While hops are synonymous with beer—especially amid France's craft beer boom—this versatile perennial offers exciting culinary applications. Let's explore its unique traits and benefits, drawing from centuries of traditional use.
Credit: Saveur Bière's cooking blog
Hops (Humulus lupulus), from the Cannabaceae family, is a perennial climber that twists counterclockwise around supports like trees, hedges, or poles. You'll spot it adorning roadsides in vine-like growth.
Its lobed, toothed leaves are deciduous. As a dioecious plant, male and female flowers grow on separate stems. The prized greenish-yellow scaled cones from female plants impart beer's signature bitterness. First cultivated in a German monastery in 859, they also extended shelf life.
Over time, hops revealed therapeutic virtues, with scientific analysis beginning in the early 19th century. Dried cones, though bitter-smelling, make potent herbal teas with tonic, analgesic, stomachic, sedative, and anaphrodisiac effects. Hops essential oil in massages promotes sleep or eases pain.
Beer-infused cooking thrives in northern France, England, Belgium's Flanders, and Germany—think carbonnade flamande or Welsh rarebit. It's the perfect moderate accompaniment to sauerkraut or moules-frites.
Incorporate beer sparingly into waffle, donut, or pancake batters; its yeasts lighten dough for fluffier results.
Flavor meats or fish with lagers, whites, darks, ambers, spiced, sweet, tart, or bitter varieties.
Beyond beer, young hop shoots—emerging from rhizomes in February-March—are edible raw or cooked. Michelin-starred chefs like Jessica Préalpato (world's best pastry chef 2019, Plaza Athénée) feature them in hop galettes with caramelized barley and iced beer. Pair with morels or truffles, or simply sauté into a rustic omelet. Their short season and intense bitterness mean a little goes a long way.
