All of the last minute pieces are coming together rather nicely for the Mission Street Food and Beer & Nosh collaboration. Anthony has the brisket dry-curing for the Messiah Bold braised brisket dish, all of the beer has been ordered, Jake at Humphry Slocombe is churning away his contribution to the night as well. 

For my part, I’ll be prepping the beer carbonated citrus to go with the Scallop Crudo with Beer-Carbonated Pomelo, Fennel, Upland Cress salad dish.  Carbonating the citrus segments in beer has two effects on the citrus, both of which highlight different aspects of the beer.  The carbonation is forces through he membrane, carbonating the juice inside of the fruit, making it especially effervescent and beer-like.  The citrus also picks up and enhances the aroma of the hops, which have a naturally citrusy bouquet. Cascade hops in particular have the aroma of grapefruit – grab a fresh bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and pour it into a wide-mouthed snifter to smell for yourself.

It’s a trick I picked up from the Homebrew Chef when I helped him cook the Firestone Walker Dinner for SF Beer Week.  There, Sean has us cut supremes from the oranges and grapefruits, then force pressurized them in pale ale in one five gallon corny keg.  

 

 

 

 

This worked fine for his dinner since all of the plates went out at once. At our dinner, we’ll have rolling service through the night, and will constantly need a fresh supply of carbonated citrus.  To solve this problem, we’ll be pressuring our fruit in soda bottles, using special caps that will allow me to pressurize the bottle (around 30 PSI seems to work quite well.) 

 

 

 

For Mission Street Food, I’ll be breaking down a whole lot of pomelos, a favorite fruit of mine.  For those unfamiliar with them, they’re a lot like a grapefruit, only with a more subtle flavor, and much larger segments.  The fruit will be carbonated in Coney Island Lager (with maybe just a splash of Sword Swallower for good measure.)  Both are dry hopped with Cascade hops, so the pomelo will have a natural pairing.  I expect it to be delicious when mixed into Anthony’s salad, especially with a scallop crudo as the centerpiece of the dish. 

 

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