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Spirited Foods - June 2008Time to take a little time off talking about beer and food to explore the partnership of spirits and cuisine, courtesy of a little work I did a while back for Wine Enthusiast Magazine. A decade ago, while visiting Bardstown, Kentucky, for the then-nascent Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I repaired the first night to a local steakhouse for dinner with a fellow drinks writer. Being the kind of person who lives the adage of "think global, drink local" - well, most of the time, at least - and Kentucky hardly being a superb state for beer or wine, I decided to my colleague's surprise that the drink to accompany my rare sirloin should be a bourbon, neat. Little did I know how cutting edge I was being! These days, dining with spirits is, if not exactly all the rage, at least gaining more widespread acceptance. And so it should! The selection of spirits available to North American consumers today is greater and more diverse than ever before, and as our awareness of food and beverage pairings grows, broadening to wines and beers from around the globe, in almost every conceivable style, varietal and flavor, it only makes sense that spirits should join the party. But still, steak with whiskey? Gin with a stir-fry? Rum at the barbecue? This is going to take some getting used to. It's understandable that the prospect of a bottle of small batch bourbon or aged rum at the table should cause some diners, and more dinner party hosts, a certain degree of discomfort. since associations with hard drinking, developed through years of watching pirate movies and westerns, die particularly hard. So it follows that the first step in introducing spirits to mealtime is to change the way they are perceived. Aroma and Strength Glassware and water go a long way in this regard, further, it needs be said, than mixers and cocktail recipes, since the latter change not so much the image of the spirit as the composition and taste of the drink. (Which is not to say that cocktails have no role to play in food pairing; they do, as noted in the sidebar.) A chilled gin served in a slim flute, elegantly garnished with a sliver of a lemon twist, on the other hand, or an Islay single malt offered in a thin-lipped, tulip-shaped glass designed to let loose all of its peaty goodness, well, those certainly present a different look than a shot glass or chunky tumbler. A different flavor, too, since as with wine, what you smell when you taste spirits will strongly affect what flavors you perceive. So a glass with a wide flare will allow a greater dilution of the aroma and flavor, while a narrower lip will better concentrate the nose of the spirit and thus intensify its taste. Which you choose should depend not only on the aesthetics of your table, but the flavor potency of the dish being presented. Water is also your friend in food and spirits pairing, since adjusting the proof of a whisky or rum or even flavored vodka will affect not just the concentration of its taste, but even the actual composition of flavors, since some notes muted by the presence of, say, 46% alcohol will become abundantly evident when sipped at 60 proof. So a single barrel bourbon that offers spicy vanilla notes at its bottled strength, for example, may turn more fruity and rounded once a measure of water is added. Begin with Geography Since matching spirits and food is a new realm for most people, a useful place to start is by combining regional foods with their local spirits. Again, this parallels a common approach to wine, since the cuisine of many a wine-producing region has evolved alongside the wine or wines that have grown dominant in that same district. On the more traditional side of the spirits ledger, then, we have such pairings as Highland whisky and haggis, which is both a very long-standing match and, for those who can overcome their squeamishness, quite delicious. Likewise, many a Norman cheese is wonderfully complemented by the calvados so beloved in France's northern, apple-growing areas, and the breaded meatball snacks known in Holland as bitterballen appear to have been invented to be accompanied by that country's precursor to gin, genever. In the New World, the geographic pairings persist, with a surprising amount of Mexican food matching wonderfully with tequila, especially of the añejo variety, and Jamaican jerk spicing partnering beautifully with the particularly fruity dark rums of that nation. Even in the American south, we find regional harmony between barbecue rubs and sauces and Kentucky bourbon, although American straight rye might be preferred when hot sauce forms a significant part of the recipe equation. Moving Forward Being the products of distillation, it may not appear at first that spirits could possess flavors harmonious with those of food, but when they are examined a little more closely, it becomes apparent that many do. In some instances, this is directly a result of fruits, herbs or spices being used in the creation of the spirits - think flavored vodkas and the juniper-led botanical bonanza that is gin - while in others such tastes result from the way in which the liquor is treated. Wood, of course, plays a great role in the latter case. New, charred American white oak barrels, for example, contribute vanilla and spice notes, among other food-y flavors, to bourbon, while those same containers reused in Scotland add a touch of those same aspects, plus some of bourbon's natural fruitiness, to many a malt whisky. In Cognac, the famed French limousin oak provides a similar, if decidedly muted, set of food flavor notes to that region's great brandies, while a variety of woods, including used bourbon barrels, are used to contribute complex tastes to Caribbean rums. Once identified, then, it becomes a relatively straight forward matter of harmonizing the flavors of the food with those of the spirit. So by understanding that bourbons frequently contain strong notes of vanilla and fruit, it starts to follow logically that a rich Kentucky whiskey with a round and fruity character, such as Buffalo Trace, might pair well with a chocolate dessert, given that vanilla is a strong component flavor of chocolate. Or that a relatively full-bodied, aromatic Plymouth-style gin, such as, well, Plymouth Gin, could serve very well alongside a fennel salad or even a fennel-accented cioppino, and the sweet fruitiness of an aged island rum like Appleton Reserve might help temper the heat of a heavily peppered stew or curry. Along those same lines, perhaps the easiest spirits in the world to pair with foods are flavored vodkas, as I discovered when experimenting recently with cheese and spirits partnerships. Knowing that goat cheeses tend to harmonize well with fruit compotes, I decided to try a few fruit-infused vodkas, rather improbably including even the grapefruit-flavored Absolut Ruby Red, and found that each and every one worked well, albeit each in a different way. Respect Tradition, But Don't Be Afraid to Elaborate With certain spirits, tradition has done half of your pairing work for you. In Scandinavia, for example, it is not uncommon to partner vodka with a variety of smoked and cured fish, which should lead you immediately towards the idea of reaching for a bottle of characterful, lightly spicy vodka such as the Icelandic Reyka when you have fish on the menu, especially when it is unencumbered by strong-tasting sauces or spicing. (Although I have even found a lightly chilled glass of Reyka to make a fine partner for an ordinary tuna fish sandwich!) Further expanding your tasting palate, consider that the Scots eat a great deal of lamb, which not coincidentally marries well with some of that nation's mellower whiskies, such as the Lowland malt, Bladnoch, when the meat is served medium, or with a sweeter, fruitier malt like the Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish when it is offered rare. From there, it's just a short step to a garlicky lamb kabob paired with a spicy malt like Aberlour, slightly diluted for refreshment, or a lamb stew partnered with a peatier offering, such as a balanced Islay malt like Coal Ila or the stereotype-defying Connemara from Ireland, which puts to lie the myth that Irish whiskeys are by definition not smoky. And Finally, Dessert Of all a meal's courses, without question the easiest to pair with spirits, and not coincidentally the one most commonly so married, is dessert. This, I believe, has less to do with flavor affinities - although it's hard to argue against the value of a naturally vanilla-flavored liqueur such as Grand Marnier's new Navan with chocolate or even pineapple cake, or a sweet-yet-complex Drambuie with a custard or crème brûlée - than it does with familiarity and comfort level. When the sweet course is served, we think "okay, dinner is over," and so it becomes socially acceptable bring out the brandies, whiskies and liqueurs, since the time for wine is also deemed to have passed. Still, we tend to exploit only marginally the potential of spirits at even this stage of the meal, setting out a variety of sweet liqueurs for everyone to choose from, rather than making a single ideal pairing with which to finish the night. A balanced chocolate mousse, for example, which is neither too sweet not overly cocoa-ish in taste, can put an exclamation point on the evening when paired with a balanced, flavorful Canadian whisky like the artisanal Forty Creek. Or partner dark and milk chocolate in a tart, with ripe fruit on the side, and seal the deal by serving with it a glass of a rounded, fruity bourbon like Woodford Reserve. Even a store-bought apple pie served warm makes for a simple but luxurious end to the meal when it is served with a glass of full-bodied calvados like Coeur de Lion VSOP at its side. In the End After all is said and done, the marriage of spirits and food is not all that different from the pairing of wine with fine cuisine, the goal of each being to craft gastronomic harmonies through mostly complementary, but sometimes contrasting relationships. Where the two part company, of course, is when flavor intensity comes in to play, since you would hardly consider watering a wine to dilute its strength, as you would a spirit. What spirits do bring to the table that wine does not, however, is the ability to alter gastronomic preconceptions with a pairing that surprises as much as it delights. And what host doesn't love sending their guests home with a dining story to tell the next day? Feature Articles
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