Beer is starting to show up as a beverage at more and more dinner tables; there has been an ongoing trend towards recognizing the variety of flavors which this beverage can offer. People are starting to look at beer much in the same way that they regard wine and for beer lovers, it’s a wonderful thing. There’s a lot of culinary potential in beer and not just as an accompaniment to your meal; it’s also a great ingredient which deserves to be incorporated into a number of different dishes.

When most of us think of cooking with beer, we think of beer batter and perhaps chili; and that’s about all that comes to mind. However, beer is much more versatile as an ingredient than most people think – and there are in fact a lot of recipes which call for beer. There are recipes running the gamut from pasta dishes to desserts which include everyone’s favorite beverage and with so many to choose from, it would be a shame not to try some of them out.

Beer is a Kitchen Staple for any Recipe

Much as with wine, beer can be used as a braising liquid for meats or vegetables, where it gives a hint of its flavor to the other ingredients; much as it does in chili recipes and stews, where stouts and other dark beers are an especially popular ingredient. If you’re feeling like an experiment in the kitchen, it’s well worth trying this out the next time you’re at a loss as how to cook what’s sitting around in the refrigerator – you might be surprised at the results. Especially if you have a beer brewing kit, you’ll have plenty of home brew on hand to play around with.

With the colder months approaching, there are actually a great many recipes calling for beer which are tailored for the season; there are stuffing recipes which pair beer with rye bread, onions and spices, cabbage recipes and of course, as any Midwestern readers will already know, bratwursts boiled in beer can be one of life’s simple pleasures (year round).

Beer, especially dark beer, is also a natural in desserts, where its flavor blends with chocolate to create something which is definitely more than the sum of its parts. There are stout brownie recipes, chocolate puddings and mousses which incorporate dark beer and it also makes a good addition to mincemeat pies and other fruit and nut based desserts.

Since beer pairs so well with mustard, it would be a mistake not to mention that a beer and mustard based sauce goes wonderfully with everything from salads to steamed asparagus to seafood – and everything in between as well.

If you’re going to be enjoying a beer with dinner, you may want to try making it a part of the meal as well. There are a lot of uses for beer in the kitchen and if you’ve got a beer brewing kit handy, it’s all the more reason to try out some beer recipes.