Steak and Ale: Not just for pies

Steak and ale? Yes. In a pie. Beautiful rare steaks with a bottle of lager? Erm no thanks, I think I'll have a nice glass of Malbec if you don't mind.

That was my (and probably your) reaction when a steak and beer pairing was put to me. But ale expert Richard Fox assured me I was wrong, so I decided to give it a go.

And from now on, a juicy steak and a pint will be a regular at my table.

The first thing to think about is the type of steak itself. And it seems there's a lot more to think about than I'd ever considered. If, like me, steak to you means sirloin or rump, there's a whole world out there ready to be devoured.

Quality Standard Mark (QSM) meat expert Hugh Judd shows us round all the cuts of meat you can get out of a beef animal (think of that famous cow diagram but in real life) and explains that expert butchers are still discovering better ways to cut the meat to make it more tender and flavoursome.

And I should start by introducing my new favourite beef cut - the flat iron steak. Cheap, tender and super tasty, it'd pick it over a sirloin any day.

Except, it turns out, I can't pick a sirloin out of a line up.

The meat

To prove that most people don't really understand flavours and textures in the beef they eat, Hugh gave us a taster of no less than eight different cuts to see if we could work out which was which. The only person who got anywhere near it was an industry insider.

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In case you're struggling to think of eight different beef cuts, they are sirloin, rib eye, flat iron, fillet, onglet, picanha rump, prime rump and bistro rump.

As you'd expect from Hugh, the beef we're trying is all under the QSM, which is a scheme that goes beyond The Red Tractor to assure the meat is British and enables traceability from field to plate. It ensures farmers and producers follow strict specifications in order to put the sticker on their finished products, that guarantees the quality of the meat, the welfare of the animals and the way it's been processed.

And if the quality is high, you can pick cheaper cuts. Sirloin and rib eye might be ideal for special occasions, but cuts such as the flat iron, briskett and skirt cooked right can be just as tasty.

Which is somewhat proven by how few we managed to accurately recognise in the taste test. Some of the cheaper cuts I labelled as the most expensive, while the priciest options didn't jump out at me.

The beer

Beef quiz finished (and failed), we have a second round of cuts that Richard has paired with various different types of ale and lager.

"Beer isn't just beer any more," he tells us. "People used to think it's either an ale or a lager and that's that but there are so many new varieties and craft beers that you can't really label them as one or the other.

"And actually though most of us drink red wine with steak, some of the good quality beer, I think, works better than wine because rather than being acidic and cutting through the flavours, it's caramel and hoppy and really brings out the flavour of the steak.

"And beer's more refreshing than wine, so it's great for spicy flavours."

For my new fave, the flat iron steak, he suggests Brooklyn Lager, which is an American amber lager, sweet and a little malty which 'cuts through the nicely fat-marbelled steak for a powerful flavour punch'.

And I think he's right, the two go remarkably well and as we make our way through the list, pairing rib eye with Worthingtons White Shielf IPA, Sirloin with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and prime rump with Leffe Blonde, he seems to be proving his point.

The lesson is quite an eye-opener. Not only do I feel more confident about picking and cooking new cuts of beef, but I've also realised that you don't have to plump for a sirloin to get a tender steak.

And we're not saying we'll never pair steak with red wine again, but as the temperatures warm up, a refreshing bottle of beer (decanted into a nice glass, of course) will go down a treat over roast beef this Sunday.