Just like drinking beer, the nicest thing about cooking with beer is that there are no hard and fast rules attached to it. While you do get recipes that specifically call for beer, it is not absolutely necessary. All you need to do is take your regular, everyday dish, replace some or all of the liquid with beer and watch your ordinary recipe get transformed into an exotic dish with a unique, one-of-a-kind flavor. Experimentation is key. Experiment using different combinations of beer with different dishes and create several variations of the same recipe. Don’t forget to make notes though. You may need to re-create the magic several times over if your friends and family call for an encore.

A simple addition of beer adds body to and transforms the very character of the dish. It helps enhance the flavor of some of the ingredients while blending in the other flavors of the dish. And if you find any of your recipes lack a certain something that you cannot pinpoint, a little beer will work wonders and impart that little zing the dish may have been lacking. Considering that beer is made up of grain, herbs, yeast and water, it’s like adding several different ingredients at once.

Though the rules of cooking with beer are not rigid, it will hold you in good stead to keep in mind these few tips when experimenting with beer.

• Whether you are following a recipe or creating one of your own, only cook with a beer that you like to drink. If you do not like the taste of the beer as a beverage, chances are you will not like it in the recipe too.

• As with any other liquid, the flavor of beer gets magnified as it evaporates during the cooking process. Choosing a strong beer to begin with would mean the dish will tend to have a bitter taste when it’s done. To avoid this from happening opt for a sweet stout or a beer with a smaller percentage of bitter hops when using beer to make brown gravy.

• Whether you add beer at the beginning of the cooking process or at the end depends upon the dish as well as the type of beer. If you are looking for that subtle aroma of the hops in your soup, it is best to splash on a little bit of your favorite light beer when the dish is almost done and only after you’ve reduced the heat. However, if you want to impart a deep rich flavor to your stew, you may prefer to add a darker beer at the beginning and let it cook with the rest of the ingredients. The end result will be a stew with the sweet, roasted flavor of barley that is blended in with the flavors of the remaining ingredients.

• Beer is great for marinating and tenderizing tougher cuts of meat and is also excellent when used to glaze poultry and ham.

It's not beer but this black forest cupcake has brandy in it and this chocolate cupcake recipe is delicious.