How to Pair Whisky With Salmon

Learn how to pair a variety of whisky styles from scotch to Irish with salmon that’s been smoked, cured, or oven-roasted.

The post How to Pair Whisky With Salmon appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

Smoked salmon from Scotland is revered the world over, but it may surprise some to learn that Scottish salmon is a different species from those popular in the Pacific northwest. The Atlantic salmon is Scotland’s variety, while those fished in the Pacific include chinook, chum, coho, pink, and sockeye. Experts have their opinions on which are the best, but a more important consideration is whether the salmon was farmed or caught in the wild—the consensus being that wild-caught is best.

The simplest way to prepare salmon is to pan-fry fillets, which when carefully executed will yield a moist, delightful result, with bigger and bolder flavors coming from wild-caught chinook or sockeye, and the mildest taste found in farmed Atlantic salmon. Either way, a rich scotch single malt makes an ideal partner, with my wild-caught Atlantic fillet benefiting greatly from the accompanying richness and soft spiciness of Aberlour 12 year old.

Now shift the fish from the stovetop to the oven and add a sweet glaze. I used honey mustard for my tasting, and found that the fruity, nectared character of a fine pot still Irish whiskey works beautifully. The relationship grew more symbiotic, with the sweet glaze softening and rounding the whiskey, while the spirit brought the natural flavor of the fish to the fore.

Cure the salmon with salt and sugar, adding dill and other flavors as desired, and you have gravlax. Contrary to many commercial examples, gravlax should never be smoked. Of Scandinavian origin, it is traditionally enjoyed with either vodka or aquavit. So it’s hardly surprising that the lightest of whiskies, perhaps a blended Canadian or Japanese, is the most desirable partner when gravlax is served on its own.

Pair This Seared King Salmon with Peaty Whisky

When used to top rye bread, whether dark or light, a whole new dynamic is born, with the gravlax becoming more of a textural experience and an elevated rye-content whisky finding a delicious and complementary home at its side. Rule of thumb: The darker the bread, the more rye in the whisky.

Possibly the most popular preparation of salmon, certainly so at Sunday brunch, is smoked. It is typically either hot or cold-smoked. Cold-smoked salmon is the version most familiar—thinly sliced and texturally close to raw—while hot-smoked presents more like cooked salmon, with commensurately meatier texture and usually a bolder smokiness.

If the word “smoked” has you considering a heavily peated whisky pairing, think again: Cold-smoked salmon’s taste does not become enhanced when paired with peat monsters, which can run roughshod over the delicate flavor of the fish. I found a much more balanced relationship in a wheated bourbon like Maker’s Mark, or for the bigger taste of smoked sockeye, a mildly smoky scotch single malt like Jura 10 year old.

When the fish is hot-smoked, on the other hand, the peaty scotch single malts simply shine, bringing added depth and range to the smoke, while the meatiness of the fish draws forward the fruit and spice of the spirit.

PAIR THESE WHISKIES AND Salmon AT HOME NOW

Gravlax on Light Rye Bread with J.P. Wiser’s 15 year old
This mostly corn whisky has a roundness that suits the gravlax well, with a touch of rye spice to accent the toothsome bread.

Oven-Roasted Glazed Salmon with Writers’ Tears Copper Pot
The sweet glaze further rounds the already creamy whiskey while the spirit’s fruitiness accents the taste of the fish.

Hot-Smoked Salmon with Kilchoman Machir Bay
The Kilchoman flagship accents the taste of the fish with its smoky and citrusy character, elevating the experience exponentially.

The post How to Pair Whisky With Salmon appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

How to Pair Whisky and Cheese

Pairing cheese and whisky can be simple if you know what combinations work best. Use this guide to get started.

The post How to Pair Whisky and Cheese appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

The U.S. produces more cheese annually than France, Italy, and Switzerland combined. That statistic is according to Afrim Pristine, maître fromager, or cheese master, and owner of Cheese Boutique in Toronto, where he oversees the sale of some 44 tons of cheese each year. Of course, that’s not the same as having the greatest variety of cheeses, a title that goes to France. But still, the prodigious output of the U.S. is impressive.

Further, Pristine says that from “about 1995 to 2002,” North Americans finally started to explore the full scope of that cheese. “I saw it firsthand,” he recalls, “People stopped buying the same cheese every time and became much more interested in trying different varieties.”

While trying new cheeses is never a bad thing, Pristine notes that it can lead to disappointment. “I tell my customers to buy smaller pieces and shop more often,” he says, “Cheese doesn’t go bad, but when people overbuy and it sits around too long, it just won’t taste the way it should.”

For storing the cheese you do buy, Pristine suggests avoiding plastic wrap, which can dry out the cheese, and resealable zipper-closure bags, which cause the cheese to sweat. Instead, he recommends wrapping the cheese first in parchment or waxed paper and then in aluminum foil, since the parchment will allow the cheese to breathe while the foil will protect it from absorbing other odors in the fridge and also keep your vegetables from smelling like cheese.

When serving, Pristine says that the longer you can leave it outside of the fridge, “two, three, or even eight hours,” the better it will taste. Which is precisely how I approached my tasting of what Pristine identifies as the six basic groupings of cheese: goat/sheep, semi-firm, washed rind, bloomy rind, hard/aged, and blue.

Cheeses made from goat’s or sheep’s milk tend to be more delicate in flavor than those made from cow’s milk, so weighty whiskeys like bourbons and straight ryes should generally be avoided. With goat’s milk cheese in particular, the relative lightness and almost paradoxical depth of an Irish whiskey containing a high proportion of pot still spirit makes great gastronomic sense.

For a youthful gouda, my semi-firm cheese, I sought a complementary relationship in a fruity, sherry wood-aged single malt, and found it in Macallan 12 year old Double Cask. The sherry accents play perfectly against the nutty flavors of the cheese, while the richness of the gouda draws out complex fruit and vanilla notes in the whisky.

(As an aside, balanced Scottish single malts, not too peaty or rich, seem to pair best with a wide variety of cheeses, as you might find on a typical cheese board.)

Washed-rind cheeses, like the French chaumes I sampled, tend to have big aromas—some call them “stinky”—but rather mild flavors, which require spirits of subtle complexity and soft bouquet, the toffee-ish Crown Royal XO fitting this bill quite deliciously. For cheeses with bloomy rinds, such as Bries and Camemberts, which often feature saltiness and acidity from the rind, a bolder and sweeter partner makes the most sense, like Woodford Reserve Double Oaked matched with the classic Brie de Meaux.

Finally, I returned to Scotland to find pairings for both my hard/aged and blue cheeses, hardly surprising since classics of both camps, cheddar and Stilton, were born not far from where the whiskies evolved. In general, I find that Speyside malts favor mature, firm cheeses and peatier Island whiskies complement blues, although full and round bourbons also benefit the latter.

Pair These Whiskies and Cheeses at Home Now

Chabichou du Poitou with Redbreast 12 year old
The dryness of this weeks-old chèvre draws forward the whiskey’s sweetness, while the spirit accentuates the fruitiness of the cheese.

3 year old Cheddar with Glenlivet 12 year old
The creaminess of the cheddar is underscored by the whisky, while the cheese heightens the nutty, fruity flavors of the malt.

Colston Bassett Stilton with Talisker 10 year old
England’s legendary blue cheese meets a Scottish partner in strength and assertiveness, to the flavorful benefit of both parties.

The post How to Pair Whisky and Cheese appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

How to Pair Whisky and Snack Cakes

Learn how to pair Twinkies, Swiss Roles, and other store-bought snack cakes with bourbon, rye, single malt, and more.

The post How to Pair Whisky and Snack Cakes appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

As rational human beings, we are all aware that some things we eat and drink are better for us than others. A glass of water is superior to a sugary cola after exercise, for instance, and an apple is nutritionally more sound than a cream-filled Twinkie or Swiss Roll.

So why do we so often reach for the less beneficial option? The answer, of course, is indulgence. That is why the snack cake endures as an American favorite, even many decades after America’s fitness obsession first took hold.

After fully exploring the category by wandering through the snack food aisles of various grocery stores, I settled on five principal snack cake categories: cream-filled vanilla cakes, cream-filled chocolate cakes, fruit pies, oversized cookie sandwiches, and various forms of glazed or frosted dough, from packaged donuts to honey buns. Then I got to work.

What became quickly apparent is the satisfying symmetry of the American snack cake partnering pretty perfectly with the iconic American spirit: bourbon. When pairing Twinkies and bourbon, however, target a whiskey with ample oak and vanilla richness and not too high a proof, since excess alcohol strength will overwhelm the cake-and-cream combination.

After trying several whisky styles with the chocolate and cream-filled Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, I concluded that scotch single malt is the way to go, either with abundant richness for a complementary pairing or impressive peatiness to develop a more contrasting relationship. I eventually settled on the peat, though it took me some time and quite a few Swiss Rolls to get there.

When it came to the Little Debbie Honey Bun, which various savants suggest is superior to the Hostess version, on a whim I tried Canadian Club Chronicles 42 year old, and found the combination to be quite superb. The bun’s sweet, cake-like character drew forward every last bit of spice in the spirit, creating a decadent cinnamon-bun experience that can be replicated with most moderately rye-forward Canadian whiskies.

Where hand-held or, as Drake’s Cakes puts it, “personal” fruit pies are concerned, the issue is more the pastry and glaze than the fruit filling, since the ratio of the former to the latter is much higher than in a regular fruit pie. I found that contrasting the sweet dough with something bold and spicy, like a straight rye, serves best. I settled in with a Wild Turkey rye poured over a couple of cubes of ice.

Lastly, while there might be a touch of romanticism involved in the idea that a whiskey from Ireland, a country so associated with oatmeal, would pair well with two oatmeal cookies sandwiched around cream, there is definitely a flavor connection between the Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie and a sweet, rich, lemony whiskey like Hinch 5 year old Double Wood.

Doubling Down on Indulgence

Little Debbie Swiss Roll & Ardbeg Wee Beastie
A simple partnership that mixes smoke and chocolate to delightful effect, with a cream addition that complements both.

Little Debbie Honey Bun & Canadian Club Reserve
The bun coaxes out the spice of the spirit just as it did to the 42 year old, while the sweet oakiness of the whisky adds depth to the flavor of the bun.

Hostess Twinkie & Four Roses poured over an ice ball
With the ice taking the edge off the spicy spirit, the vanilla is allowed to emerge and enhance the flavor of the snack cake.

Video: How to Pair Whiskey and Snacks

The post How to Pair Whisky and Snack Cakes appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

Whiskeys Distilled From Beer Are Brewing

These whiskeys were created using bottle-ready beer as the distilling base.

The post Whiskeys Distilled From Beer Are Brewing appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

In 2007, Chris Weld joined the ranks of America’s craft distilling pioneers when he opened Berkshire Mountain Distillers on his farm in southwestern Massachusetts. A few years later, he embarked upon a related field: the distilling of craft beer.

“I started [by distilling] some Sam Adams beers, but after a few years I knew I wanted to start scaling it up,” says Weld. So, in 2015, he launched what he calls The Craft Brewers Whiskey Project.

The fruits of that endeavor are being released this year, at a rate of three whiskeys per season. Thus far, they consist of 12 spirits, distilled from 12 different beers from 12 different brewers—all crafted from bottle-ready beer save for the carbonation and slightly altered hopping rates in a handful of the beers to avoid overabundant bitterness. All the releases were aged in oak for 5 years.

“There is a geeky science component to this,” says Weld, adding that the first three in the Project, from Mass Bay Brewing, Spencer Trappist Brewery, and Big Elm Brewing, were distilled from spice-forward Belgian-style beers. They nearly blur the line between whisky and gin in the way the botanical notes express themselves, he adds.

The concept is no longer uncommon. A look around the American craft distilling scene today reveals a multitude of craft beer-craft whiskey collaborations—featuring everything from wash made from the unhopped recipe of famously malt-forward ales to fully brewed, fermented, and distilled double IPAs.

The issue of hops is essentially the only variant in the practice of distilling beer. Distillers like Weld feel that the hops bring an extra dimension to the finished whiskey. But Deschutes Brewery president Gary Fish argues that hops have no purpose in beer distilling. Less ambiguous is the overall impact of the distillation process—which is to bring forward the beer’s essential nature and character. “They all impart the genetics of the beer into the distillate,” says Weld.

Rolling Thunder Stouted
Brewed and distilled by Rogue Ales & Spirits
91 points, 58.13%, $80
This uses the same recipe as Rogue’s flagship Dead Guy Ale, but without hops, and is aged for 4 to 5 years prior to blending and finishing in barrels coopered by the company’s own Rolling Thunder Barrel Works, which in turn previously held the brewery’s Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout.
Tastes like: Spice, barbecue, grilled oranges, dark berries, molasses, and marshmallow

American Two Malts BridgePort
Distilled at Westward Whiskey from a recipe from BridgePort Brewing
90 points, 45%, $90
Prior to the 2019 closing of Portland, Oregon’s BridgePort Brewing, Westward invited some of the company’s brew crew to the distillery to replicate the mashbill for BridgePort’s rye-forward Kingpin Red Ale, which was then distilled and rested for over 4 years in lightly charred American oak barrels.
Tastes like: Cáfe au lait, fudge, strawberry jam, and cooked berries

Spencer Trappist Ale
Distilled by Berkshire Mountain Distillers from Spencer Trappist ale
89 points, 43%, $65
The largest-volume release in the Craft Brewers Whiskey Project, with 15,000 gallons of beer turned into roughly 15 barrels of whiskey, this features beer from the only Trappist monastery brewery in North America.
Tastes like: Tropical with lemon peel, lemon curd, orange Creamsicle, and coconut oil

Black Butte 5 year old
Distilled by Crater Lake Spirits from Deschutes Brewery’s Black Butte Porter
89 points, 47%, $75
This whiskey is distilled from unhopped wash true to the recipe of the iconic Black Butte Porter, brewed by Deschutes Brewery. After distillation, it’s aged in new American oak barrels with a #4 char.
Tastes like: Vanilla malt, dark chocolate, baking spice, raisins, and figs

R5 Hop Flavored (Lot No. 5)
Distilled by Charbay Distillery from Racer 5 IPA brewed by Bear Republic Brewing
88 points, 49.5%, $60
Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA forms the base for this whiskey that is double-distilled from “bottle-ready” beer and then aged 5 years in French oak. Master distiller Marko Karakasevic worked closely with the Bear Republic team for five years in developing this whiskey.
Tastes like: Black cherry, maple syrup, charred oak, honey, and burnt brown sugar

Furious American Malt
Distilled by Foundry Distilling from Surly Brewing’s Furious IPA
88 points, 47.5%, $60
As part of their Brewer-Distiller Alliance project, Foundry has unhopped wash produced to the recipe of an iconic beer—in this case, Surly Furious IPA—trucked to the distillery where it is given a long ferment prior to being distilled, then aged in 30-gallon barrels with #4 char for a minimum of 2 years.
Tastes like: Dark chocolate, confectioners’ sugar, honeyed raisins, and mint

Amongst the Trees
Brewed and Distilled by Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery
87 points, 47%, $50
Seven Stills first brews a double IPA from pale and crystal malts, plus some dextrin for added fermentation action, and hops it “aggressively” with three highly expressive varieties: Columbus, Centennial, and Simcoe. The beer is then distilled and aged for at least 14 months in new American oak.
Tastes like: Lemon meringue pie, orange, and sandalwood

Spirit of Boston Merry Maker
Distilled by Boston Harbor Distilling from Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams Merry Maker gingerbread stout
87 points, 42%, $85
Distilled from Samuel Adams Merry Maker gingerbread stout, this is designed to amplify the cinnamon, clove, and other spices used to flavor the stout, and is aged in used barrels in order to minimize the influence of the wood.
Tastes like: Honey, chocolate, cherries, cinnamon toast, and gingersnaps

The post Whiskeys Distilled From Beer Are Brewing appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

How to Pair Whisky and Dried Fruit

Learn how to pair a variety of whisky styles with raisins, apricots, figs, and other dried fruit.

The post How to Pair Whisky and Dried Fruit appeared first on Whisky Advocate.

We all like a bit of a nosh with our drinks, right? And while we know that maybe it’s not best for us, when searching for such a snack we usually reach for something a bit salty, oily, or fatty.

But what if our nibble was instead something healthy? What if it were dried fruits?

“They’re nutritionally great,” says Seattle-based registered dietitian nutritionist Ginger Hultin, owner of Champagne Nutrition. “Dried fruit offers fiber, potassium, vitamin C, iron, magnesium, and B-vitamins.”

The key to such healthy snacking, says Hultin, is to keep an eye on how much you’re consuming. “Dried fruit is more condensed in calories, so a half-cup of dried fruit is equal to a cup of fresh fruit,” she adds. (The recommended serving of fruit is 1½ cups a day for women and two cups for men, and dried fruit does count toward those amounts, she notes.) Something else to watch for is fruit coated in unnecessary dry or liquid sugar, Hultin says, adding that “dehydrated fruit is sweet and flavorful on its own.”

There is as much as 50% of your daily vitamin A requirement in a half-cup of dried apricots or ample calcium and iron in raisins, according to Hultin. The good news doesn’t stop with the packed nutrients in various dried fruits: My tasting experiments revealed that many pair deliciously with whisky.

To provide focus to my tastings, I concentrated on the dried fruits people are most likely to eat on their own rather than use in cooking. While a shortcut to pairing is to focus on similar flavor notes in the whisky—the apricot in Oban Little Bay for instance, or the pineapple in Knob Creek Cask Strength rye—I learned that doing so risks missing out on more complex and often, more extraordinary partnerships.

Two common varieties of raisins—Thompson and sultana—are actually derived from the same variety of grape, with Thompsons dried longer, making them darker and more intensely “raisiny” in flavor. For lighter sultanas, I liked a chocolaty single malt like Dalmore 12 year old to evoke the appeal of chocolate-covered raisins, while I noticed Thompsons worked better with a spicy straight rye, calling to mind traditional fruit-and-spice Christmas cake.

Dates are sweeter than sultanas, with more expensive medjools even sweeter than those labeled generically as “dates,” usually of the deglet noor variety. With either, the richness of a big-bodied bourbon like Woodford Reserve creates a wondrous pairing, opting for the even bigger Double Oaked version with medjools. And speaking of sweetness, it doesn’t get much sweeter than dried pineapple, which led me to create a contrasting partnership with a rye-heavy, but still soft and smooth Canadian whisky.

Dried apricots are relatively easy to pair, since their flavor is an oft-cited characteristic in all sorts of whiskies. Rather than doubling down on the fruitiness, however, I achieved greater satisfaction by adding complexity with the peatiness of an island malt, a technique that worked best with lighter, more herbal, but still robustly smoky examples.

Finally, thanks to their nuanced and generally unobtrusive character, I discovered figs are the most broadly whisky-friendly of all dried fruits. For regular pale figs, I enjoyed a softly fruity whisky that not only drew out their flavors, but also benefited from the light, fruity sweetness of the figs. For the darker, bolder Mission variety, I found deliciousness in a wheated bourbon partner.

Sun-dried Sweetness

Dried Apricots and Lagavulin 8 year old
The herbal notes of the whisky accent the flavors of the fruit, while the smoke ties it all together beautifully.

Dried Figs and Miyagikyo single malt
The gentle flavors of the fruit are coaxed forward by the soft stone-fruit notes in the whisky.

Dried Pineapple and J.P. Wiser’s Triple Barrel Rye
The spiciness of rye softened by three types of oak serves to tame the concentrated sweetness of the fruit and release its full flavor.

The post How to Pair Whisky and Dried Fruit appeared first on Whisky Advocate.