Another Challenge to the Mead/Food Gurus

[Dan McFeeley]

Got another one for you guys.

Most of us get started on wine/food pairing with the simple rule, red wine for red meat; white wine for white meat, more or less. And of course, there's exceptions to the rule, and myriad variations on the theme that cross the boundaries. Rigbt now I want to keep things simple. Red wine -- Beef! White wine -- Chicken! Fish!

What would be a similar rule for mead, or mead styles, that would parallel the red wine/white wine rule of thumb?

 

[Mynx]

I'm a heathen and dont subscribe to the red wine/red meat etc, rule, but here are some thoughts re: mead. (Keep in mind I tend to drink beer more, and I'm by no means knowledgable )

For spicy foods...curries, vindaloo etc, or even more cayenne based foods like Mexican, I would think a light dry mead...maybe a metheglin or a very dry show mead. The Orange-ginger mead I made went wonderfully with curry, once it had aged a bit. These types of meads I think would also go well with fattier, richer meals.

 

[Oskaar]

I'm also a heathen when it comes to wine and food pairings, especially when I'm on vacation in Croatia. Red wine with fish, white wine with meat, grape brandy with smoked meats, olives, cheeses and breads.

I love a good light bodied red with fresh sardines hot off the grapewood barbeque, and a good Vugava (full bodied white wine from the Island of Vis) is pure heaven with garlic/lemon/rosemary pireced lamb on a spit.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[Dmntd]

Red wine with Beef / White wine with Chicken, Fish and veal, is a good starting place for beginners. The object of pairing wine with food, is that they compliment each other.

I feel this much to subjective based on taste for hard and fast rules. Rather think of mead as a condiment to compliment the food.

The old rules come from a time when there was much less ethnic diversity in what we eat and how it's seasoned. Yet becoming familiar with these conventions can lead to an understanding of why the combination works (most of the time).

Acids, tannins, sugars etc... interact with food to provide different taste sensations, like spice does, this can enhance the flavor.

With a meal; light before full bodied, dry before sweet (unless a sweet dish is served first).

Match sweet mead to a sweet dish and serve lesser abv meads before those having higher abv.

light bodied with lighter food, fuller bodied with heartier, richer and fattier foods.

poached or steamed foods pair best with delicate light bodied meads while roasted or sautéed pair best with heartier meads. you might also try to pair the mead to the dominant spice in the dish.

Earthy meads like methoglens may pair well with foods like mushroom, potato or bean soup.

Contrast can work as well. Think sweet desert mead with spicy Thai or Cuba food, they can work off each other.

Sweet food paired with drier mead may not be the best idea though, it could bring out any tannic or bitter flavor in the mead.

Most of all; match good mead to good food, mix liberally with good friends and have fun with it.

Anthony

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Red wine with Beef / White wine with Chicken, Fish and veal, is a good starting place for beginners. The object of pairing wine with food, is that they compliment each other.

I feel this much to subjective based on taste for hard and fast rules. Rather think of mead as a condiment to compliment the food.

The old rules come from a time when there was much less ethnic diversity in what we eat and how it's seasoned. Yet becoming familiar with these conventions can lead to an understanding of why the combination works (most of the time).

That's right, the "rules" (not really rules, just a kinda sorta rule of thumb) were introduced during the 1950's, or maybe the early 1960's, when wine was gradually getting reintroduced to American dining habits. Americans thought in terms or red or white wine, marketing wine according to the varietal grape didn't take hold until the 1970's. The rules more or less work, although even the people who gave that advice were aware that they weren't absolutes. The vast majority of the American population back then were beginners (most of us still are! : ) so it worked.

It's not a bad starting point for wine, but my instincts have been telling me that mead doesn't cleave quite that easily into those kind of categories, even for beginning level advice. I was hoping to see whether or not collective feedback on this question would either confirm or contradict my hunch.

With a meal; light before full bodied, dry before sweet (unless a sweet dish is served first).

Match sweet mead to a sweet dish and serve lesser abv meads before those having higher abv.

light bodied with lighter food, fuller bodied with heartier, richer and fattier foods.

poached or steamed foods pair best with delicate light bodied meads while roasted or sautéed pair best with heartier meads. you might also try to pair the mead to the dominant spice in the dish.

Earthy meads like methoglens may pair well with foods like mushroom, potato or bean soup.

Contrast can work as well. Think sweet desert mead with spicy Thai or Cuba food, they can work off each other.

Sweet food paired with drier mead may not be the best idea though, it could bring out any tannic or bitter flavor in the mead.

Most of all; match good mead to good food, mix liberally with good friends and have fun with it.

This is pretty good -- thanks for posting it.

Anyone else have ideas on this question?

 

[Dmntd]

It's not a bad starting point for wine, but my instincts have been telling me that mead doesn't cleave quite that easily into those kind of categories, even for beginning level advice.

I agree Dan. Mead doesn't fit easily into the guidelines used for wine.

Yet, a knowledge wine and which qualities are paired with what food, can lead to a better understanding of what to look for in a mead when matching it to
food.

Kind of like matching yeast to must. The more you know about what qualities a strain of yeast will lend to a finished mead, the better you can match type of yeast to the mead your making.

It seems to me the best way to go about this would be to list style of mead say varietal, under that list type of honey - qualities - food it would pair with. I'll start it off.

Varietal, dry (FG 0.098);

Buckwheat - earthy, rich and musty - mushroom, potatoe, onion, sage, roast beef or game.

Tupelo - light and delicate - steamed or poatched fish or vegetables, lightly seasoned poultry or upland game, salad greens with a lemon juice/mead dressing.

Anthony

 

[Dan McFeeley]

Thanks for posting that!

Some additional input, cross posting some good info from Miriam on another thread, covering Ancient Orange pairings:

. . . like my Ancient Orange, which ferments out semi-sweet but still crisp, would go well. AO is altogether good with fruity foods, like apricot lamb or a tagine of chicken with prunes...

That makes a lot of sense -- if I make another challah bread with raisins, Ancient Orange, like she suggests, sounds excellent.

I have some general guidelines for food and wine pairings from the book "The Right Wine," by Tom Maresca, which I'll post as separate topics in this forum. They're chart guidelines, and fairly large .jpegs, so they'll need to have their own topic/heading. I'll get 'em up in a jiffy! They should be helpful here . . .

Looking it over, you'll see that what makes wine work with food is the general structure of the wine as defined by tannin, fruit, acid and alcohol. The general structure of mead is altogether different, especially in the way the different flavor components work together to create the flavor profile of the mead.

I should also add that Maresca's book was published in 1990, and things on the ever changing wine scene have continued changing. The charts are meant to provide ideas for wine pairing, they're not to be taken as "rules" or absolutes in any sense of the word. And, like most people commenting on wine/food pairings, Maresca's first advice is drink what you like.