Irish Beer Cheese Soup ~ Irish beer and Irish sharp cheddar cheese come together in this delicious creamy cold-weather soup and St. Patrick's Day favorite!
Irish Beer Cheese Soup ~ if you've never had, you're in for a treat. I recently had some cheddar beer soup from my grocery and man, was it good. With St. Pat's Day coming up and all things Irish in the air, I decided to tweak that midwestern version by using some Irish beer and Irish cheese.
This is a fairly simple and straightforward soup to make at home. The hardest part for me was grating all the cheese by hand, not my thing. I usually ask Meathead to do it but he wasn't home, darn.
The soup starts with sautéing some onion, celery and garlic, some seasoning, and then butter and flour. Basically, it's a very flavorful roux. The onions, celery and garlic need to be very finely diced, so I recommend using the food processor. It does the job, it'll look a little mushy, but that's what you want so the soup is smooth, no bits of onion and celery floating around in it. I do this all the time for Italian gravy, my friend taught me so years ago.
Once the roux is done, time to add the chicken stock, beer and milk ~ then all that glorious cheese. Stir, keep stirring, and in about 20 minutes you'll have beer cheese soup. Finish it off with some Dijon mustard and Worcestershire, and then be prepared to ooh and aah over that first spoonful.
Irish Beer Cheese Soup, a perfect winter soup and St. Patrick's Day treat. You can serve it in a bread bowl if you wish, topped with scallions, snipped chives, toasted sourdough croutons or even bacon. This is such a beautifully simple soup, rich and full of flavor ~ comfort in a (bread) bowl. Enjoy, Kelly
Looking for more St. Patrick's Day inspiration? How about some Irish Soda Bread, Corned Beef and Cabbage and Chocolate Mint Cake? You can't go wrong with that lineup!
If you’ve tried this Irish Beer Cheese Soup, please rate it below in the comments and let me know how it went ~ I love hearing from you! HUNGRY FOR MORE? Subscribe to myNewsletterand come hang out with meon PINTEREST, INSTAGRAMandFACEBOOKfor all the latest updates.
Irish beer and Irish cheese are the basis of this delicious cold-weather soup and St. Patrick's Day favorite.
2ribscelery, finely diced/grated (include a few leaves)See Recipe Notes
1bay leaf
3clovesgarlic, minced or microplaned
½teaspoonkosher salt
¼teaspoonfreshly cracked black pepper
¼teaspooncayenne pepper
⅓cupbutter (about 5 T)~ I use Kerrygold salted butter
⅓cupflour
32ozchicken stock, preferably homemade (4 cups)
112-oz bottle Irish lager-style beer, like Harp
4cupswhole milk
1lbIrish cheese, like Dubliner, coarsely shredded (6 cups)
2tablespoonDijon mustard
1tablespoonWorchestershire sauce
For Garnish: sliced scallions, snipped chives, toasted fresh croutons or bacon crumbles
Optional: mini sourdough bread bowls for serving
Instructions
In large enameled cast iron stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons butter (or bacon grease) over medium heat. Add onion, celery and bay leaf and sauté about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, black pepper and cayenne and cook 1-2 more minutes. Add the butter and stir until melted. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir and cook 1 more minute.
With a wooden spoon or flat whisk, slowly stir in the stock, then the beer, then the milk to combine. Lastly, add the cheese slowly, stirring to combine. Increase the heat to medium-high, continue stirring to almost a boil. Reduce heat back down to medium, cook and stir frequently until cheese is mixed in well and melted, about 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf and stir in mustard and Worcestershire; taste for salt. Serve garnished with scallions, chives, croutons and/or crumbled bacon, in a bread bowl, if desired.
Recipe Notes
Irish Dubliner cheese is sweet, nutty, grainy and sharp. Any sharp white cheddar will work.
Using a food processor will get the onion and celery finely chopped, almost mushy, which is what you want for this soup. Roughly chop the onion and celery first, in order to get an even dice in the processor.
You can use bacon drippings to cook the onions/celery mixture instead of butter (then you'll have bacon crumbles for topping!)
I used Fat Tire because that what I had on hand, but Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Lite are all good options. No need to use anything fancy! What brands of cheese do you recommend? For the Cheddar, you can use a good supermarket brand, like Cabot or Tillamook.
“This beer cheese soup is creamy and rich, with a nice balance of flavors,” says recipe tester and test kitchen expert Julia Levy. “The beer adds a nice 'earthiness,' which complements the mustard and cheddar cheese well.”
At a temperature of 150 or so, the protein bonds in the cheese break down and as a result, too much fo the moisture escapes too quickly. Keep the heat very low, and make sure the cheese is one of the last things added to the soup.
i work at a brewpub that serves a beer cheese soup we heat it up slowly and when it does break you can pour in some cold heavy cream and re-emulsify it.
If the liquid boiled with the cheese in it, it can cause the cheese to 'sieze' and break up into little bits. Don't let the liquid boil, take it off the heat then add cheese, let it stand for a few minutes to melt, using the heat of the soup, then stir as desired.
The Maggie Beer cheeses included in our hampers are made fresh and have an approximate refrigerated 'best by' shelf life of 23 days. Cheese ripens and develops its characteristic flavours over time, and will be at peak flavour if enjoyed close to the 'best by' date.
But beer cheese? It's a Kentucky thing. Nearly every brewery and brewpub menu around Louisville has an iteration of the mouth-watering appetizer: most traditionally a combination of cheddar cheese, beer, cayenne pepper, paprika and some garlic.
Roughly speaking: Beer cheese sauce, bourbon caramel and other sauces brought to a boil and then removed from the heat typically retain about 85 percent of the alcohol. Diane, cherries jubilee and other recipes that flame the alcohol may still have 75 percent of the alcohol.
But when heat is introduced, the protein structure falls apart and the emulsion breaks—the fat globules come together into a greasy pool and the proteins congeal to form a stringy mess. But American cheese is specifically designed to be extremely meltable and nearly impossible to break.
Mild cheddar, Colby, Monterey jack, mozzarella, Swiss and queso blanco can all work well. “The best cheeses to melt into soups are cheeses that are higher in moisture and have a lower melting point,” says Bauer. In addition to cheddar and Monterey jack, he recommends Fontina and Gruyère.
When cooked down too much, it can render your dish unpalatably bitter. There are two solutions: Choose a more mild-flavored beer with less hops, or reduce the beer separately and add it to a simmering soup, stew, or chili towards the end of cooking.
In the event that your goal is to keep moisture in—like when your pot of soup, stew, or sauce is already at the right consistency, but you want to keep cooking the vegetables and melding the flavors—leave the lid on to keep any more liquid from evaporating.
Boss the Kitchen explains that keeping the lid off while simmering allows heat and moisture to escape, which thickens the sauce. This is true for gravy, stew, soup, and sautéing sauces. Not only are the simmering ingredients being thickened, but the flavors are also being concentrated, which is ideal for reductions.
A good beer-cheese dip takes little time but some attention and a few tricks. Coating the cheese with cornstarch keeps the fat from separating, the proteins from clumping and the water in both cheese and beer from thinning the sauce.
Why is my beer cheese lumpy or grainy? It's important not to overheat your cheese dip. High heat makes the proteins and fat in the cheese separate, causing the sauce to “break” and turn into a lumpy mess. If this happens, it can be difficult (or impossible) to repair.
If it is completely broken, add equal volumes of oil and liquid. Start with a little bit and keep adding until the sauce comes back together into an emulsion. This may take a few iterations. You can use stock or wine for this but water works just fine if that's all you have around.
Always add the cheese off the heat. Grate it in advance, add it a bit at a time, whisking until it dissolves, then add more. Don'tget impatient and dump it all in at once. Adding cheese while the pan is on the heat tightens the proteins, which will make lumps in your sauce.
Address: Suite 490 606 Hammes Ferry, Carterhaven, IL 62290
Phone: +8557035444877
Job: Forward IT Agent
Hobby: Fishing, Flying, Jewelry making, Digital arts, Sand art, Parkour, tabletop games
Introduction: My name is Otha Schamberger, I am a vast, good, healthy, cheerful, energetic, gorgeous, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
