Ill gladly cook with a bottle of wine that only costs 3 bux a bottle. I wouldnt really drink it unless absolutly necessary but at the same time, when you cook wine your are destroying a lot of the flavor compounds and taking away a lot of the subtleties of wine. So you dont ever want to pay more than 8 bux a bottle. Then you pair the dish with a wine of the same type that costs 15 to 20 bux a bottle
Why cook with wine?
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GB
Chief Eating Officer
Why? Price does not have to be a reflection of quality. How do you know you would not want to drink a $3 bottle unless you tasted it? For all you know it could turn out to be delicious. Don't judge a book by its cover or better yet don't judge a bottle by its price tag.
Why cooking with wine? and why not using the "el cheapo" kind of wine?
For the same reason you cook with unsalted butter instead of lard or shortening.
For the same reason you select produce and don't get cheaper stuff with today's expiration day.
For the same reason you cook with unsalted butter instead of lard or shortening.
For the same reason you select produce and don't get cheaper stuff with today's expiration day.
I've also heard that adding an acid to a poaching liquid makes it do something...different...I think cook better? Anyone?
I usually add white wine to my poaching liquid when poaching salmon, and I much prefer it over poaching without the wine. It does taste better, almost subtle with just a hint of the wine I put in.
Mike
I usually add white wine to my poaching liquid when poaching salmon, and I much prefer it over poaching without the wine. It does taste better, almost subtle with just a hint of the wine I put in.
Mike
Saphellae
Head Chef
Totally not true! I found that in Germany when I lived there, that often the cheaper bottle would taste the best!
bryankimjade
Assistant Cook
I love to cook with wine, it gives such a wonderful flavor to the dish. You have to make sure that you let it reduce or it will be too strong. I agree with everyone else that you don't cook with wine that you wouldn't drink. The wine that you buy in the grocery stores that call themselves cooking wine are terrible. I would much rather use a stock rather than any of these. But the wine that you cook with doesn't have to be expensive either. I have used wine from the grocery store (in the alcohol section, not the vinegar isle) and the dish comes out very good. You can find an inexpensive riunite for example in white or red depending on your dish that work perfectly well. Of course quality ingrediants are always much better, but who can afford to put a 100. dollar bottle of wine in a chicken dish?
Marko
Cook
Here's a link to my blog post which I entered today. Last night I made Coq Au Vin (Chicken with Wine) at home and photographed the process step-by-step. Coq Au Vin is a traditional French dish and is quite simple to prepare and is based on the use of red wine.
Livingston Cooks: COQ AU VIN -THE LITTLE PEASANT DISH
Cheers,
Marko
Livingston Cooks: COQ AU VIN -THE LITTLE PEASANT DISH
Cheers,
Marko
DramaQueen
Head Chef
Marko: I love Coq au Vin and have made it several times. I printed your recipe because it's different than the French versions I use. However, I realized there are no amounts for the ingredients. You wanna run that past us again??? Thanks.
Marko
Cook
Drama Queen:
Actually...recipes with quantities are seldom going to be seen on my blog unless I post baking recipes. Precise quanitiies are only for maintaining consistency in my opinion and the purpose of my blog is to encourage people to look at the principles of cooking rather than to remember quantities.
Marko
Actually...recipes with quantities are seldom going to be seen on my blog unless I post baking recipes. Precise quanitiies are only for maintaining consistency in my opinion and the purpose of my blog is to encourage people to look at the principles of cooking rather than to remember quantities.
Marko
Marko
Cook
Drama Queen:
Actually...I will try to give you some of the measurements, however...I usually never measure anything when I cook unless I am standardizing a recipe for my staff in the kitchen.
In the Coq Au Vin recipe I posted, I used 12 chicken thighs. This would serve six people. I used one bottle of dty red wine, about 4 cups of mushrooms, 8 shallots quartered and 4 cloves of garlic. The bacon that was added first was a julienne that would have been about one cup.
That's pretty much it!
Hope that helps.
Marko
Actually...I will try to give you some of the measurements, however...I usually never measure anything when I cook unless I am standardizing a recipe for my staff in the kitchen.
In the Coq Au Vin recipe I posted, I used 12 chicken thighs. This would serve six people. I used one bottle of dty red wine, about 4 cups of mushrooms, 8 shallots quartered and 4 cloves of garlic. The bacon that was added first was a julienne that would have been about one cup.
That's pretty much it!
Hope that helps.
Marko
Come on now, i didnt say all 3 dollar bottles are bad, i just said i wouldnt usually drink them. i have gotten some good 3 dollar bottles before and i have drank them, but 9 times out of 10 i wont. I was basically just emphasizing the point that you dont need to spend 20 dollars on a bottle of wine to cook with.
EDIT: Should have put "usually" instead of "really" in my original post, but the emphasis is the same, though.
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expatgirl
Master Chef
Nothing is more boring than plain chicken breasts---but I've put myself on a low sodium diet and believe me wine adds that zing that makes you not miss the salt------it's esp. good to use when I poach the breasts---I add onions and garlic and red wine---the flavor is incredible and the chicken is so tender (I poach skin side up) and then remove when eating--Mrs. Dash and fresh cracked pepper are the only other ingredients
Marko
Cook
Marsala is excellent for cooking as is almost any spirit. Beers, wines, fortified wines, liquors, vodkas, scotches, gins, tequillas, bourbons.....can all be used to add flavor to sauces, desserts and cooked meat dishes.
Marko
Marko
DramaQueen
Head Chef
I hear ya. I make my chicken breasts by sprinkling with Mrs. Dash original (no salt) and sauteeing them quickly in 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Sprinkle with Tabasco or Frank's Hot Sauce and you have a great little meal. Only takes about 3 minutes to cook. And the flavor is superb!
AllenOK
Executive Chef
Wine has many different chemicals in it that affect flavor. One of those is potassium chloride, which is actually a kind of salt, and reacts on your tongue the same way the sodium chloride (table salt) does.
If a person is on a low-sodium diet, cooking with wine, and lemon juice, will help boost the flavor of food, while decrease the amount of sodium ingested.
Hi All,
Cooking with wine? The truth is that many classic dishes in the French repetoire include the use of wine or fortified wines and liquers. For example, if one looked at the works od that great doyenne of cooking - Julia Child, you will find recipes using white wine, red wine, brandy, sherry, Noilly Prat, Champagne, beer, lager, cider, Calvados and Armagnac etc..
The reason for using any alcohol in any dish is predicated/based on 2 reasons. The first is the flavour which the alcohol gives to the dish and the second is that it is tradtional.
Consequently, regarding the choice - buy the best that YOU can afford and second, use the wine or alcohol appropriate, relevant and integral to the dish.
If you choose not to use an alcohol for whatever reason(s), my advice to you would be to contact this messageboard for advice for an alternative. For example, in a Carbonnade de Boeuf, it may be that you need to cook the onions really well and add a good dash or 2 or 3 of Worcestershire sauce to get that depth of flavour. What you need is the note of a bass not a tenor - you get this with the beer/ale/lager. However, in the absence of this you may need the Worcestershire sauce or a dash of Balsamic vinegar - red or white.
Hope this helps,
Archiduc
Cooking with wine? The truth is that many classic dishes in the French repetoire include the use of wine or fortified wines and liquers. For example, if one looked at the works od that great doyenne of cooking - Julia Child, you will find recipes using white wine, red wine, brandy, sherry, Noilly Prat, Champagne, beer, lager, cider, Calvados and Armagnac etc..
The reason for using any alcohol in any dish is predicated/based on 2 reasons. The first is the flavour which the alcohol gives to the dish and the second is that it is tradtional.
Consequently, regarding the choice - buy the best that YOU can afford and second, use the wine or alcohol appropriate, relevant and integral to the dish.
If you choose not to use an alcohol for whatever reason(s), my advice to you would be to contact this messageboard for advice for an alternative. For example, in a Carbonnade de Boeuf, it may be that you need to cook the onions really well and add a good dash or 2 or 3 of Worcestershire sauce to get that depth of flavour. What you need is the note of a bass not a tenor - you get this with the beer/ale/lager. However, in the absence of this you may need the Worcestershire sauce or a dash of Balsamic vinegar - red or white.
Hope this helps,
Archiduc
expatgirl
Master Chef
Thank the cooking gods divine that there is wine and Mrs. Dash!!!
jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
Actually the two reasons are that #1 alcohol dissolves flavor components that are not water or oil soluable -- thus releasing added flavor from your ingredients (tomatoes are a good example) and #2 for the flavor of the alcohol itself (eg, a hit of brandy in onion soup).
