Matching food with Malts

I would definitely avoid cheeses, or anything with milk fats, because they coat the mouth, including taste buds, making whisky seem more austere or tasteless (you still get aromas, but far less of the natural sweetness, saltiness, and mouthfeel). Come to think of it, crisps have fats too. For that matter, avoid anything sweet, including fruit, because it will overwhelm the subtle sweetness of whiskies. And of course, avoid spices that evening, because they will linger on the palate and obscure or confound the subtle spiciness & fruitiness of whiskies. And it's good in the planning of a tasting to be aware of those (lighter/subtler) whiskies ("preprandials") that will be far more delicious before a big meal with rich flavors, but which will seem like dishwater after a big meal. The Islays can still impress post-feast, but even they are more impressive on a less-addled palate.

So no big meal.

Baguettes and Evian?!? :>

I see what you did there, it would be like recreating the Scottish vs French wars of history.

I take your points, and fortunately for me I like the Islays so can get away with plenty. Someone elsewhere suggested olives with Islays, although I think the only thing that might possibly survive a good olive might be Laphroaig.

DoetNietComputeren schrieb:

Dry fruits (or a cake with lots of dry fruits) with Speyside Malts, Dark Chocolate with Talisker or other strong Malts like cask strength.

Andreas

I love smoked foods with the peaty malts. Smoked almonds or smoked fish would go nicely with the Laphraoig and maybe with the Talisker.

With Talisker and Laphroaigh smoked eel from the local Dutch visboer. Speysides go better with kruidkoek. I owuld avoid cheese as somebody else has already said. And crisps and borrelnootjes is also something I always avoid when I do tastings.

Peace,

Jock

The Step-We-Ceilidh Band.

DoetNietComputeren wrote:

Well, since you mention the French vs Scottish war ... the bread/wine/cheese combo is customary because the wines and cheeses can complement each other (or ruin each other). I personally don't like to mix any flavors with my whisky, because I drink it for itself. A great beer can add to a great meal, and, of course, so can wine. But, IMO, not malts. It messes up the nuances, even those things that are enjoyable, such as chocolates, nuts, dry meats.

I recommend the following, in order: (1) consider foregoing the tradition--not to be a snob, but because it's best for the purpose, which is to sampling new malts, and adding food will take away from that. (2) Sample the whiskys first, then have snacks after you've sampled the whiskys. This is always what I do when a friend who has a casual interest in scotch wants to see what the rave is. Then the meal is diminished, but who cares?! (3) At minimum, use foods that are not overwhelming to the palate, and use a cleanser. I don't see bread and water as a French war, but a sensible means of clearing the palate (as long as it hasn't been assaulted). But if you're using foods that contain any of the properties of the malts, there's going to be dissonance. And that eliminates about everything. (4) This one's pretty bad, but could work: serve snacks that go with beer, and beer, between rounds. Beer can set up the palate for whisky in my experience. I've been to bars where the purpose was to socialize, but my agenda, noticing a good malt collection, quickly becomes trying to sample malts I haven't tried. If food is served, I'll get beer and water to recenter my taste buds, and this kind of works. The problem is, I'm not a drunkard, so I also try to take on as little alcohol as possible, because once one is buzzing, it's pointless to sample anything, especially anything good and expensive (think wine tasting where the $600 bottle comes out at last, when everyone's good and tanked. Heresy!

Note, these are just my opinions, and they have nothing to do with expertise, research, standard protocol, or anything else--just my experience. They may be bad ideas ... except the first one. I'm sure of that.

Best, John

On the other hand, a carefull selection of malts can be a real compliment to a fine meal. I recently attended a scotch & cigar dinner, served outdoors in a garden setting. With the appies, which included goat cheese, chanterelle and potato flavours, we sipped a Glenmorangie 10 y. Those of us who don't like to smoke while we eat had finished our pre-dinner cigar and the malt flavours were just perfect as we continued with the crudo and soup courses. with the fish and fresh herb salad (actually a seafood sausage) we enjoyed the sweeter and more full-bodied Glenmorangie Sherry Wood. The differences in the malts were quite apparent as we changed flavours with our food. There was a slightly tart, palate-cleansing lemon sorbet before the entre of thick venison chops finished in flavours of pepper and blackberry. There is hardly a Glenmorangie to stand up to such rich fare but the Ardbeg 10 did the job quite nicely. One might think the Ardbeg would totally swamp the food flavours with smoke and peat, but it actually complemented the game very well. To finish the evening and desert, we sampled the Glenmorangie Port Wood. Very nice with the sweet /sour peach/cheese flavours and a good start to our post dinner cigar. Most folks stopped there but a couple of us retired to the bar to finish our cigars with a McCallan 12. As enjoyable a meal as any I've had with wine as the libation.

Hi John, thanks for a structured response.

And so, it seems, I have opened a can of worms! I guess it's most important to understand that everyone has different tastes and there is no right or wrong answer.

With some more googling, I noted that the SMWS regularly holds Cheese and Malt evenings and some other groups hold dinner and malt events much as described by Commander Bob elsewhere in this thread.

I understand. I might even get away with it as a "foreigner" but not repeatedly. These cloggies are a bit sticky with their routine.

(2) Sample the whiskys first, then have snacks after you've

I suspect that the whisky drinking would take up significant enough amounts of time that the food would get forgotten about ;o)

If I were a Sommelier, I think this type of frivilous selection could turn me murderous. Cheers,

A fine way to spend an evening I'm sure.

This...

Sounds...

Like...

Heaven...

Consider me jealous! Out of interest - do you like Glenmorangie? Just kidding. Was this an organised event or a social/domestic - the food sounds great.

Some years ago, I reported here on a wonderful meal whose main course was a leg of lamb roasted with a whisky-based (Talisker) sauce and glaze. The combination of the whisky flavors and rare lamb was excellent, and well received with all but sherried whiskies.

I'll have to see if I can dredge up the recipe...

-- Larry

Perhaps this one:

Unless your guests are truly simpletons, I'd go with the Captain's venison cuts instead. _______ ____ ./ ___o_ ) ,~~~~~~~' _ ' ~~~~' ./ '~~~~~~~~~' ' ~~~~~~'

John

Hah! I'll have you know that worms are a delicacy in, Guadala...umm, Guarvala..umm, heck, I'm sure they're a delicacy *somewhere*.

Thankfully, not here. I'll take the Venison, or maybe a game bird any day.

I'm OK with Glenmorangie. I'm more inclined to the Ardbeg than the Glenmorangie style but I have examples of both in my rotation. To be fair, I'd only tated the Sherry and Port Wood versions before and preferred the Port for simple sipping. I'm a Laphroig, Lagavulin, Talisker kind of guy but admit that those malts would have overwhelmed any of the cigars provided.

The event was put on by McMenamins Edgefield near Portland, OR. The weather was perfect and the only downside may have been that by the time the entre was served, it was getting quite dark. The final malt and desert was only viewable by the light of mobile phone displays. :>) Except for the venison (farmed New Zealand but very tasty) all the food was grown on site. The combination of plant life in the salad was particularly interesting -they just go out and pick it.

A big plus was having a couple at our table who run a bar in Portland. They were very knowledgable about malts in general and the ones we were tating in particular. His Ardbeg shirt was a giveaway to his malt preferences. A rep from the Glenmorangie distributor introduced each dram as they were poured and gave us a good idea of what flavours complimented what aspects of the food. I was dining with a good friend down from Seattle with his wife (who passed on the scotch/cigars) and since we are both long-time cigar aficianados, we were able to pass on comments about the cigars provided, even though we actually smoked cigars that we had brought along.

McCallan 12 BTW is an almost perfect partner for a fine Cuban cigar.

Sounds like we have similar tastes.

Sounds good.

Montecristo number 3 for an average evening chuff here.

Nah -- never heard of that guy.

-- Larry

The following is cute. It even includes ice cream. Previously, I had figured that if you knew arriving guests had recently had ice cream, you should darken the lights and pretend there is nobody home until they went away, so as not to waste--not to mention defame and misrepresent--the malt. But now I'm starting to wonder what malt might go best with spumoni.

=============================== Single-Malt Adventure: Written for New Hampshire magazine for the March

2004 issue, I explore a pairing of single malt Scotches with fine tapas at the Beale House Inn in Littleton, New Hampshire. 5&blogId=1

"A scotch tasting doesn't usually include a meal. Maybe some dry crackers between sips, but hunger sharpens the senses, so purists avoid a big feed with their single malts. But in the frost bitten, spirit-riddled mountains of Northern New Hampshire...your thoughts depart from protocols of food and formality. And finding a Scotch tasting paired with a tapas-style six-course dinner north of the Notches in the middle of January is not as surprising as it seems like it ought to be...

..Our first whisky was Laphroaig, tasting notes include salty, seaweed and oily. Jose Luis served us smoked duck slices drizzled with a sweet Vidalia onion and fig confit. We moved on to a dry, spicy, smoky Dalmore Cigar Malt, paired with lollipop lamb chops, wood-grilled and finished with a Cointreau apricot glaze over creamy polenta. Then a smoky, raisin-sweet Glen Garioch tasted against a smoked trout cake in balsamic plum glaze. Jose Louis used bok choy tossed with raisins to bring out the fruit in the whisky...

...The professional tasting notes often included some flavors so subtle or so weird that I couldn't have discerned them, or even imagined them, without the cheat sheet: melon balls, tarry rope, boiled sweets, burnt sticks, Lapsang Souchong tea. Nigel's reasoning as to why the heresy of tasting Scotch with a meal was a good idea was sound: the conviviality, the opportunity to linger over each glass, the unique character of Jose Luis' dishes and their potent effect on the palate when combined with a hugely complex liquor ... I would choose this sort of experience any time over the more staid (and hungry) atmosphere of a traditional tasting.

We tucked into the fourth course, Arborio Risotto blended with fontina and havarti cheese topped with a trio of wild mushrooms, paired with a cedary, malty, woody Highland Speyside called Ardmore. Then an amazing Balvenie Single Barrel Limited Edition (one of only 350 bottles) with notes of chocolate, cocoa, toffee and sherry. This Jose Luis matched with red deer venison slices in an espresso, Kahlua reduction over a jalapeno infused sweet potato mash. The sweet undertone of the Scotch teamed up with the Kahlua and head-butted the spicy sweet potatoes. Like the Bolshoi Ballet playing rugby in my mouth. Heaven.

In that contest between spicy and sweet, sweet won as the meal climaxed in a beautifully wrought homemade caramel Mascarpone cheese flan, served with ginger caramel ice cream, paired with Auchentoshan, a rare lowland Scotch noted for its gingery finish.

P.S. I know you are probably tempted, but it would not be advised to prepare the exact same 6-course tapas menu for your friends, since that would be plagiarism.

Not to mention I wouldn't like the trout ;o) Sounds good, but starting off with a Laphroaig - that's different!