While writing my guide to Czech beers, I tried to include as many strange details as I could — the kind of stuff that would hopefully make the book fun to read, maybe even more than once. Like the date when a small Bohemian town under siege paid off the occupying Swedish army with barrels of lager. The new beer being developed for its ability to treat the symptoms of menopause. The twisted history of Velke Brezno’s Zippich mascot. And so on.
A list I'm working on now consists of the many sweet things made with beer. There’s a new beer cake at one of my favorite pubs in Prague, Pivovarsky Klub. And brewer Frantisek Richter — the man is a genius — just promised that nearby Richter Brewery’s sold-out Pilsner-style ice cream would return soon as a permanent addition to the menu. "It tastes just like beer," he said. "But it’s ice cream."
One saccharine treat sometimes found here is beer jelly, often as a topping for palacinky, aka crepes. But beer jelly is not just a Czech specialty. While researching German beers this spring, I discovered one of the best beer jellies in the universe: Peters, sold directly at the brewery in Cologne. A slightly cloudy deep gold, it has a malty nose with a blast of real Kölsch flavor followed by a lastingly sweet finish.
I’d give it five out of five. And yes — it makes for one heck of a breakfast spread. Now where are those palacinky?
Comments
Stonch - July 17, 2007 8:43 am
By jelly you mean jam, right? ;-)
Young's make a variety of condiments using their various beers as an ingredient.
Alan - July 17, 2007 8:54 am
Why? Jelly is jam that has been strained or is naturally clear. Can we have a long "jelly v. jam" webby blog debate? I am the king of that debate. I rule.<p>Gauntlet. Tossed.
Stonch - July 17, 2007 5:18 pm
Jelly is a pudding is it not? Whereas jam is not, it's something you spread on your toast for brekkie. These things are simple.
What is jello?
What is a 7-11?
Who is Tony Romero?
Those are the questions I want answered. People in internetland assume the rest of the world knows but we don't!
Alan - July 17, 2007 5:25 pm
"Jelly" in the North American meaning is not jello or even a geletin based form of fish and aspic savory as I imagine is served at Casa Stonch as part of daily neo-Victorian high tea. It is merely jam that has been strained at one part of the process to remove all seeds and other bits to leave a clear uncluttered fruity mass of sweet goodness. So you have either raspberry jam and raspberry jelly on your toast, the exercise of the option being based largely on your interest in sucking your teeth afterwards. But there is very little use of the word jelly other than that. It is not, like "pudding" to we over here, a subset of our <i>dessert</i>, your <i>pudding</i>.
Evan - July 18, 2007 4:59 am
Having just finished my brekkie, I'd like to start the day by citing the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines jelly as
"Jelly [ME. geli, -y(e - OF gelée, frost, jelly :- Rom. gelata). An article of food... having a soft homogeneous consistence and usually semitransparent. Also, later, a preparation of the juice of fruit, etc., thickened into a similar substance."
Jam, the OED says, is a conserve of boiled fruit with sugar, with no reference to clarity, transparency or homogeneity. Since this product is semitransparent and homogeneous, and as it contains no chunks of fruit, I believe "jelly" is the correct term.
Moreover, the German title (visible on the label in the photograph) is "Biergelee." Meaning beer jelly. If they meant "beer jam," they would probably call it "Bierkonfitüre" or "Biermarmelade." Which just sounds ludicrous.
To clear up any other misunderstandings, Jell-O is a brand of gelatin dessert. 7-11 is a type of "corner shop" which is common in Asia, America and parts of Europe (with 105 in Norway, 61 in Denmark and 74 in Sweden, according to Wikipedia). As for Tony Romero, I would have to consult the Google.
Alan - July 18, 2007 8:42 am
<i>...Biermarmelade." Which just sounds ludicrous...</i><p>Actually that sounds really good to me, though the lack of a beer rind would make it difficult to pull off.
Boak - July 22, 2007 6:34 am
You learn something new every day. I didn't know Americans had "jam" and "jelly" to describe the same thing. I just assumed you were all being perverse, rather than actually introducing a degree of sophistication into this shared language of ours.
It's a good job that there are few linguistic pitfalls in the brewing vocabulary. Although is it true that you don't have the word "bits"?
Alan - July 22, 2007 7:20 am
Not to be overly accurate but "jam" and "jelly" at least for Canadians are two grades of a similar product, jelly having the chunks strained out. We do have the word "bits" but it can mean anything from 12.5 cents (thus a quarter dollar being "two bits") to the scraps of broken chips ("crisps") left at the bottom of the bag. What does "bits" mean to you?