Why do people put Guinness in chocolate cakes and stews, and what else is it good in?
Tony, Birmingham
“Guinness brings sweet, savoury, malty notes with an addictive bitterness,” says chef and restaurateur Robin Gill. Just like Marmite, he says, “people who like it absolutely love it”, and it’s not hard to see why. When deployed in those cakes and stews, Guinness adds a great depth of flavour, which is why Dee Rettali, co-founder of Fortitude Bakehouse in London, includes it in her chocolate cake. “It also helps with the fermentation, because we keep the prepared batter for two days before baking,” she says. “The batter is then bubbly and stouty, which gives the cake a rich, slightly bitter, coffee taste that is beautifully offset by a sweet, creme fraiche icing.”
Including something sweet is, in fact, the key to cooking with Guinness. “As it cooks, Guinness tends to get a little more bitter,” says Paul Flynn, author of Butter Boy, “so I would always include something like redcurrant jelly or maple, golden or apple syrup.” Gill, meanwhile, adds honey when turning Guinness into a glaze for meat. “We combine caramelised honey, Guinness, Lea & Perrins and beef stock, and reduce; it’s a sticky chicken wing kind of glaze, and it’s much more interesting than standard barbecue sauce.” (You could also use stout instead of wine; Gill adds it to onion soup, topped with mandatory cheesy croutons: “That’s super-tasty, especially coming into winter.”) Flynn also pours the black stuff into a batter for fish and seafood: “It goes particularly well with oysters,” he says. “I’ve been known to make a sabayon of Guinness, egg yolk and cayenne pepper to put over the oysters and then grill.”
Guinness also welcomes smoked flavours, so keep that in mind for, dare I say it, Christmas. “Incorporate Guinness into a treacle soda bread, and serve that with smoked salmon, a really perky, hot horseradish sauce and maybe some batons or slices of apples,” Flynn says. Any leftover bread should, of course, go into ice-cream, or, as Gill puts it, “the nicest ice-cream you’ll ever have”. He caramelises honey, chucks in soda breadcrumbs and toasts in a pan: “You’re almost making a Guinness honeycomb, which you then simply fold through ice-cream.” Alternatively, do as Gill does at his south London restaurant Darby’s, and swap some of the milk in an ice-cream base for Guinness. “If you reduce the Guinness by a third, you’ll bring out the sweetness and cook off the alcohol,” Gill adds. But be careful: if you reduce it more than that, it “tends to get overly bitter”. Once reduced, Guinness would also fly in a chocolate mousse: “Take out some of the cream and replace it with a bit of Guinness instead.”
Tony’s question is particularly well-timed, because Guinness welcomes winter spices – think cloves, juniper, allspice, cinnamon. A steamed syrup pudding is, Flynn says, an excellent example: “Add Guinness and some maple or golden syrup, and it will be amazing.” As with all good relationships, it’s important to take things slowly, though. “Because of the bitterness, play around with Guinness in moderation at first,” Flynn advises. Do that, he says, and you’ll find a “worthwhile burst of flavour”.
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