Barley Wine

kah22

I’m making Delia Smith’s Christmas Pudding this year. Two of the ingredients are 75ml barley wine, 75ml stout. As someone who only uses drink in cooking I don’t particularly fancy charging around my town looking for it.

Delia’s food editor when asked for a subsitute suggested using strong cider, which surprised me. Other sites I’ve looked at said: use a strong beer, others just use stout. If any of you have made Delia’s pudding in the past and substituted what did you use ?

There are a few cans of Strongbow Cider - Dark Fruit with an alcohol vol of 4 percent, in my store cupboard. That seems low to me. How strong is it as a cider?

Kevin

Mojisola

kah22 wrote: »

I’m making Two of the ingredients are 75ml barley wine, 75ml stout. As someone who only uses drink in cooking I don’t particularly fancy charging around my town looking for it.

Our local corner shop sells both of those - no chasing around needed.

kah22

Unfortunately mine doesn’t☹️ Even if it did; 75 mls and in all probability the rest goes down the sink. That’s why I was wondering about alternatives

Farway

kah22 wrote: »

There are a few cans of Strongbow Cider - Dark Fruit with an alcohol vol of 4 percent, in my store cupboard. That seems low to me. How strong is it as a cider?

Kevin

You're right, it is weak for cider. I'd say over 6% ABV minimum
Barley wine is well over 8% ABV normally, 12 plus if a head banger;)

Mojisola

The family recipe for Christmas pudding uses stout - some version of that must be available locally?

bouicca21

I used to make Delia's recipe and I am pretty sure I only used stout.

DCFC79

The Barley Wine I know of is 7.5%.

suki1964

All I know about barley wine is, its for head bangers

kah22

I’m just going to use all Guinness as I have some in the house.

It’s not very MoneySaving to buy a bottle of booze for 75 mls. I wonder though why Delia choose this beverage it doesn’t seem to be widely available. And I wonder why her food editor suggested strong cider

Kevin

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Just use whatever booze you have knocking around mixed with a triple strength cuppa - the recipe is asking for tramp juice like Special Brew or Tennant's Extra - high in alcohol, sickly, syrupy sweet and designed to get one from zero to peeing oneself in a filthy bedsit as quickly as possible.

Callie22

I have used ginger wine for this in the past - you've still got the same problem of having to buy a big bottle (unless somewhere does miniatures) but it's not too dear. It seems to be much more widely available than barley wine, I think most largish supermarkets stock Stones and some do their own brands too. It's also quite nice to drink if you're starting with a cold