Unorthodox Wine-Food Pairings

originally posted by Thor:
I hate to channel vandergrift, but really now: FUCKING ELITISTS!
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I enthusiastically embrace my elitism.

Prole.
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Actually, I kind of have to agree. I'm an awful elitist at heart. I'm pretty much a Platonist about democracy as well.
 
originally posted by Lee Short:
Corton-Charlemagne and steak.
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not too far away from my meursault and roast beef sandwich match.

back when the food network was worth watching, many years ago, david steingarten had that show "taste" and i remember him making a beef sandwich and drinking chardonnay with it.
 
originally posted by Frank Deis:
Fish and BaroloNebbiolo based wines go very well with white meat fish, I suppose a sauce with a little tomato might help but if you have swordfish or sea bass or something with some flavor, go for it. Barolo or Barbaresco.

Frank
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couldn't agree more. i remember fondly cooking for a date years ago. i roasted a whole grouper and we drank altare nebbiolo langhe, which he no longer makes. it was a terrific match, and evening.
 
Oysters are great plain naked in their liquor, but I would never turn down a plate of pan fried oysters with a squeeze of lemon, or even deep fried in a poor boy roll. I think mignonette is a way to justify selling a one dollar oyster for $4 or more in a restaurant.
 
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
originally posted by Frank Deis:
Fish and BaroloNebbiolo based wines go very well with white meat fish, I suppose a sauce with a little tomato might help but if you have swordfish or sea bass or something with some flavor, go for it. Barolo or Barbaresco.

Frank
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couldn't agree more. i remember fondly cooking for a date years ago. i roasted a whole grouper and we drank altare nebbiolo langhe, which he no longer makes. it was a terrific match, and evening.
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I have been thinking about this. Why would Cabernet based wines be so awful with anything slightly fishy, whereas Nebbiolo based wines are so enjoyable?

Off the top of my head I am thinking it has something to do with tannin levels. In other words Beaujolais ought to work. Come to think of it we know that Pinot Noir works because everyone drinks Burgundy with salmon these days (at least all of us cognoscenti do).

Anyone else have a better reason? And while I don't know the wine that Sharon cited with the oysters, I would wager it is a rather light and non-tannic red. Wait, Cotes de Blaye, that's a Bordeaux outlier, right, and I think I have had it. Rather light but still Cab or Merlot. ??? Is this a contradiction for my whole theory?

Back 100 years ago in the days of alt.food.wine there was some rather brash lady online, I think she was also a dominatrix or something, who was pushing the idea of young red port with beef as a perfect match. And she said that Cabernet turned oysters into "nasty little lumps of snot" or something like that. I'm not sure she was actually ON alt.food.wine come to think of it. But then again I wasn't a regular reader of alt.dominatrix.wine so I'm not sure how I would have come across her.

Frank
 
originally posted by Marc D:
Oysters are great plain naked in their liquor, but I would never turn down a plate of pan fried oysters with a squeeze of lemon, or even deep fried in a poor boy roll.
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Oh, yes - fry 'em up. That is the only exception to my raw rule. Plus, you can make fun emulsion-type sauces with them. Elite fat on fried foods we love indeed.

originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
French fries and Mayonnaise?! Eeeeuww.
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Ian, I hereby banish you to Belgium for three to six months. If you don't come back with a taste for Brigand beer and fries with mayonnaise (and, accesorily, eel in parsley sauce), you are beyond saving!
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
originally posted by Frank Deis:
But DO NOT try cabernet with oysters...
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Actually, they do this in Arcachon. They eat the oysters with pig's liver pt or grilled sausages on the side and pour something like a Ctes de Blaye. It's not bad.
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OK looking it up, the Blayais mainly use Merlot. Perhaps that is a difference between Cab and Merlot?

They also make a white using Ugni Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc but that would be beside the point.

??

F
 
originally posted by Frank Deis:

Back 100 years ago in the days of alt.food.wine there was some rather brash lady online, I think she was also a dominatrix or something, who was pushing the idea of young red port with beef as a perfect match. And she said that Cabernet turned oysters into "nasty little lumps of snot" or something like that. I'm not sure she was actually ON alt.food.wine come to think of it. But then again I wasn't a regular reader of alt.dominatrix.wine so I'm not sure how I would have come across her.
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From: Tanith@Tyrr
Subject: Food and wine matching (was: Alcohol at parties)
Date: 1997/12/11

[...]If you do this experiment right (or more accurately, wrong), the next time
somebody suggests a tannic red with oysters, or a sharply acid, grassy or
minerally white with tomato sauce, you'll wince and remember why there
really is a reason folks don't like to do that. Incidentally, two of the
three choices work just fine for each dish, so I haven't doomed you to a
nasty dinner if you actually decide to do this tasting. ;)

Sancerre, Sav Blanc and beer are wonderful oyster companions, but a tannic
red wine can kill those delicate little bivalves and turn them into slimy,
metallic tasting chunks of snot on your plate. The same powerful, tannic
red, or the backbone of refreshing, faintly bitter hops in a crisp beer,
pairs well with the sweet acidity of a strong tomato sauce. But if you
contrast those same food flavors with the sharp, minerally-grassy notes
from a tightly wound white wine, the wine can end up tasting amazingly nasty
in contrast. Try it and see.[...]

Your personal wayback machine,
Mark Lipton
 
Oddly enough I had a Freisa from Borgogno with oysters at lunch, quite by accident. It was such fabulously stimulating combination that I was moved to get up and have a little dance.
 
Old internet geezers think alike; that link I posted a while back was to Tanith Tyrr's story of serving Sauternes with Big Macs.
 
Thanks Mark, it was gratifying to see that I had remembered that so accurately.

I looked her up. She doesn't appear nearly as dangerous I had imagined. Kind of pudgy and vaguely oriental. And she's the curator of reptiles at some zoo??

The completely imaginary Tanith was better. Oh well.

F
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Ian, I hereby banish you to Belgium for three to six months. If you don't come back with a taste for Brigand beer and fries with mayonnaise (and, accesorily, eel in parsley sauce), you are beyond saving!
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I'm game, in the interests of science, of course. You're covering air fare and lodging, right?

It must be divine grace if you actually consider me not already beyond saving. Merci!
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
I've had red Loire wine with fish with great success. It depends on the fish and the sauce (as always). And it depends on the Loire red wine.

I've never found tomato sauce to be that big of a problem. Perhaps because I go for long slow cooking and deep flavors.
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Hi Rahsaan. This was a characteristically lame attempt at humor, in which I alluded to a note posted in this board's infancy by, if memory serves, Joe Dougherty. Alas.

What's your slow-cooking tomato sauce recipe? We usually do the simplest possible with good canned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, bay leaves, and an extended simmer.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
What's your slow-cooking tomato sauce recipe? We usually do the simplest possible with good canned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, bay leaves, and an extended simmer.
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I guess I should use good quality canned tomatoes (year round!) but for whatever reason I only make tomato sauce in the late summer when I can get fresh ones. Often just slow cooked plain tomatoes for 1-2 hours. Sometimes garlic and onions. Sometimes red wine. Never used bay leaf. Will think about that.
 
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