Slow-Cooked Beef in Milk Stout

Cooking with beer and matching food and beer are two of our favourite things, and this weekend I've done a bit of both.

Some of my favourite meals are slow-roasts, be it lamb, pork or beef and I often marinate and cook with beer as it is such a great tenderiser. I often use Belgian beers that have a sweetness as it can accentuate a lot of the flavours in the meat. There is nothing new or revolutionary about putting beef and stout together, but I was interested to see if the sweetness in the milk stout would work in a similar way.

For my recipe I marinated a brisket of beef in Milk Stout with garlic, thyme and rosemary. The brisket joint was browned in a frying pan with a good glug of olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. It then joined onions and more garlic in the roasting tin with the beer and more herbs. I roasted at 200C for about 30 mins before reducing the temperature to 130 c and covering the tin. 5 hours later a beautifully tender joint appeared and I made a delicious gravy with the beer, which had lost its sweetness but had a lovely oaty flavour. I served it up with horseradish mash and roasted carrots.

No. 7 with its rounded toffee malt flavour and moorish bitter finish was a great accompaniment to the tender beef.