lyndalou
Head Chef
I use dry vermouth most of the time. It's my understanding that Julia Child used to recommend it. Works for me.
Why cook with wine?
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BrazenAmateur
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2007
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- 193
Am I the only one that "stores" leftover wine in mah bellay?
Never cook with anything you couldn't at least tolerate drinking, and if there's leftover from cooking, then there's more left for drinking!
win/win
DramaQueen
Head Chef
BrazenAmateur
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2007
- Messages
- 193
That'll teach me not to read the whole thread....lol
Bigjim68
Head Chef
Right on Brazen Amateur. If there is any rule about cooking with wine, it is to use a wine that you would drink with the meal. One other rule that I learned over Christmas is never to use a wine without first tasting it. Made a wine sauce for a group of guests with an unfamiliar but recommended wine and all the pan drippings from a prime rib. Turned out terrible as the wine was much too dry for the dish. Semi salvaged it with lots of sugar. Should have started out with a cab. I have used dry vermouth for cooking, but I prefer it with gin for marinating olives.
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Bigjim68
Head Chef
To Claire: Nothing wrong with using beer for cooking, I use it as liquid for chiles, pot roasts, and anywhere else where I want a yeasty taste. Same rules apply as for wine. Use a good beer, generally dark, and save that can of Coors Light for drinking on the deck in summer.
Barbara L
Traveling Welcome Wagon
I don't drink wine, but I do like to make what we always called "Drunk Chicken" with sherry. I like to buy a few chickens when they are on sale. I usually start the first one marinating in sherry and parsley, then I put the rest in freezer bags and divide the remaining sherry among the ones going in the freezer.
I loved the Steak Marsala I had at a restaurant once and would love to make that, but all I can find around here is cooking marsala.
I didn't notice this already being addressed, but if you haven't cooked with wine before, do not use "cooking" wines. They are full of salt.
Barbara
I loved the Steak Marsala I had at a restaurant once and would love to make that, but all I can find around here is cooking marsala.
I didn't notice this already being addressed, but if you haven't cooked with wine before, do not use "cooking" wines. They are full of salt.
Barbara
jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
I loved the Steak Marsala I had at a restaurant once and would love to make that, but all I can find around here is cooking marsala.
Cooking Marsala? I've never run across that but it sounds gross.
Are you sure your liquor store doesn't carry marsala? Pm me if mot.
Barbara L
Traveling Welcome Wagon
I had never heard of cooking marsala either, but I saw it at the grocery store a few weeks ago. Walked away quick!
Truthfully, the liquor store is the only place I haven't checked. LOL I plan to, but our financial situation is such right now that I try to only buy what is absolutely necessary. I check out the wine section when I am at the stores I already go to, but mainly just so I will know where to buy it later.
BarbaraBigjim68
Head Chef
So called cooking wine is a remnant from the prohibition days and has outlived its usefulness. It was the only alcohol legally available at the time. Was salted to make it undrinkable. Ought to tell you something right there. Marsalas and other wines suitable for cooking are available at wine stores at inexpensive prices. If I did not drink wine, I believe that I would try freezing the wine in ice cube trays, even if I had to boil out some of the alcohol first. The flavor would still be there. This is a trick I use for stock. I start with a large pot and reduce it to two ice cube trays. Freeze it, then store in plastic bags. I detect no flavor reduction.
Michelemarie
Executive Chef
We rarely have any leftover wine either.........
Claire
Master Chef
A sweet sherry will do in many recipes for marsala, just use less of it. It is quite sweeter than marsala. Don't buy "cooking" wine of any sort, it is too salty.
I always thought that marsala was only a cooking wine. I guess that explains why I cannot make a chicken marsala that compares to what I have at restaurants.
kitchenelf
Chef Extraordinaire
That's not what jennyema meant. There is "wine" - and there is some sort of liquid labeled "cooking wine". One has an alcohol content and the other does not. Just like Marsala. There is Marsala, and then something labeled "cooking" marsala. Anything labeled "cooking" wine, or "cooking" sherry, or "cooking" marsala is absolutely NOT the same as wine, or sherry, or marsala that one would drink. The "cooking" varieties of these things are loaded with so much sodium that there is virtually little else to taste.
The restaurant marsala probably has a LOT more butter in it than you normally cook with and that alone will REALLY smooth out the flavor. It could also be a different brand of marsala. Next time you go to this restaurant ask what brand marsala they use. Ask if they will tell you how they make the sauce. They may do that.
Check out this recipe and see how it compares to your recipe. This always turns out great!
DramaQueen
Head Chef
There is a dry Marsala and a sweet Marsala. It could be that you're using the "other" one and that may be why yours tastes differently than the restuarant's. Don't even think of using cooking wine. That stuff is nasty and not even in the same class as wine.
The only marsala I have ever seen in the store is the "some sort of liquid" to which you referred. I will have to get some real marsala and try the recipe you cited.
Is there some kind of rule-of-thumb regarding what kind of wine should be added to what kind of dish (keep in mind that I do not drink wine)?
Hawkeye16
Cook
beer on the other hand...
kitchenelf
Chef Extraordinaire
Well.........yes and no. You can cook chicken pieces in either white wine OR red wine. Red wine is good with spaghetti sauce but I have also added white wine to a tomato-based stew (diced canned tomatoes).
OK - I did a quick search and THIS site seems to be interesting! I'm off to read now!
Maverick2272
Washing Up
I am not much of a wine drinker either, and don't know squat about which wine goes with what. But, most recipes I have been picking up that call for wine tell me which to use, and if they don't I go to a specific liquor store because all the wine on their shelf is labeled with what it pairs well with. Makes it much easier.
My wife on the other hand, she loves wine. And now that I am cooking with it, she is reaping the benefits as well as I am able to pick up wines that, again, pair with the meal we are having. So she is enjoying better selections thanks to you guys, LOL.
My wife on the other hand, she loves wine. And now that I am cooking with it, she is reaping the benefits as well as I am able to pick up wines that, again, pair with the meal we are having. So she is enjoying better selections thanks to you guys, LOL.
