The Ultimate Beer Lover's Cookbook

As a chef I have shelves full of cookbooks.  I've never counted them, but there are hundreds upon hundreds of cookbooks in my collection.  I have "serious" cookbooks devoted to proper techniques or devoted to a single subject such a foie gras.  I have bright and beautiful cookbooks in which the photographs seem to upstage the recipes.  I have cookbooks geared towards barbeque enthusiasts, chile heads, seafood aficionados, and hardcore carnivores.  I have cookbooks dating to the late 1800s, in which housewives were given tips on every aspect of "homemaking" and I have pamphlets from the mid twentieth century that came with kitchen appliances and filled with recipes, all using those appliances. 

I also have a whole collection of "fun" cookbooks.  These books take a light hearted approach to cooking.  This is not to say that they are not well researched or well written, oftentimes quite the opposite, but the approach they take is that food is an integral part of life, should be enjoyed and not always taken so seriously.  John Schlimm's book The Ultimate Beer Lover's Cookbook falls squarely in the middle of this last style.  

In The Ultimate Beer Lover's Cookbook, Mr. Schlimm sets out to offer the reader "an unprecedented collection of more than 400 food and drink recipes containing beer as a main ingredient."  How much more "fun" can you get?  The question I had to ask myself though, was, "can he actually pull it off?"  The answer to that question is both yes and no.

John Schlimm was born to write this book.  His great-great-grandfather, Peter Straub, founded one of the oldest breweries in the US, and he has authored a number of other books, including books on beer and brewing.  John certainly knows his stuff.  His introduction includes a wonderful, light hearted chronicle of beer's history, injecting amusing little anecdotes that keep the readers attention.  Also found scattered throughout the book are numerous beer quotes from some of history's most important people---not to mention Homer Simpson.  

Beyond the writing though, Mr. Schlimm has created a wonderful collection of recipes, and he certainly tries to cover all subjects as he injects beer into breakfast foods, fruit dishes, and desserts as well as the more standard soups, stews, breads and beverages.  Most of these recipes work wonderfully well, but there are a few recipes that seem to stretch the point a little and a couple that, I have to admit, I didn't dare try, though there are only a couple in the whole collection like that.  Overall though, his use of beer adds nicely to the recipes he has created.

While I think Schlimm's use of beer in such a wide range of recipes is admirable, I am bothered by the fact that all his recipes call for "beer."  What I mean by this is that all the recipes call for just "beer", and not a specific type, style or brand.  With all the variety of beer out there I would have liked to have seen the use of more specific beers that would further compliment the recipe.  For example the recipe for Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries calls for the making of a "beer batter".  While this would be good with your everyday, average beer, it would probably be even better if you used a fruit flavored wheat beer.  Beef stew is good with "beer" but even better with a Stout.  About the furthest John goes is to suggest a light beer in a couple of recipes.  With this book being "more than 10 years in the making" it would have been nice to have gone the extra step to make these recipes really "wow" people. 

 

I also have a small issue with the fact that the book states that it contains over 400 recipes with beer as the "main" ingredient.  There are numerous recipes in which beer plays only a minor role, and in some would not probably even be missed if eliminated altogether, but I find this to be a minor issue compared with the other.

Overall this is a wonderfully "fun" cookbook.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading it and imagine I will find myself re-reading time again for the quotes alone.  More importantly though, I found the recipes good, some even great when I took it upon myself to use specific beers to enhance the flavors already created in the recipe.  I would not be surprised if this book sees quite a bit of use in my home kitchen.

Recipe: Soaked Pork Loin