“Can you slice it any thinner?” I implored the deli counter at the market in Lake Villa, Illinois. She tried again, and produced a half pound of paper thin slices of prosciutto for my grilling adventure in the afternoon.  Armed with my paper thin prosciutto, a half dozen summer peaches, and my Dad’s new Brinkmann grill, I set to work cooking dinner. Inspired by pictures from Outstanding in the Field my dad got excited and requested grilled summer fruit.  We set to work preparing our snack. 

I quartered the peaches, and lightly dressed them in butter, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. When they hit the grill, the butter immediately sizzled, and the sugars began to caramelize on the peach slices.  Just as they began to fall apart, I pulled them off the heat.  Still warm, I wrapped each slice in prosciutto, and sent them out the hungry family. 

Conveniently, Aaron, my new step brother (are they still considered step brothers if they are adults and have kids of their own?  I don’t see why not. Plus, he brought beer, making him my brother as far as I was concerned) had just arrived bearing gifts: a six pack of Lakefront Brewery’s White Beer.  A playful Belgium Wit, with an equally playful label, it is classically spiced with coriander and orange peel, and has a mild phenolic bite with the spices showing through in the aftertaste. It was great with the grilled peaches and cured ham – the light clove phenols from the belgium yeast always makes me think of summer afternoons (which is was!) and made the caramelized sugars hiding just below the fat streaked pork dance on the tongue. 

However, the BBQ was just getting going, and I had to return to my grilling duties to tend to my Wisconsin Brats.  Luckily, there was more beer to be had, this time from Chicago.

Tags: Belgium Wit, Lake Front Brewery, Prosciutto, Traif

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 1:44 am and is filed under Pairings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.