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Article ID: 4550
Title: Pale Ale Food Pairings
By: Rachel Mork

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Pale Ale Food Pairings

If you’re looking to pair food with your favorite pale ale, you should take a look at heavy, full-bodied menu choices. Pale ales have full-bodied flavors, so you need to pair them with foods that have strong, hearty flavors and can stand up to the ale. A good pale ale can play up the spicy heat of spiced foods or it can balance a robust beef dish.

Pale ales are best known for pairing with seafood of all types, especially fried seafood or heavily spiced seafood. This is because the bitterness of the ale will complement the heaviness of the spicy or fried seafood, but will not overwhelm it. Instead, the ale will enhance the spiciness of the dish and will work well with the fried seafood. Try it with crab cakes, clam cakes, fried scallops, shrimp or clams and fried fish.

Pale ales are also excellent with beef dishes such as pot roast, steak or beef wellington. The ale can stand up to the strong flavors in these dishes.

Other popular dishes to serve with pale ales are blackened chicken, blackened catfish and other Cajun dishes. Buffalo wings also work well with ales.

Try a Thai dish, shitake dumplings or fish tacos (anything that incorporates Asian hot sauces) with a pale ale for a pleasant surprise. Order your Thai dish with spicy shrimp in it.

Fruity pair ales go very well with lamb, wild game and liver pate. Try a fruity pale ale the next time you serve up venison or quail as well.

Just remember, if you cook with a pale ale, serve the same ale with the meal in order to keep the flavors consistent. Pair pale ales with food choices that are of a similar intensity and you’ll do just fine.