What to make to accompany Mussels in Wine Sauce?

[Bigjim68]

I don't know just what is in your wine sauce, but assuming a white wine butter garlic sauce of some sort, I would probably use a dry sov blanc, or unoaked dry chardonnay, or something similar. Muscadet may work, but they can be flinty dry. I don't think I would have a problem with a Muscadet to drink with the dish. If you are making a red (marinara or similar sauce) I would be thinking of a Chianti or maybe even a Rioja. Tastes are different, and the above suits my taste. Dipping bread is any bread with the substance and body to survive the sauce. Most supermarkets carry fairly decent breads in the deli section. Get one of the hard crust breads. Lots of them have Artisan, Tuscan, or something similar in the name.

[BreezyCooking]

As far as the wine, any dry white that you wouldn't mind drinking will work just fine. When I do "white" sauces for seafood I usually use a chablis or a pinot grigio.

As far as the bread, I'm a bit confused re: what you mean by "making the dipping bread". Just buy a nice crusty loaf of artisinal-type bread - oval, round, or a baguette & serve it with the meal - with or without some spreadable room-temp butter. You weren't planning on making your own bread from scratch today for this, were you?

[Bigjim68]

Great minds really do think alike. I drink and use the Pinot Grigios. A caution with Chablis, it also comes in a sweet cheap wine, not the same thing as rear Chablis. Chablis is a wine growing region, and it is not in California.

[BreezyCooking]

No worries - I do know that the California jug Chablis aren't the same as the good imports. BUT - that said, I ALWAYS have a jug of Gallo Chablis on the premises. It's definitely not sweet (at least not to my taste), & is terrific for steaming shellfish (mussels, clams, lobster), & is drinkable, which is always the basic standard I use for wines I cook with.

[quicksilver]

My first preference for light/sweet seafood is chenin blanc. Second choice is pinot grigio.
For richer/meater, Chardonnay.
But whatever, make sure it's something you like to drink.

[jstarr]

I have a recipe that calls for 3 pounds of mussels. How would I upgrade the ingredients in the recipe for 4 pounds?

[BreezyCooking]

There are 3 ways you can approach this, depending mostly on your cooking "personality" - lol!!

1) Just use the ingredients "as is" - one extra pound of mussels really isn't a whole lot to throw things really askew.

2) Just add/eyeball a little extra ingredients to the mix to cover the extra pound of mussels.

3) If you really want to be technical, divide the 3-pound-mussel ingredient amounts by 3, then add an extra third to the recipe.