Snappy Beer Cheese

If you're from Central Kentucky you're most likely familiar with snappy beer cheese, a spicy, flavorful cheese spread that's somewhat unique to the area.  My first memories of the spread are from our family going to Hall's on the River just outside Lexington in Winchester Kentucky.  Our whole  extended family would gather there for dinners several times a summer, and we always had their beer cheese.  Over time Hall's declined (but I'm told has rebounded since I moved away in the 90's) so we found other sources for beer cheese.  For the last 15 years or so a friend of my parents would make large batches of her family recipe beer cheese and sell it to friends in 10 pound buckets, which would then be divvied up amongst us.  She kept the recipe close to the vest, all I know is that she used a spreadable processed cheese and added flavorings.  The standard flavorings are worcestershire sauce, garlic, cayenne (or tabasco), mustard and (of course) beer.

Now that the parents have moved further down south I have to find a new way to get my beer cheese fix.  I've tried a few times to make my own version using spreadable processed cheese, but adding enough beer to make it noticeable resulted in a very loose cheese sauce rather than a spread. Recently I came into possession of a rather old (1949) cookbook of Kentucky recipes (a newer edition can be found here) and while leafing through found a recipe for beer cheese that I had to try.

I ended up making a few changes to the recipe while making it, and made some adjustments later.  What I used was...





8 oz sharp cheddar
8 oz "rat" cheese
1 large clove garlic (grated)
1/2 cup beer (american pilsner)
1 1/2 TB worcestershire sauce
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts powdered mustard
1/4 ts cayenne pepper  
1/8 ts celery salt                  

I had never heard the term "rat cheese" before, I learned that at the time this book was published it was the common name for young, domestic cheddar, the kind you would use to bait rat traps.  All the cheese was grated and placed in the bowl of a stand mixer to warm up a bit.  The garlic was grated on a microplane and added along with all the dry spices.  The beer was mixed with the worcestershire sauce and warmed up in a saucepan both to get rid of the carbonation and help the cheese become smooth.  I turned the mixer to low and let it blend everything, then added the beer/worcestershire sauce mix and turned the speed up to medium and let it run for a while.  The end result was good, all the flavors were these but it was chunky and a little to stiff for my liking.  A few days later I decided to loosen things up a bit, I mixed another 1/4 - 1/3 cup beer with a 1/2 ts or so sodium citrate in a saucepan and started warming it up, then added the beer cheese and mixed vigorously over low heat until all the cheese melted and smooth.  The result is much closer to the spreadable cheese I remember, but not quite.  It seems to be a very thick liquid that self levels when left alone, next time I'll probably beat more air in to the mixture before packing into tubs.  Still a good starting point and one that I'mm enjoying!