Plate mates

Some 800,000 hectolitres of Budweiser Budvar are sold every year in its home nation of the Czech Republic. The beers are enjoyed both as a quality beer to savour on its own or as an ideal accompaniment to the nation's hearty food.

While Czech food has had less direct influence on UK pub menus than other styles of cuisine such as Italian or French and is a less obvious choice to match with specific dishes such as Birra Moretti with pizza or San Miguel with tapas, the similarity between traditional Czech food and hearty pub dishes means it's no surprise that Budvar has become an increasingly popular beer to enjoy with food down the Great British pub.

So what dishes best lend themselves to perfect partnerships with Budvar Original, regarded as one of the world's great lager conditioned beers, and Budvar dark, which gets its delicious roasted flavour from being brewed from three types of malt; Munich, caramel and roasted.

Jean Phillipe Bidart, Pub Chef of the Year 2011 and head chef at the Millbrook Inn, South Pool, Devon, gained match-making ideas when he visited Budweiser Budvar's brewery in Ceské Budejovice in Southern Bohemia and enjoyed a masterclass about beer and food matching at the

Budvar brewery-run Masné Krámy restaurant in the town.

The Masné Krámy serves an average 400 covers daily with Budweiser Budvar accounting for 95% of total drink sales. This single site accounts for 5% of Budvar's total beer sales in the Czech Republic. The restaurant's best-selling dishes include goulash, pork ribs and trout. The menu also features dishes using Budvar's beers, including fillet of pork medallions with onion and bacon in Budvar dark sauce; sausages baked in dark beer, and home-made pickled sausage from the Budvar fermentation cellar.

Pork is a staple food of the Czech Republic and is a big focus on the menu with dishes including roast pork knuckle with mustard, horseradish and chilli pepper; escalope of pork with parsley potatoes and steak of pork neck with bacon croutons and baked onion.

Many of the dishes at the Masné Krámy are presented in ways which offer real food theatre to customers, including racks of pork ribs presented on book-stand style stands, legs of pork on mini spits and 2kg roast beef on skewers which a chef carves at the table.

Chef specials​

Bidart spent time with the Masné Krámy chefs exploring produce

used on the menu, how they put dishes together and present them. He also created his own dish of pork fillet marinated with salt, pepper, chilli, onion and Budvar dark served with bacon.

He says: "I find Budvar dark a good beer for making dishes such as steak and kidney pudding and adding depth to winter casseroles, or using as a marinade for meats such as pork. Budvar Original is good for terrines, for lightly flambéing dishes with it and for making a beer sauce or adding to fish and chip batter."

Among recipe ideas Bidart has developed using the beers are pork terrine with bacon and pistachio which uses Budvar Original as

a marinade. The beer is added to garlic, thyme and cloves to marinate the pork overnight. He has also created leg of pork marinated with Budvar dark, which can be served cold as a charcuterie style starter with gooseberry chutney, gherkins and bread or as a main with mashed potato and gravy.

His other suggestions for Budvar dark are casserole of wild boar

with swede, parsnip and beetroot; using Budvar dark in a marinade for beef; smoked duck breast with gherkins and Budvar beer chutney and for making fish & chip batter using a third of lemonade and two thirds of Budvar Original.

Other ideas for using the beer include pub chef Richard Knighting's dish of loin of pork marinated in Budvar dark beer. The head chef at Bath's Marlborough Tavern serves the dish with fragrant vegetables poached in a sage, toasted peppercorn and Budvar Original liquor and Budvar beignets.

Justin Brown, head chef at the Sun Inn, Dummer, Hampshire, has devised a summer dish of Budvar Original beer-can chicken, red cabbage coleslaw and homemade jalapeno bread. Poussins are sat on top of 160ml tin cans filled with Budvar Original, with the Budvar steaming into the chicken during cooking to help keep the meat moist and leave a subtle taste. He recommends the dish, which can be cooked for an hour in the oven at 180°C or on the barbecue as being a perfect accompaniment to Budvar Original.

Other ideas including adding Budvar dark to sausages or bread.

Budvar food buddies​

At the York, in Sheffield, manager Toby Grattidge says customers enjoy Budvar Original with fish and chips, ham dishes such as ham hock terrine with homemade bread and the pub's pickled onions and apple and black pudding mini pork pies. Grattidge says: "The pastry goes well with the hoppiness of Budvar leaving a clean taste."

At the White Horse, Parsons Green, London, which sells hundreds of pints of Budvar a week, cellar manager Jamie Percival says: "People are more keen to try food with beer and I think we have a higher percentage of people experimenting here than in a regular pub. It has got to the point where there are more people drinking beer with their meals than those sticking to wine. Budvar leaves the palette very clean due to the maltiness of the beer. Even when the food is oily, the Budvar Original will cut through leaving both tastes matching well together."

Percival recommends a fish platter with jumbo prawns, grilled seabass, pan-fried salmon fillet, squid and mussels cooked in white wine served with tartare sauce as a good match to Budvar Original. He says: "The beer is also a good match with barbecued or grilled food as the slight smokiness matches well with the maltiness of the beer."

London's Draft House sites are big on Budvar sales. Owner of the three-site company Charlie McVeigh says: "In the summer Budvar is our number one seller — we sell around 30,000 pints a year. We are very much into beer and food matching and put on monthly events with a brewer to that effect.

"When we get Budvar Premier Select (7.6% ABV) in I think we will do a matching event specifically with Budvar varieties. Budvar dark (4.7% ABV) goes particularly well with food, whereas the original is a great all-purpose drinking lager."

He recommends the company's Northcote Road's baby back ribs with coleslaw as a good match for Budvar dark. He says: "The flavours are similar and the beer has a dryness that cuts through the richness of the ribs."

At the Ship Inn in North Berwick, East Lothian, Budvar dark is recommended on the menu as a match for warm salad of black pudding, caramelised apples and walnuts.

MORE PERFECT PAIRINGS​

Chiming with female tastes​

Specialist Brand Development, importers of premium and authentic imported Continental and New World beers, is aiming to appeal to female drinkers with its draught Rosarda Rosé.

Rosarda, which is brewed in Belgium, is medium-sweet with a rosé colour. The alcohol content is 4.3% by volume with a 40 Kcal count per 100g.

You can serve rosé beer with most dishes where they combine with other fruit beers. Ideas include using the beer to make a sabayon or with an ice cream soufflé, with Rosarda in it. It is also a good match for chocolate desserts. In addition it is a good ingredient in a country salad with veal kidneys, bacon and poached egg, and vinaigrette with Rosarda.

Nick Holmes, MD of Specialist Brand Development, says: "The rising consumer interest, especially among women, in speciality beers presents definite opportunities for the on-trade."

For more information

visit www.specialist-brand-development.com

Matching flavour intensity​

Simon Cox, director of sales for independent on-trade at Molson Coors says: "If you use beer as an ingredient in a dish, it is likely the beer itself will match the food. Also think, 'if it grows together, it goes together'; consider regionality and seasonality of beers and foods.

"The overriding principle of beer and food matching is to match the flavour intensity of the beer to the flavour intensity of the food.