Food that Madeiras will accompany

[Alan McDonald]

My wife and I only drink wines, both table and fortified, with meals. I have a couple of glasses with my lunch most days, and we have a range with dinner every night. Most nights we have only a main course followed by a selection of cheeses and various biscuits then nuts. We are not averse to starters and sweets, plus a small savoury course, before the cheese. The standard wine accompaniment is a white (often only as an aperitif for me, although a Pico or dry Sherry is tried on occasions), a couple of reds, at least one Port and a Moscatel.

A local supermarket where we buy perhaps half of our wines has recently begun selling its own brand (Contemporal, I think part of Dão Sul) Madeiras. There are three on offer, Seco, Meio Doce and Doce. We have tried them all and quite like them. The Seco is nowhere near as dy as any dry Sherry I have had. Our problem is fitting them into our dinner. Any suggestions, bearing in mind our eating habits, would be appreciated. We do not eat curries or use spices.

[Eric Ifune]

No spices? The seco would probably go with spicy food.
How about deep fried? The acidity can sometimes go very well with fried.

[Barry Sunderland]

High acidity Madeira goes quite well with greasy (KFC) chicken; acidity cuts right through the fat.

[Alan McDonald]

Thanks, but no deep fried stuff, or fast foods (we live on our farm, not in town) either. Do not get me wrong, we are not into some weird diet. We eat meat 14 times a week (not at breakfast) and consume lots of other animal fat, up to a dozen eggs a week, the butter on my biscuits is thicker than the biscuits and the cheese is twice as thick again. We also eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. No snacks between meals either.

We have tried all three types with most of the foods we eat, basically roasts (only beef and pork roasts so far, not other meats yet) fish and stir fries, cheeses, patés, dried ham, nuts, fruit, etc. Nothing was suitable. We do think the Sweet one might go into a trifle in place of sweet Sherry, or maybe drunk with Christmas Pudding, but have not tried either yet.

As long as I have table wines and Port I will survive, but I had hoped to find something suitable.

[Justin A]

I love sercial with pata negra.

[Alan McDonald]

Justin, Any particular manufacturer's pata negra? We have tried what we bought (the Madeira equivalent quality of Ruby Port at a guess) with Portuguese presunto and did not like it.

We have found though that all three of them go exceptionally well with my wife's mince pies. US people might not be familiar with them. They are normally made only at Christmas in most parts of the British Isles and are small fruit mince pies. Heat, lift the lid and pour in some of the Madeira. Put the lid back on and smother in lots of cream. Drink the same adeira as was poured into the pie.

I will look for more possibilities because I like to experiment with different foods and different wines.

[Justin A]

Alan,
Try a Paleta de bellota from either Fermin or Cinco Jotas.