Why is wine being used in this recipe

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When I told the server at my local supermarket that I wanted wine for cooking she led me to small 250 ml cartons. It does say red wine on the carton and it's 12.5%.

i just tasted it and would say that it's a reasonable table wine and will use it in my Lasagna recipe today.

I like the idea of freezing wine in an ice cube container, and using it for cooking, but would it make sense to freeze a medium to good quality wine?

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, red wine makes me feel sleepy and because of that, if I drink wine I nearly always drink white wine. I shared an apartment with somebody from Sardinia for six months who drank huge amounts of red wine every day and he told me, "Alcoholics always drink white wine". :)
 
In PA, wine cannot be bought in a grocery store. For a while the LCB had kiosks in grocery stores, but they did away with that, at least in my area. They are starting to sell beer in grocery stores, but not many.

I don't know much about wine and usually only buy it around the holidays. My guests let me know which ones are good by how quickly the bottle is emptied. Then I know that's a good one to buy again.
 
In PA, wine cannot be bought in a grocery store. For a while the LCB had kiosks in grocery stores, but they did away with that, at least in my area. They are starting to sell beer in grocery stores, but not many.

I don't know much about wine and usually only buy it around the holidays. My guests let me know which ones are good by how quickly the bottle is emptied. Then I know that's a good one to buy again.

I spent a year in Brazil and if you don't see a store with beer for example, you knock on somebody's door and ask where you can buy some. The reply will be something like, "Mrs. Garcia at number 22". You knock on her door, and she sells it to you from a large refrigerator.

The US and Europe are drowning under regulations.

My eldest son who lives just outside London UK says it's no longer worth going to his local park,

DON'T - Sit on the grass; run; ride bicycles; light barbecues; etc.

I'm in Portugal which is more relaxed about these things than most of the EU.
 
From what I've heard, most states in the US have gone to private liquor sales. It's been a political battle in PA for years and years.
 
I don't want to open a bottle of red wine just for this recipe, and if I do open one then I'll drink it all ;-)

Maybe not a bad idea after all? :)

Would a stock or a mixture of red wine vinegar, water and sugar best?

Or something else?

Thanks

Michael

Ingredients Nutrition
2 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion, halved, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
750g beef mince
2 x 400g cans Italian diced tomatoes
125ml (1/2 cup) dry red wine
55g (1/4 cup) tomato paste
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, extra, to grease
4 fresh lasagne sheets
55g (1/2 cup) coarsely grated mozzarella
Mixed salad leaves, to serve

cheese sauce
1L (4 cups) milk
1 brown onion, halved, coarsely chopped
8 fresh parsley stalks
8 whole black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
60g butter
50g (1/3 cup) plain flour
70g (1 cup) finely grated Parmesan
Pinch ground nutmeg
Salt & ground white pepper
Flavour?

Tradition (this sounds like a ragu for something like lasagne)?

or even

Why Not?

Actually I'd ask why no herbs rather than why red wine.
 
When I told the server at my local supermarket that I wanted wine for cooking she led me to small 250 ml cartons. It does say red wine on the carton and it's 12.5%.

i just tasted it and would say that it's a reasonable table wine and will use it in my Lasagna recipe today.

I like the idea of freezing wine in an ice cube container, and using it for cooking, but would it make sense to freeze a medium to good quality wine?

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, red wine makes me feel sleepy and because of that, if I drink wine I nearly always drink white wine. I shared an apartment with somebody from Sardinia for six months who drank huge amounts of red wine every day and he told me, "Alcoholics always drink white wine". :)
First of all your Sardinian friend was a twit. Alcoholics will usually drink ANYTHING and white wine no more suggests that you are an alcoholic than it suggests that you are a woman. (I knew someone once who said that only women and homosexuals drink white wine!!!)

If you don't like red wine use white in cooking. My Italian neighbour insists that ragu should always be made with white wine.

Freezing - I've always worked on the principal that you don't cook with anything you wouldn't drink. I always freeze the remains of a bottle of wine to use for cooking if I'm not likely to use in the next day or so.
 
In PA, wine cannot be bought in a grocery store. For a while the LCB had kiosks in grocery stores, but they did away with that, at least in my area. They are starting to sell beer in grocery stores, but not many.

I don't know much about wine and usually only buy it around the holidays. My guests let me know which ones are good by how quickly the bottle is emptied. Then I know that's a good one to buy again.

"In PA, wine cannot be bought in a grocery store" - probably a good thing in some ways if buying alcohol is made more difficult. Off-licences (ie liquor stores selling beer, wines and spirits) used to have to keep pub licencing hours rather than shop hours but this was relaxed when grocery shops were allowed to sell alcohol. Despite the law regarding alcohol sales it is pretty easy for kids to get hold of booze and there is a lot of competition among supermarkets leading to cheap prices. We have a lot of problems with teenagers drinking to excess here (some adults aren't much better).

As for choosing wines for a meal, you can't please all of the people all of the time. I usually buy what I like and what suits the menu when I have people to dinner but here it's usual for guests to bring a bottle with them. They can then choose to drink mine or what they've brought. My guests and I aren't incipient alcoholics and we don't drink an awful lot so the host tends to build up a small wine cellar :LOL:
 
You are talking about a half cup (4 ounces) of wine. Much of the alcohol will cook off.

And yes, you can substitute white wine in your recipe, if that's your preference. I would open a wine that you like, use the half cup in the recipe, and drink the rest with the meal or over the next few days.

Whatever you do, don't use anything labeled "cooking wine". If it isn't something you'd drink alone, it won't taste good in your food, either.

"Whatever you do, don't use anything labeled "cooking wine". If it isn't something you'd drink alone, it won't taste good in your food, either"
Here, here!
 
I've always heard that and it makes me wonder why they even make cooking wine, and who buys it?
"who buys it?" People who don't know any better and/or want to do it on the cheap.

"why they even make cooking wine" Probably it's the stuff that doesn't turn out to expectations. I don't suppose they actually intend to make it. Or perhaps it's the cheap sort you buy in plastic bottles in French hypermarches (which can be pretty dire). There are always people out to make a fast buck.
 
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Do you have access to four-packs of 187ml bottles of wine? I keep one red and one white on hand just to use for cooking.

Some people freeze leftover wine in ice cube trays, then transfer to zipper lock bags, so they're available to throw into a sauce.

I wouldn't try to replace red wine with red wine vinegar; I'd just leave it out. It won't have the same depth of flavor, but it will still be good.
Can you buy the individual cans of wine? If you can - walk on buy, as the song says. They are vile
 
"why they even make cooking wine" Probably it's the stuff that doesn't turn out to expectations. I don't suppose they actually intend to make it. Or perhaps it's the cheap sort you buy in plastic bottles in French hypermarches (which can be pretty dire). There are always people out to make a fast buck.

As someone said earlier, it's a holdover from the Prohibition era in the U.S. Salt was added to make it unpalatable to drink. I don't know why they continue to make it.
 
In PA, wine cannot be bought in a grocery store. For a while the LCB had kiosks in grocery stores, but they did away with that, at least in my area. They are starting to sell beer in grocery stores, but not many.

I don't know much about wine and usually only buy it around the holidays. My guests let me know which ones are good by how quickly the bottle is emptied. Then I know that's a good one to buy again.

From what I've heard, most states in the US have gone to private liquor sales. It's been a political battle in PA for years and years.

Since I've been of legal age, I've lived in 3 locales - Montana, Colorado, and the Bahamas.

In Montana you could get beer in the grocery store, and package liquor and wine at the package counter in most bars. The only liquor stores were state owned and operated, and they were only open 8-5 Mon-Fri (I moved away in 1973, so it may have changed since then). We bought most of our package liquor in bars.

In Colorado, again only 3.2 beer is sold in grocery stores. All package liquor and wine and stronger beers must be purchased in licensed privately owned liquor stores. No takeout at all from bars. There have been attempts to get wine into the grocery stores, but no success so far. A few years ago they did change the law so that the liquor stores can be open on Sunday.

Here in the Bahamas, even beer must be purchased in liquor stores. You can get beer to go from bars, but you will pay a premium for it. It's also the only place where I've ever seen individual cigarettes sold in bars. I think from what I've observed that it's about 3 for a dollar, or about $6.66 a pack.
 
"In PA, wine cannot be bought in a grocery store" - probably a good thing in some ways if buying alcohol is made more difficult.

In PA, it's ridiculous. You have to go to a warehouse and buy beer or wine by the case, or buy it at a bar or restaurant to go and pay their mark-up. I've never heard of that in any other state.
 
In PA, it's ridiculous. You have to go to a warehouse and buy beer or wine by the case, or buy it at a bar or restaurant to go and pay their mark-up. I've never heard of that in any other state.

+1. When we visit the inlaws, we have to go to the beer store to buy beer, and the liquor store to buy whatever. They're not close to each other. Same thing in Ontario. PITB.

In Mexico, you can buy booze in the grocery stores, but they shut off liquor sales at 2 pm on Sundays, and before and during any major storms or elections. Just when they need it most!
 
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As someone said earlier, it's a holdover from the Prohibition era in the U.S. Salt was added to make it unpalatable to drink. I don't know why they continue to make it.
We never had prohibition but little bottles came on the market over here in the seventies when cooking with wine first became trendy. (I think it was in the days when people were only just starting to drink wine and thought it was extravagant to waste wine on cooking!) They were marketed by the firm who made things like Oxo cubes (an early form of stock cube) and bottled sauces. I thought they'd disappeared from the shelves until I spotted some a few weeks ago.
 
Mrs Hoot lived in PA for nineteen years. We still travel there now and then, although since her sisters moved off of the main thoroughfare in Mechanicsburg, Jubilee Day just ain't the same. They do have some very odd laws about alcohol sales.
 
Alongside my olive oil, canola oil, and grape seed oil, you will see two bottles of wine. A red and a white. I use wine bottles to display and pour oils. I use the liquor dispensing tips.
My wife loves good wine. She never drinks all of it, so it goes to the kitchen counter where I will use it.
I too frown on opening a new bottle of wine for a dish. But will do it, if I have too. But I will always call her first to see which one to open!
 
Alongside my olive oil, canola oil, and grape seed oil, you will see two bottles of wine. A red and a white. I use wine bottles to display and pour oils. I use the liquor dispensing tips.
My wife loves good wine. She never drinks all of it, so it goes to the kitchen counter where I will use it.
I too frown on opening a new bottle of wine for a dish. But will do it, if I have too. But I will always call her first to see which one to open!

Don't you live with your wife, or is your house so big you have to call her to talk to her.

Nevermind, that's none of my business!!
 
In PA, it's ridiculous. You have to go to a warehouse and buy beer or wine by the case, or buy it at a bar or restaurant to go and pay their mark-up. I've never heard of that in any other state.


Pac, we can buy wine by the bottle in a State Liquor Store. A case would last me 20 years!! LOL

They say they want control so they can limit underage drinking, but the kids just get someone to go in and buy the alcohol for them.
 
I thought salt in the cooking wine came from an era of servants, so the cook wouldn't drink the cooking wine or cooking sherry.

OTH, salt is a preservative and apparently the wine doesn't go off.
 
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