Cured and smoked pig jowl with Partizan IPA

I’ve highlighted the affinity of pork and IPA before but it’s good to be reminded just what a brilliant pairing it is.

Despite the excellent wine list the menu at the new Pitt Cue Co in the city actually cries out for a beer so we started with a Dr Rudi Lager from the Cloudwater Brew Co in Manchester (great with the grilled ‘kraut and smoked eel cream) and moved on to a Partizan IPA with the cured and smoked pig jowl and sides including an unctious bowl of mushroom and bone marrow mash and salt-baked celeriac and Isle of Mull. The sweetness (and strength) of the 7% beer was perfect with the slightly salty smoky pork. They’ll also be brewing their own beer shortly.

If you liked Pitt Cue in its previous incarnation you’ll love this new bigger version. Oh, and don’t miss the chicken and cep sausage.

Disclosure: I ate at Pitt Cue as a guest of the restaurant.

Lamb tagine with a chorizo-infused beer

It’s unusual for me to have two consecutive beer pairings as my match of the week but not surprising given that this week’s comes from an excellent beer dinner at The Bull, Highgate to mark the launch of Canadian beer and food expert Stephen Beaumont’s Beer and Food Companion

The menu was based on recipes in the book of which the most striking combination was based on a lamb tagine from chef Martin Bosley of Bosley’s Pantry in Wellington, a city which is considered the craft beer capital of New Zealand. I wouldn’t normally think of a tagine as the ideal match for beer even though the recipe includes a hefty 600ml of pale ale but the pairing with the London Brewing Co’s* Project Calavera (6.7%), an imperial mild flavoured with chorizo, cocoa, chilli and cinnamon and 'dry-hopped' with dehydrated chorizo, was just brilliant. (Beaumont also suggests Traquair House ale as a good match.)

Other pairings that worked particularly well were Alaskan Brewing Co’s Smoked porter with an oxtail soup and Stone & Wood Pacific Pale ale with a Galaxy hop-aromatized cheese - a great idea from another beer writer Lucy Saunders. You can apparently make your own quite easily with dried hops - see p 147 of the book.

I attended the dinner as a guest of publisher Jacqui Small.

*Which is based at The Bull.

Runaway American Brown Ale and chicken poutine

Last week I was in Manchester for lunch at the new Hawksmoor, a restaurant I can hardly review given it’s one of my son Will’s.

However I think I can fairly point out that the outrageously good chicken poutine barm in the bar (which you can also order in the restaurant) is the perfect match for local Runaway Brewery’s American brown ale.

Poutine, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a Canadian fast food dish of chips with cheese curds and gravy. What the kitchen’s done here is replace the curds with pulled chicken - and crisp shards of chicken skin - add an egg and stuff the lot into a soft bread roll or barm as it’s known locally in Manchester. It comes with a jug of gravy on the side which is the element that makes the brown ale pairing work so well.

Sound filthy? It is but it’s soooo good!

Runaway is a new Manchester brewery and also makes a cracking smoked porter I’m told. There's a list of the other places you can buy or drink it on their website.

Eggs Royale and St Austell Clouded Yellow wheat beer

I haven’t had a beer as match of the week for a while but with the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner and Dea Latis Beer and Breakfast tasting last week I could hardly have chosen anything else.

This combination edged it for me - and for the others who attended the beer breakfast tasting (Dea Latis is a group of women in the beer industry): Eggs Royale is Eggs Benedict made with smoked salmon rather than ham and, in this case, a light, lemony hollandaise sauce which paired perfectly with the citrussy beer.

Clouded Yellow is a 4.8% bottle conditioned wheat beer flavoured with spices and vanilla - St Austell's take on a witbier. (It’s generally served clear but you can enjoy the last remants cloudy by swirling the beer in the glass.)

It’s a very summery brew and a very suitable one for breakfast - or rather brunch. We didn’t get stuck in, you’ll be glad to hear, until 10.30!

According to the St Austell site it also goes particularly well with Thai curry and you could, of course, drink other witbiers with an eggs royale or straight smoked salmon on its own.

To read about the other contender for match of the week at a highly unusual champagne dinner click here.