Beer Cheese Soup — The Same Warmth, A Different Pot

October proper. The leaves at peak across the valley and the tourist population at its own annual peak and Vermont doing what it does: accepting the attention with quiet dignity and going about its business as soon as they leave. I drove to Burlington Thursday for supplies and the Church Street was shoulder-to-shoulder with people photographing the maple trees. I thought: you should see the ones on my road. You should see the trees my grandfather tapped. You should see what sixty years of the same maples look like when they are doing their one October thing. But they are strangers and the trees are mine and Vermont keeps its best secrets locally.

I made pot roast this week — the Dutch oven, low and slow, with the root vegetables from Helen's garden and a cup of the hard cider from the farm stand. The cider does something to a braise that wine does differently: keeps it slightly sweet, keeps it local, keeps it tasting like the season it was made in rather than somewhere else. The pot roast went in at noon and came out at five. The house smelled correct for October. I have made this pot roast perhaps a hundred times in this kitchen. The smell is the same every time. This is what I am trying to preserve when I write the recipes down: not the instructions, but the smell. The smell is the information. The instructions are just a path to the smell.

Sarah called Sunday and said Lucy has started talking in paragraphs. Full sentences, connected thoughts, stories that have a beginning and a middle and sometimes an end and sometimes just stop abruptly, which is fine, because all the best stories stop abruptly sometimes. She described everything she did that day to Sarah in extended narrative form, including a detailed account of what the neighbor's dog was wearing. Sarah asked: what do you think about that? I said I think she is going to be someone who tells stories. Sarah said: like you? I said: like her grandmother. She thought about this and said yes. Yes exactly.

The hard cider in the braise got me thinking, as it always does, about what fermentation adds to a dish — that particular depth that wine approaches differently, that belongs to a place and a season in a way a bottle from a shop does not. This soup works on the same principle: a good ale carries the broth the way cider carries a roast, quietly and without showing off. I make it on the weeks when the Dutch oven is already spoken for, when I want the house to smell like October but I’ve used up my patience on something else. It takes forty-five minutes. The smell is the same.

Beer Cheese Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 12 oz (1 bottle) amber ale or lager
• 3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Chives or crusty bread, to serve

Instructions

1. Sauté the vegetables. Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6–8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
2. Build the roux. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir well to coat. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the flour smells lightly nutty and the mixture thickens slightly.
3. Deglaze with beer. Slowly pour in the ale while stirring, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Let the mixture bubble and reduce for 2–3 minutes.
4. Add broth and simmer. Pour in the chicken broth and bring the soup to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cook uncovered for 12–15 minutes, until the carrots are fully tender.
5. Add the dairy. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the milk and heavy cream and let the soup warm through without boiling, about 3 minutes.
6. Melt in the cheese. Add the shredded cheddar one handful at a time, stirring after each addition until fully melted before adding the next. Do not let the soup boil once the cheese is in.
7. Season and finish. Stir in the Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and smoked paprika. Taste and adjust salt and black pepper. For a smoother texture, use an immersion blender to partially blend the soup.
8. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with sliced chives. Serve with crusty bread or soft pretzels alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 15g | Fat: 27g | Carbs: 17g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 710mg