Remember when we played that fun game in October pairing your favorite Halloween candies with the best kind of wine to drink while eating them? Well, we’re playing it again, except this time, we’re pairing Thanksgiving dishes with every type of alcohol ever. Yes, it’s in another infographic, and yes, it’s just as fun this time around as it was then. Some things never get old, and unusual food pairings is definitely one of them.
While the Halloween candy wine pairing infographic came from the wine app Vivino, the Thanksgiving booze pairing one comes to us from wine blog VinePair. You might remember VinePair from that neat-o animated map we saw during the spring illustrating the growth of wine consumption in the U.S.; they’re wonderful at making seemingly fancy-schmancy adult beverages accessible for the layperson who may not know much about them. So if you haven’t figured out what to serve with Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving dinner yet, read on — here’s how to tell which wine, beer, and hard liquor will pair the best with your festive spread.
Most of the pairings make a whole lot of sense when you stop to think about them. For example, of course you’d want to pair cranberry sauce with Grenache or a sour beer; in spite of the tartness of the berries, cranberry sauce is usually pretty sweet. You need something to cut that sweetness in order to make the most of it. Pairing dark rum with sweet potatoes with marshmallows, too, sounds magnificent — the ultimate in rich comfort food (even if comfort food doesn’t technically exist). And duh, obviously the only hard liquor worth pairing with your turkey is Wild Turkey. I mean, seriously. You can’t not do that. It’s just...
Yes. That. Thank you, Michael Fassbender.
Other combinations, however, quite surprised me. For example, I wouldn’t have thought to pair pumpkin pie with imperial stout or cornbread with a zinfandel; I also didn’t expect the pairing of syrah with mac and cheese (although extra special bitter and mac and cheese? That’s the breakfast of champions. Source: I’m a champion). The pairing I’d be most interested in trying, though, is definitely the pecan pie-smoked porter one. That sounds positively divine.
Of course, odds are you won’t be serving every single type of booze listed here; that would make for one expensive Thanksgiving. But in case you’re trying to narrow the field between, say, wine and beer, you might check out Serious Eats’ guide to solving just that conundrum. It’ll make life a whole lot easier for you. Trust me. Oh, and don’t forget to calculate exactly how much booze you’ll need while you’re at it.
Here’s the full infographic from VinePair. Bottoms up!
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