Beer batter for fish and chips

[nicklord1]

Which is the best beer or can i use anyone.

Also i know people who cook meat in coca cola what is the science behind it

Cheers

 

[Michael in FtW]

I think a lager is the most common for the beer batter, but I have heard of people using ale and some want a little more flavor and go with a stout.

The thing about cooking with Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper and Root Beer probably can be traced back to the war years when sugar was rationed - colas were not rationed and several recipes were adapted to take advantage of the sugar in the drinks. One of the biggies was using cola to baste hams, Root Beer and Dr. Pepper were especially common - the Root Beer for it's sassafras and Dr. Pepper for it's prune flavor. Coca-Cola cake was another big hit during those years.

 

[GrillingFool]

I like brown ales for most beer cooking, but for battered fish I really like a good hoppy Pale Ale.

 

[spork]

My scratch tempura batter requires baking soda for it to fry up fluffy and crunchy. I'm thinking the carbonation of beer and coca-colas is also maybe essential to the science...

 

[yourstrulyewalani]

I have never heard of cooking with soda and I am intrigued. I'll have too look into that more!

 

[Michael in FtW]

My scratch tempura batter requires baking soda for it to fry up fluffy and crunchy. I'm thinking the carbonation of beer and coca-colas is also maybe essential to the science...

I have a recipe around here somewhere that I got years ago that uses ice cold club soda for the liquid in the tempura batter - I don't remember if it had baking soda also or not. The CO2 in the soda expands when it hits the hot oil making a really nice crunchy crust. I'm sure this is essentially the same with using cold beer to make a batter for deep fried fish.

I have never heard of cooking with soda and I am intrigued. I'll have too look into that more!

Here are some ideas to get your started: Coca-Cola Heritage Recipes

Soft drinks are not quite the same as they were back in the "olden" days - most are no longer made with cane sugar so they will not react exactly the same, root beer no longer contains sassafras so that flavor will be missing -but they are still ideas worth trying. Ginger Ale makes a fantastic cake and I used to make a ginger chicken dish that was awesome - but I haven't really thought about it, or seen the recipe, since I was in college.

 

[yourstrulyewalani]

Thank you for the link! I see a few recipes I would like to try. the first being lemon honey pork chops and I even have everything for that!

 

[powerplantop]

I have never heard of cooking with soda and I am intrigued. I'll have too look into that more!

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f15/dr-pepper-wings-60188.html#post850373

 

[yourstrulyewalani]

LOL thank you I will try this.

 

[CharlieD]

I have never heard of cooking with soda and I am intrigued. I'll have too look into that more!

What do you mean? Practically all baking is done with baking soda. Any time the dough is involved and you want the dough to rise you'll need soda.

 

[Michael in FtW]

Charlie, in this instance soda is a popular generic term referring to carbonated soft drinks which are composed of a flavored syrup and soda water (carbonated water). In some parts of the country the term is pop or soda pop may be more commonly used.

 

[donnapete]

You can basically use any type beer you want. We have always used just whatever type we are drinking. It goes great together!!!
I just baked a ham today, the only thing I put on it was coke. The coke sits in the bottom of the pan keeping the ham moist. When it is close to being done I brushed the ham with the coke, by this time the coke was very thick. It left the ham with a nice sweet flavor on the ouside. It was very good.