Cooking with malts: a waste of good whisky?

by **Di Blasi** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:19 pm

The better the ingredients, the better the outcome!!!

by **Bullie** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 12:25 pm

irishwhiskeychaser wrote:Yes we call is a flambé too ....

Brilliant! Then I've learnt something new today as well.

Thanks IWC!

by **zarb** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 10:48 pm

I didn't think the type of whisky made much difference in cooking but I just made a whisky cream/green peppercorn sauce for steak with Jameson and it was much nicer than the previous one I'd made with the Famous Grouse I'd got for christmas, but maybe it really doesn't matter when you flambe. Not sure I'd try cooking with single malts, partly because of the cost, plus I find adding ice to them is bad enough- I don't know about diluting them with a host of other ingredients...

by **Muskrat Portage** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:35 am

"I like to cook with whisky, and sometimes I put it in the food."
Seriously, I would like to try one or two of the recipes in WM which use whisky in a dessert. It's been too hot and humid to cook until now but I'll try them out later in the fall and post the results. I don't feel it would be a waste as a fine whisky may very well enhance the flavours, and isn't flavour why we all enjoy SM's?
Muskrat

by **Deactivated Member** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 11:14 am

Unlike cooking with beer and wine, SMW is too powerful a flavouring to cook with - and also a criminal disregard of the years of dedication in its making.
Rather than cooking with whisky, we should be looking to pair foods to accompany whisky. That way we get the best of everything.

by **dram_time** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:31 pm

At the front of 'Le Repertoire De La Cuisine', the only cookery book that matters, it states....

"it is impossible for the chef or cook to do excellent cooking if the 'fonds de cuisine' (fundamental elements of cookery) are not made with the best ingredients obtainable"

so no, it is not a waste to use fine malt in cooking, infact, it would be wrong to use any thing but the finest malts.

Dt.

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:44 pm

I've never cooked with whisky and, to be honest, it has always struck me as a gimmick to sell food to whisky lovers in restaurants. In particular - heresy to say it - I have never found whisky and haggis to be a very good match. The haggis is too salty and peppery to go with the sweetness of whisky. They just spoil one another.

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:59 pm

I don't know if I would go so far as to say you should use "the finest malts". Throwing a few ounces of Balvenie '66 into the sauce seems an alarming prospect! I think this is a question of balance, and not a black-and-white, yes-or-no proposition. I would agree with the thought that if you wouldn't drink it, don't eat it, but it will depend on exactly what it is you're making. There may be some things that will demand particular ingredients, a peat or sherry monster maybe; and others for which any good everyday malt will do, Sainsbury's sale bottle maybe. I don't drink bourbon, really, but I have no problem with it in a barbecue sauce. Hey, I don't much care for black olives, but I just ate a sandwich full of them. Case by case. The chef will judge exactly how the particular ingredients will affect the final dish.

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:03 pm

Nick, you're not alone in your assessment--can't remember where I read it recently, but someone or other was saying that one should never, ever pour whisky on a haggis. Since I've never quite been able to bring myself to eat one, I have no opinion on the matter. (I have been too traumatized by video footage of ruthless hunters clubbing cute little baby haggises on the ice floes.)

by **Jobi** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:31 pm

zarb wrote:I didn't think the type of whisky made much difference in cooking but I just made a whisky cream/green peppercorn sauce for steak with Jameson and it was much nicer than the previous one I'd made with the Famous Grouse I'd got for christmas, but maybe it really doesn't matter when you flambe. Not sure I'd try cooking with single malts, partly because of the cost, plus I find adding ice to them is bad enough- I don't know about diluting them with a host of other ingredients...

Zarb, sounds pretty good. Care to post the recipe?

by **dram_time** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:08 pm

A whisky cream sauce with haggis is very good.

Dt.

by **Iain** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:23 pm

Mr T, those guys weren't clubbing the haggises.

They were tenderizing them.

by **Wave** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:07 am

I've had a whisky and peppercorn cream sauce on a venison steak this year at the Lochside in Bowmore and in years past I had a wonderful chocolate mousse made with (I believe) Glenfarclas whisky at the Archiestown Hotel (highly recommended) in Speyside.

Cheers!

by **Deactivated Member** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:27 am

MrTattieHeid wrote:Since I've never quite been able to bring myself to eat one, I have no opinion on the matter. (I have been too traumatized by video footage of ruthless hunters clubbing cute little baby haggises on the ice floes.)

I think we covered this topic last year :lol:

by **TreacleSponge** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 10:03 am

MrTattieHeid wrote:Nick, you're not alone in your assessment--can't remember where I read it recently, but someone or other was saying that one should never, ever pour whisky on a haggis. Since I've never quite been able to bring myself to eat one, I have no opinion on the matter. (I have been too traumatized by video footage of ruthless hunters clubbing cute little baby haggises on the ice floes.)

To go completely off topic, have you tried vegetarian haggis? I regularly cook veggie haggis (with onion gravy for myself, and whisky sauce for my hubby) and they do a good one at the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre in Edinburgh too. We use MacSween's http://www.macsween.co.uk/veg_haggis.htm It's fabulous and not a club in sight

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:10 pm

A vegetarian haggis is an oxymoron.

Haggis contains blood, lungs, heart, liver, suet, onions and oatmeal, wrapped in stomach. The vegetarian version is presumably just onions and oatmeal.

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:26 pm

Nick Brown wrote:A vegetarian haggis is an oxymoron.

I was going to say that! But it's just like whisky, I suppose--if someone likes it, that's just dandy with me. The proof is in the, uh, haggis. I think real haggis is just offal (that's supposed to be a pun, folks).

So far as I know, the Scotch Haggis Association has not yet issued guidelines for what may or may not be called a haggis.

by **bamber** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:29 pm

I used to love haggis - I used to get deep fried haggis in batter from the chip shop, when I visited my brother in Edinburgh (he was a student there).

Since becoming a vegetarian, I've eaten veggie haggis a few times. Nyeh it's ok, but the only thing it shares with real thing is its name

by **TreacleSponge** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:09 pm

Nick Brown wrote:A vegetarian haggis is an oxymoron.

Of course it is

Nick Brown wrote:Haggis contains blood, lungs, heart, liver, suet, onions and oatmeal, wrapped in stomach.

...which is why I've only ever eaten the veggie version :wink:

Cooking with malts: a waste of good whisky?

Cooking with malts: a waste of good whisky?

Cooking with whisky