Beer

Serve with: Buttered noodles and steamed Swiss chard. Dessert: A bakery Linzertorte.

Make this a new version of Britain's fish and chips with (frozen) steak fries. Lemon tarts from the bakery would be good for dessert.

This classic combination of melted cheese and toasted bread is also called Welsh rarebit — an attempt to dignify the original (and slightly silly) name. For best visual appeal, use an aged yellow Cheddar for the sauce.

Beer acts as a tenderizer in this pot roast and adds a savory note to a sauce that complements the sweetness of the root vegetables.

We cooked our sausages and sauerkraut with the Oktoberfest beer that we're serving with the dish. Using a lager like this results in a deep, caramelized flavor.

This drink is sometimes called Champagne Velvet, and in certain quarters is known as the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Shandygaff, a fine euphoric title.

The use of leavening in a cake is first recorded in a recipe for gingerbread from Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, published in Hartford in 1796; I guess you could say it is the original great American cake. Early-19th-century cookbooks included as many recipes for this as contemporary cookbooks do for chocolate cake. This recipe, from Claudia Fleming, pastry chef at New York City's Gramercy Tavern, is superlative—wonderfully moist and spicy.

Colcannon (Mashed Potatoes with Kale ) and steamed asparagus tossed with lemon juice strike the right note alongside this braised beef dish. Rhubarb pie from the bakery is our choice for dessert.

Tangy beer makes a good match with sweet, briny mussels. Here the brew is seasoned with a spice mixture akin to that used in a Louisiana-style crab boil. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A hearty sweet and savory stew that's a perfect seasonal meal when teamed up with crusty bread and a green salad.

Beef rib meat becomes tender and succulent with slow cooking over low, indirect heat. Marinate the ribs overnight and allow for three hours of cooking time on the grill.

Cooking Time: 8 hours on LOW or 5 to 6 hours on HIGH
Slow Cooker Size: 5 1/2- to 6-quart oval I think the slow cooker was invented with brisket in mind. This sweet and savory version is perfection itself, melting in your mouth. It's very important to buy a "first-cut" or "flat-cut" brisket, which has far less fat than other cuts.

Serve this dish, from chef Matthew Reichel, with potato pancakes or rice pilaf.

Borracho means drunk, and it refers to the beer in the cooking liquid. If you're cooking beans and pork roast at the same time, you can use the fatty pieces of pork that you remove while carving to add flavor to the beans. Otherwise, use some bacon.