, versus that made with bock beer or stout.  Granted, you have to be willing to sacrifice one bottle of premium beer to experiment.  Trust me, it's worth the effort.

Another bread recipe in which I substituted beer for traditional yeast was in my Crumpet Video.  If you like English muffins, you 'll love crumpets. They are easy to make, especially with beer.  (Maybe you should call them "Brumpets".) They don't require you to heat up the kitchen since they're made on  top of the stove.  Better still, they go great with jam in the morning, as well as being terrific to build sandwiches at lunch or to substitute for burger buns at dinner time.   Just as with the beer bread recipe, feel free to try different varieties of beer in the mix.   You'll never go back to buying store bought English muffins again.

Who Put the Bee in Beer-Bee-Cue?

If you've been a fan of mine for awhile, you've noticed that many of my barbecue videos employ beer.  In the past, I have beer-brined pork ribs, I have shoved a can of beer up a chicken's butt (it tastes better than it sounds), and I have used beer in my boozy version of barbecue sauce.  In my most recent episode, I even showed you how to make no fuss, no muss beer-based pizza dough in a food processor that I then baked on the barbecue.  My point is, if you're into cooking out (and what Man Caveman isn't?), then there are 101 uses for beer on the barbie.  Hence the name Beer-BQ.  To make your life even simpler, I recently added a tab to the ManCaveMunchies.com website for all you BBQ fanatics.  Click on the link to see some of my favorite BBQ episodes.

Beer Makes Everything Better

During the past four years my friends and I have shown you how to use beer to enhance Cajun cooking (Jambeerlaya).  I have demonstrated how to make some of the most succulent chicken wings imaginable  with my signature Beerfalo Wings recipe.  Heck, my brother even showed you how to make a delectable dessert called Beer Cupcakes.

So, there is no limit to the imaginative ways you can incorporate beer into all kinds of recipes.  If you have a favorite beer-based recipe, feel free to email it to me at mancavemunchies@gmail.com.  If I like it, I will feature it on an upcoming show.  Regardless, I guarantee you haven't seen the last of my culinary ability to cook with beer.  That's right, stay tuned for more upcoming videos when I get bock to the future.

For more beer-based recipes, go to http://ManCaveMunchies.com