Cooking with Beer Season by Season

Cooking can benefit greatly from the exotic, and subtle, tastes in traditional beers. Now becoming quite fashionable, cooking with beer in the United Kingdom has been pioneered by a small group of chef-landlords with true knowledge of beer culture. Ken Birch is one such. Recipes are presented for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each recipe contains a list of ingredients, cooking methods, and suggestions for serving. Importantly, there are also recommendations for beers as ideal liquid accompaniment for the food. Ken Birch attended catering college for two years, and then worked in catering for six years, including a spell part-time teaching. Leaving cooking for 25 years, he finally returned to kitchen duties, when from 1992 he ran various pubs in the Manchester area, eventually combining beer and food at The Kings Arms, Salford. In 1999 Ken was invited to submit recipes to Opening Times, a local CAMRA newspaper. The column continues to appear and most recipes in this book have evolved from the Ken's Kitchen column.