Cooking with beer

I am part of a group that meets for "Lunch Lessons" at Limestone. This month the theme is Octoberfest and will feature foods cooked with beer. One of the group gets a migraine if she drinks beer. If the beer is cooked in the food is it likely to produce the same result?

As a migraine sufferer and beer geek, I disagree with Annemarie. Certain types of beer appear to trigger my migraines, but none have ever been triggered by eating food that has been cooked in beer.

I'd wager that individual triggers vary pretty widely.

Also, the way the beer is cooked may have an impact on the actual remaining amounts of alcohol in the dish.

I think this particular circumstance will require individual experimentation to determine if the food cooked in beer triggers the migraine.

Shawn

We cook with beer all of the time and have never encountered a problem with resultant headaches. For us it is about ratio and process. Our ratio of beer to stew in the Drunken Chicken is roughly 1:16, this allows the beer flavor to permeate, but not saturate the stew. The beer goes cold into the hot stew and is slow cooked for about 30 minutes before we consider it ready for consumption. This gives plenty of time for the alcohol to cook its way out of the stew and thus avoid any detrimental effects.

You may want to inquire as to the content and process involved with the beer that is being used in your meals before you make your selections.

Don't assume it's the alcohol that is causing the headaches. It could be anything found in the beer making process. (Hence why some beers give Shawn a headache and others don't.) If that's the case and let's say it's hops that cause the headaches, then it really doesn't matter how much of the alcohol is cooked down, you'll still get a headache. The remaining alcohol content may determine how rapidly you get the headache however.