Any Guy's Food Blog

Newcastle is likely my second favorite brown ale, which is a fair feat considering I am an easy sell on a brown ale. I decided at some point that I wanted to make sliders for one of the recipes this month and had to decided on a beer that would work for that. The funny thing is that I really only decided to include sliders because they are one o those fancy-casual-chic items that restaurants will throw on their menus to say, "Hey, you can wear a tie if you want... And you can still order burgers, but somehow it's different because they're cute." That always cracked me up. Yes, if you go to a fancy place and order sliders, you're still a big boy ordering off the kiddie menu. Anyway, I did them anyway. If you want to dress them up more, remember to go for fancy breading: crostini, ciabatta, etc.

(Note: I am making fun of sliders and yes, I realize that the other draw is that they can be used as appetizers.)

Ingredients:

1 cup Newcastle Brown Ale
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 large egg

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and combine by hand. Try having some fun and mixing in other ingredients like your favorite seasonings, feta or bleu cheese, diced onions, garlic, etc. Roll beef into balls about 1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter. Cook on a grill and flatten slightly. Cook as desired.

Tasting Notes:

This is yet another food that I'm thinking should never again be cooked without beer. In this case, I chose 27% fat (non lean) beef because it was on sale and because I reasoned that if I were to call them sliders, they should be greasy. Beef fat + brown ale sugars = greatness. Next time I think I'll even mix in some brown sugar and top off at the end with bbq sauce. I happened to have a bunch of hoagie rolls left over from when I made the french dip so I cut them into thirds and used those as rolls for the sliders. This was a success, definitely at least an 8 out of 10. Easy to make, bbq friendly and indulgent.