Belgian Beef Stew 🇧🇪
Unlocking the Secrets to Perfect Carbonnade... in record time! `
As Summertime drifts into Autumn, now is the time to start thinking of cooking cool-weather dishes that are soul satisfying and delicious.
I’ve received nothing but good feedback from the Provence Lamb Stew 🇫🇷 that dropped two weeks ago. Expect more content using lamb, goat and other under-appreciated ingredients.
Keep an eye out next week for the Mushroom Guide 🍄 I’ll be dropping here on Substack for you all… make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss it 🙌
Today we are taking a trip to Belgium 🇧🇪 ✈️, home of a rich beer culture, and unlocking the secrets to one of the national dishes: Stewed Beef & Beer.
Carbonnade Flamande, or “stoofvlees”), is unique to Belgium in large part because of the specific beer that makes this stew so delicious.
Tender beef, in a sweet and sour sauce that is made up in large part by trappist ale (beer), served over butter noodles (traditionally) provides a unique and wonderful flavor bomb that is memorable and comforting.
The beer used here is very important.
Belgian beer offers a wide variety of flavors and styles that make pairing with food very fun and enjoyable… but which Belgian beer do we need to make our Carbonnade?
Let’s briefly discuss ⬇️
Quick Belgian Beer Intro
Long before the Beer-Can Chicken craze… one area of the world has been making beer for centuries…
Belgian beer making has been traced all the way back to the 11th Century (~1000 A.D.). Over that vast amount of time, monks in monasteries have been producing exciting and delicious beers in various styles.
Classifications
There are now strict classifications for certain Belgian beers.
The biggest distinction is Trappist Beer vs Abbey Beer
Trappist Beer
To be labeled a Trappist Beer there are a number of factors that must be verified.
Brewery must be a monastery
The monks must play a role in its production
Profits from the sales must be used to support the monastery or other social programs outside of it.
At last count, only 10 monasteries meet these qualifications, 6 in Belgium, 2 in The Netherlands, 1 in Austria, and 1 in the United States.
Abbey Beers
This is is a much more lenient classification.
Any monastery or monastic-style beer can be labeled “Abbey”. That means a non-trappist monastery can partner with a commercial beer maker in the process. This gives large advantages for scaling as the monastery “oversees” the process.
Abbey beers have often been known to use fictitious characters for marketing and branding.
Belgian Beer Styles 🍻
There are many styles here so we are going to cover a few of the major styles.
Dubbel
Think of this as brown ales. Malty and slightly sweet up front, flavors like dried fruit, raisins, warming spices are common in these beers. Usually 6-9% ABV.
Quadrupel
Quads are basically Dubbels on steroids. The ABV hits up close to 12% and has a more intense and strong flavor.
Tripel
Tripels are beautiful golden color and have ABV’s ranging from 7-11%. The flavor profile is much lighter and you can expect flavors like apple, pear, banana, orange, clove and nutmeg.
These are dangerous because they are so crushable and delicious, but that elevated ABV can sneak up on you quickly 😂
Saison
One of my favorite food pairing beers, Saison is a farmhouse ale that was typically made in the fall and winter with excess wheat leftover from harvest.
Pale, dry, and highly carbonated, expect notes of citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit) a mild peppery and a floral blast from hops. Making this one of the most versatile beers to pair with food.
If in doubt… pair a saison with your meal. Spicy? Fried? Seafood? Roast Chicken?
Saison works with it all 🙌
Sour Ales (Lambic & Gueuze)
Need to mention this category because it’s an important, but not mainstream popular.
Dry, funky and sour… these ales have a bracing acidity. The process is fascinating because wild yeasts are bacteria from the environment are what is used to produce the ferment. This is called spontaneous fermentation.
Many times you’ll see a fruit component in traditional sour lambics like cherry or raspberry that are very delicious IMO.
Types of yeast that are used in the fermentation make a huge flavor difference but we aren’t going to get into that today. Just keep in mind two of the same style beers from different producers can have very different flavors in large part because of yeast variation.
Ok, we’ve got the Belgian beer stuff
Back to Belgian Beef Stew! ⬇️
When making this stew you want to use a dubbel or quad. A brown ale with those malty, dried fruit and warming spice flavors. I’ve got specific producers listed below and also substitutions if you can’t these styles.
I’m also going to show you a few steps to really amp up the flavors in this stew that will be very different from the Provencal Lamb stew we recently did.
While there are a lot of Carbonnade(Belgian Beef Stew) recipe variations floating around, this will be only the one you need. Dialed in and flavors that will make you & yours “oooh” & “ahhh”. 🤌🤌🤌
Lets cook 🐙 👨🍳 🔪
