Milk Stout Oxtail Stew

Our answer

Nigella's Oxtail With Milk Stout And Marjoram (from HOW TO EAT) is a slow cooked beef stew. The recipe uses milk stout rather than regular stout (such as Guinness). Milk stout has its name as it contains lactose sugar, which is derived from milk. Lactose sugar is not turned into alcohol by yeast, so the resulting brew is much sweeter and milder in flavour than other stouts and the stew should not have the edge of bitterness that you can get from other stouts.

We suspect that you may be finding the flavour slightly bitter rather than sour and do check that the stout was actually milk stout and not a different craft stout or ale. If in doubt, check the ingredients list and make sure that the ingredients include milk. You can usually slightly offset bitterness in a dish by adding some sugar. So when you reheat the stew add one teaspoon of soft light brown sugar at a time and taste after each addition, until you are happy. Soft light brown sugar has a slight caramel note that will also help to compliment the flavour of the stew.