Too much Guinness in my stew

[hotsauce28]

And now it's pretty bitter. Anyone know how i can fix this?
thanks

[andytee]

what else is in there? can you water it down?

[Notorious EMDB]

Lemon juice & whole grain mustard w/some more brown sugar? Good luck.

[Mild Bill]

Flour blended with cold half & half will thicken the juices and soften the hard edges of flavors...

Or just adding some half & half...

It works well with acidity and mild bitterness...

[three of us]

This works for spaghetti sauce that is too bitter, maybe it will help with your stew.
Try peeling a med to lg potato and putting the whole thing in the stew while simmering. The potato will absorb the bitterness. Fish it out before it gets too soft and falls apart.

[C. Hamster]

Potatoes don't work for salt, sweet, hot, bitter or anything else.

It's been scientifically proven.

They just soak up the cooking liquid like a sponge -- they don't selectively discern and remove the ONLY offensive ingredient. They are not that smart.
You could just ladle out some liquid and have the same effect -- less liquid, equally bitter/sour/salty/hot/sweet taste.

You can make up a small batch without the beer and combine -- that's the best way to truly remedy the situation.

[SilverlakeGirl]

Sour Cream?

[monavano]

A touch of honey should mellow it out. I avoid cooking with Guiness after encountering the very same problem. Acutally-what I keep on hand to cook with is O'Doul's!!

www.houndstoothgourmet.com

[hotsauce28]

i tried some brown sugar (couldn't log on last night so i was on my own!). It took out some of the bitterness but i still tasted a lot of it.
I'll try O'Doul's next time and stick to drinking the Guinness on it's own.
Thanks guys!

(i thought potatoes worked on over salted liquids, no??)

[Mild Bill]

No... they just season the potato...
The sauce will still taste the same...

You have to add bland ingredients to the stew to balance it out...
Dairy, or instant mashed potatoes, or oatmeal...
Oatmeal is a great and flavorful starchy thickener...
You can toast it in a nonstick skillet and then buzz it in the food processor or use it whole...

Newcastle Brown Ale is my cookin' beer...

[pikawicca]

I do not acknowledge the idea of "too much Guinness."

[hotsauce28]

When you're drinking it, no. No such thing.
Cooking with it is a completely different thing which i learned the hard way!

[pikawicca]

I would add some honey. I do this, anyway, when making lamb stew with Guinness.

[monavano]

Cooking IS different. Believe me-I made Dave Lieberman's hoisin beer braised short ribs and thought I'd get assertive with the beer and used Guiness. Yuck. The bitterness ruined the dish-that I cooked for HOURS!
:'(

www.houndstoothgourmet.com

[Homero]

I am just curious, did you use Guinness Extra Stout in the bottle or Guinness Draught in a Can? It is my belief that the two beers taste very different. I can't take the Extra Stout in a bottle, but I will happily drink the Draught in a Can. I expect that in cooking, the taste would also be different.

[hotsauce28]

Oh, i can't do the extra stout. It tastes medicinal!
I used the Draught but i got a bit pour-happy and put the whole can in.

[monavano]

(just nodding my head here- I did the same thing when I made short ribs as I mentioned upthread. Sometimes I get a little to full of myself when tweeking a recipe and it well...backfires ;-(
A long cooking braise is tough to toss.

[neversremedy]

I had trouble with it the first year I made this (and I prefer using extra stout, although the milder Guinness also works well for a less bitter taste). Here's the secret: Boil the hell out of it. It's the alcohol that hasn't cooked off that's causing the bitterness. It also is what stinks up the kitchen for a while. Start by getting it to a rolling boil after adding your ingredients (especially the Guinness), and then turn to simmer for about five to six hours. You'll know it's ready because the stink of the ale will suddenly depart from your home, and a mouth-watering scent of something more edible fills the air. As Dennis Leary put it, Irish cuisine is anything "boiled for 17 hours until you can suck it through a straw." A bit of an exaggeration, but not far off.