Roseyland

If you have read my about me page, you know that one of my favorite restaurants is Spaghetti Works and that I always order spaghetti with white clam and beer cheese sauce. I love the beer cheese sauce and I’ve been working on recreating the recipe for some time now. I have mixed and matched from different recipes to create something that I think is close to the real thing. Here is my most recent version:

• ½ cup butter
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1 cup flour
• 12 oz Michelob Amber Bock
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 16 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese (grated)
• 1 ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

Here is a picture of the ingredients:

First, melt the butter under low to medium heat in a saucepan or stockpot. This recipe makes approximately 2 ½ quarts of sauce, so use at least a 3 quart container. Then add the garlic and stir in the flour until golden brown. It should look something like this:

Now add half of the beer. Add the beer gently so that it doesn’t foam up. Stir until it becomes a paste like this:

Add the chicken broth and stir until smooth, if there are clumps, try using a whisk. Then slowly sprinkle in cheese while stirring so that cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. It should look like this:

Finally, add the cream, remaining beer, Worcestershire sauce, and Dijon mustard. Add the final ingredients slowly and one at a time, so that the sauce temperature doesn’t drop too much. Simmer for 15 minutes to an hour while stirring until the sauce has a thick beer cheese sauce/soup like consistency. Here is the final product:

You can serve this as a topping for spaghetti or as a soup. It also goes well with bacon, so if you use it on spaghetti, you might try sprinkling some bacon pieces on top of the sauce. It goes good with chicken livers too, but I have no idea how to make those. Some people use this as a soup and sprinkle plain popcorn into it, kind of like oyster crackers. I haven’t tried this, but it sounds good.

This recipe isn’t the same as the real thing, so if you haven’t been to Spaghetti Works, go and try this sauce. There are a number of variation of this recipe out there. Just Google “Beer Cheese Sauce” or “Beer Cheese Soup”. As far as the beer goes, I think Michelob Amber Bock is perfect. The beer needs to have a strong flavor to stand up to the cheese. Bud Light will not do. The cheese is more difficult. I feel like the cheese needs to have a strong flavor too, so I use extra sharp cheddar cheese. Many recipes call for Cheez Whiz. While Cheez Whiz melts easily, it also taste like Cheez Whiz. I think it might be a good idea to add some Parmesan cheese to the mix, so maybe I’ll try that next time. Instead of cream, some recipes use milk or evaporated milk. I like the sauce creamy, so I use cream. Evaporated milk might be interesting though. Some recipes do not call for the garlic or Dijon mustard, and some recipes call for Tabasco sauce or cayenne pepper. I tried a dash of cayenne pepper in my soup, and I think I liked it. In the future, I’ll probably add a couple teaspoons of cayenne pepper. This is definitely a recipe that can be played with. If you find something that works or have any other ideas, please let me know. Here is a picture of the final product as I served it: