Often, my Saint Patrick’s Day fare isn’t completely Irish. Yes, I make Soda Bread at this time of year, although mine is an American, richer version of the Irish bread. And I make corned beef and cabbage, which I recently learned is an Irish-American dish rather than a strictly Irish one.
Mostly I just add something Irish to a standard dish and serve it on Saint Patrick’s Day. In the past, for example, I have created an Irish cheese fondue, substituting Irish stout for the wine and Irish cheddar for the Swiss cheese.
The recipe below was inspired by a trip to a supermarket. As I cruised up and down the aisles, I took note of a product I had never seen before, Cabot Creamery’s Guinness Macaroni and Cheese.
It struck me as an inspired mash up of beer cheese, which I love, and macaroni and cheese, which my whole family adores. I don’t think I have ever met anyone whom it fails to please.
As a cook, I decided not to consume the boxed treat, although it has received enthusiastic reviews online. Instead, I created my own version. Ideally, I would have made the dish with Irish cheddar, but I had a lot of American sharp cheddar in the house, so I used that instead.
A friend gave me a can of Guinness stout. I’m not a stout drinker; in fact, although I am stout, I’m not a drinker at all. Nevertheless, when combined with the other ingredients and baked, I found that the stout gave the dish a complex, earthy flavor not found in my normal macaroni and cheese.
I love food trivia, so I visited the Guinness website to learn about the history of this drink. Guinness was founded in 1759 by brewer Arthur Guinness. He signed a 9000-year lease (at 45 pounds per year) for a brewery in Dublin in December of that year.
“If that’s not belief,” says the website, “we don’t know what is.”
Actually, I’d call it a shrewd business decision rather than an expression of belief in his product. Clearly, no one was ever going to evict Arthur Guinness.
He began by brewing ale but soon began producing stout, a version of the popular English tipple known as porter because it was the favorite drink of porters in London. Eventually, the Guinness company abandoned regular ale and devoted itself to stout.
Interestingly, the country that consumes the most Guinness stout in the world is not Ireland or the United States but Nigeria. That country became the first outside of the United Kingdom to house its own Guinness Brewery in 1962.
Apparently, the Nigerians pride themselves on their Guinness. Their recipe is different from that made in Ireland and more closely approximates what Arthur Guinness first brewed.
As I explored articles about Guinness stout, I was surprised to discover that the book “Guinness World Records” came from the company.
In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, Guinness’s managing director, was on a hunting expedition with friends in southeastern Ireland. Beaver shot at a golden plover but missed. He argued that the bird escaped not because his aim was deficient but because the golden plover was the fastest game bird in Europe.
One of his fellow hunters countered that the fastest game bird was in fact the red grouse. When the group couldn’t find a book that settled their argument, Beaver decided to create his own reference book.
He hired twin brothers who were known throughout Fleet Street (London’s journalism hub) for their ability to uncover facts and distributed the first copies of “The Guinness Book of Records” to pubs. He thought the books would be useful to settle drinkers’ trivia questions.
The book soon proved so popular that it became a commercial enterprise that, like the Guinness Brewery, has endured to this day.
Guinness Macaroni and Cheese
A couple of notes: If you want to maximize the Guinness flavor, serve the dish without baking it. It will have the consistency of boxed macaroni and cheese. I generally bake my macaroni and cheese so that’s what I did here, but it rendered the Guiness flavor more subtle.
I don’t usually put breadcrumbs on my macaroni, but I tried them here, and I list them as optional. They looked lovely but didn’t add a lot of flavor to the dish. I probably wouldn’t use them another time.
Ingredients:
for the macaroni and cheese:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup Guinness stout
salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup grated, good-quality sharp Cheddar cheese—ideally Irish Cheddar—divided (I often end up using more cheese than this. I love cheese.)
1/2 pound cooked and drained macaroni (The shape is up to you.)
for the optional topping:
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs—or regular breadcrumbs, or even cracker crumbs
paprika to taste
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a heavy saucepan melt the butter, and stir in the mustard. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, for a minute or two. You want this mixture (the roux) to cook and merge but not to brown.
Add the milk a little at a time, whisking constantly. Bring the sauce to a boil. Stir in the Guinness and the salt and pepper. I love salt, but remember that the cheese you are about to stir in is salty. I’d start with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and add more later as needed.
Return the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook, whisking, for 2 more minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat and use a spoon to stir in all but 1/4 cup of the cheese.
(The reason for switching to a spoon is that if you continue to whisk after you add the cheese, your whisk will get gummy.)
In a 1-1/2 to 2-quart casserole dish combine the macaroni and the sauce. Your casserole should be nice and moist. Take a tiny taste of your sauce and add more salt if you need to. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the macaroni mixture.
If you are using the topping, melt the butter, and stir in the crumbs and a little paprika. Place it on top of the mac and cheese. If you are not using the topping, just sprinkle on some paprika. Cover the dish and place it in the oven.
Bake for 20 minutes; then uncover your macaroni and cheese and continue to cook until it is nice and bubbly, 10 to 15 minutes more.
Serves 4 to 6. This recipe may be doubled.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.