Recommendations · Beer and food

Bitterballen with Budels Pilsner

Bitterballen are made from a firm ragout that sets overnight; then you bread and deep-fry them. Beside that frying fat stands a pilsner that rinses the mouth clean again with every sip.

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Bottle of Budels Pilsner, beer

From the shelf

The bottle

Budels Pilsner comes from Budels in the Netherlands and is a pilsner of 5 volume percent. The bottle holds 30 centilitres. The brewery has stood in Budel since 1870 and is run by the same family in the fourth generation; part of its beers are organically certified. A pilsner is pale in colour and bottom-fermented: you taste grain and a dry hop bitterness, with firm carbonation underneath and a short finish.

Budels Pilsner

The combination

Why this works together

A deep-fried crust leaves a layer of fat on the tongue. Carbonation scours over it and takes it along, and the dry hop bitterness of a pils picks up what is still left. Because there is little residual sugar in the beer, nothing clashes with the coarse mustard; that sharpness stays and does not turn sweet.

At the table

The dish

  • Before 4 people
  • Ready in 1 hour, plus cooling overnight
  • Type drinks snack

What you need

  • 300 grams boiled beef, finely chopped
  • 60 grams of butter
  • 80 grams of flour
  • 500 millilitres beef stock
  • 1 onion, very finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
  • 1 teaspoon mustard
  • 75 grams flour, for breading
  • 2 eggs
  • 150 grams of breadcrumbs
  • 1 litre sunflower oil, for deep-frying
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • coarse mustard, to serve alongside

How to make it

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and sweat the onion in it for 5 minutes, until it is translucent.
  2. Sprinkle 80 grams of flour over it and stir for 2 minutes, until you have a smooth roux.
  3. Pour in the stock in splashes and keep stirring until a thick, smooth sauce without lumps.
  4. Stir in the meat, parsley and mustard, season with salt and pepper and let simmer gently for another 5 minutes.
  5. Pour the ragout into a shallow dish, cover it and let it set overnight in the fridge.
  6. With wet hands, roll balls of about 30 grams. Dip them in the flour, then in the beaten egg and then in the breadcrumbs. Repeat the egg and the breadcrumbs, so there is a double coating around them.
  7. Heat the oil to 180 degrees. Deep-fry the bitterballen in batches of six for 3 to 4 minutes, until deep brown.
  8. Drain them briefly on kitchen paper and serve with the coarse mustard.

In the glass

Serving

Serve Budels Pilsner at 5 to 6 degrees in a flute glass. Hold the glass at an angle, aim the stream at the side and stand it upright as soon as it is half full. A two-finger head holds the carbonation, and that carbonation is exactly what you need with fried food.

Everything about Budels PilsnerBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje

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