Fried butter: impossible food-wine pairing?!?
The leaves are falling and the autumnal bounty is hitting our tables. Nothing says fall, apparently, like deep fried butter on a stick.
Or at least at the Winston-Salem, North Carolina fair, where a reporter filed this tasting note from the fairgrounds:
Fried cheese is heaven. Would fried butter be Nirvana? We had to find out…Will fried butter be this year’s runaway food sensation of the Dixie Classic Fair? Well, it’s novel. It’s tasty. But it’s no funnel cake, just this year’s fad. But it’s also hard to top. It’s a fluffy, airy pocket of fried batter, basically — the heat of the oil melts most of the butter — sweet and salty at the same time. We felt invigorated. We felt sick.
So what do you say, what goes with deep fried butter–or is it impossible?!? (Sugar, as depicted above, is optional.) And if you think this is hard, at least I didn’t challenge you with this week’s atrocity, Paula Deen’s donut bacon cheeseburger.
If you’re looking for more traditional fare, we previously tried our hand at pairing wine with butternut squash soup.
On October 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am ,Andrea wrote:
Bubbles!!
On October 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am ,taw99 wrote:
What to pair with deep-fried-butter-on-a-stick?? Hmm. For a county fair type food like this all I can think of is one of the Boones Farm varieties. Or maybe Mad Dog 2020. Seems like a waste to pair this “food” with vintage wine.
Your Mileage May Vary,
taw
On October 9th, 2009 at 11:14 am ,Gary "Iron" Chevsky wrote:
And why not go with a traditional sweet wine pairing like Sauternes?
On October 9th, 2009 at 11:30 am ,David Kaye wrote:
Deep fried Manischewitz.
On October 9th, 2009 at 11:43 am ,Howard G. Goldberg wrote:
1. Get butter.
2. Get chilled Chablis.
3. Put butter in pan.
4. Pour Chablis.
5. Fry butter.
6. Pour butter down drain.
7. Drink Chablis.
8. Repeat.
On October 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am ,Steve wrote:
Perfect with a balloon angioplasty!
On October 9th, 2009 at 1:20 pm ,Damien wrote:
This inspires a smart alec response. I modified only a few words from the Beacon Banjo Company’s guide to care for your banjo in the following:
* After several years of use, the grease may begin to dry out and the tuners become hard to turn. This can be corrected by removing the side thumbscrews and adding a little light oil such as 3-in-1 oil, sewing machine oil, or fried butter from the state fair.
Then of course I went to You Tube to find The Deer Hunter and the dueling banjo scene with thoughts of some clever follow up. Here is the scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzae_SqbmDE
You know what? By about 30 seconds in I was as captivated by the music, the kid, and the cinematography as I was when I first saw the movie. I had also lost any desire to make an additional smart ass comment, that scene is just too impressive. It is also painfully obvious that the scene mocks the city folk as much as the country bumpkins, but I had forgotten that.
While the idea of pairing wine and fried butter does not appeal to me in the slightest, I am once again reminded of how thinking about food and wine can lead to pleasant and unexpected surprises that sometimes have nothing to do with either food or wine.
On October 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm ,kelkeagy wrote:
Do they serve it with a rib spreader?
On October 9th, 2009 at 2:12 pm ,Mark Ashley wrote:
What goes better with a butter bomb than lots of oak? A cord of wood should suffice.
Or drink local: Since it’s a fair in North Carolina, how about a NC viognier?
On October 9th, 2009 at 2:46 pm ,Roberto N. wrote:
Some Chardonnay with a bit of ageing. Some of J.P. Brun’s or Emilian Gillet’s Macon Villages
On October 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm ,BrentB wrote:
Easy: this would pair perfectly with an un-oaked chardonnay to make up for afformentioned chard’s deficienies. 😉
On October 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm ,Dylan wrote:
Tyler, as your food-wine pairings reach greater levels of impossibility I thought I’d introduce you to the selections on this blog: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
On October 10th, 2009 at 10:20 am ,Solo500 wrote:
All kinds of Riesling would make sense with this, IMO. Also, I bet a moscato passito (Forteto Della Luja) or even some Lambrusco wd pair with the fatty yummy stuff.
On October 11th, 2009 at 9:26 am ,Billy Smith wrote:
I just tasted some chenin blanc desert wines from south africa unreal. Check out this website pardonthatvine.com…..HE is currently in South Africa and should be good.
On October 11th, 2009 at 3:48 pm ,The Wine Mule wrote:
Aw, this is too easy: Rombauer Chardonnay, the wine most easily mistaken for a dairy product.
On October 11th, 2009 at 9:06 pm ,Laurie wrote:
Must we?
On October 12th, 2009 at 9:59 am ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Glad some of you had fun with this one.
@Dylan – yes, been there, digested that.
We’ll try for something more traditional next time!