Freeze Leftover Beer In Ice Cube Trays For Complex Flavor Bombs
Besides being a delicious ice-cold beverage, beer has a firm place in the cooking world. Just take beer-battered fish, cheddar beer bread, beer-based pizza dough, and beer-battered onion rings. The drink adds a slightly nutty, earthy, sweet flavor to whatever food it's in, and the carbonation can make the texture airy and crispy. But if you have some unfinished brews sitting in your fridge, you don't have to drink them right away or toss them out. Instead, try freezing your leftover beer to cook with at a later time.
When freezing your beer, don't leave it in the bottle or can, as the liquid can expand and explode all over your freezer. Instead, pour your beer into an ice cube tray. Then, the next time you're cooking a dish that could benefit from a few hops, all you have to do is pop out a pre-portioned cube of frozen beer.
How to use frozen beer
So how can you use your leftover frozen beer? Try it out in almost any recipe where you'd normally use beer. It's a fantastic addition to soups and stews, as the frozen cubes melt right into your pot and lend their complex flavor. It would also work well in sauces and marinades, casseroles, and any slow cooker recipe. Besides bringing a variety of flavor notes to your dish, the enzymes in beer can help tenderize meat, and you can use your frozen cubes to do so as well.
If you're making a sauce on the stove, using frozen brew shouldn't be an issue. Simply plop your cube into your pan and let it defrost. But when making a cold marinade, you'll want to thaw it beforehand. Place a cube in a mug and either let it sit in the fridge overnight, or leave it on the counter a few minutes before use. The only time you won't want to test out frozen beer, however, is when you're counting on the drink's carbonation to make a batter light and crispy. Beer can get flat when it's frozen, so it'll lose all those essential bubbles. But when you're using it for flavor, feel free to give your ice-cold booze a try.