What Kind Of White Wine Do You Use?

[buckytom]

for whites, pinot grigio delle venezie here too! i've tried a few other whites, but they weren't the same imo.

for red, the selection is wider depending on the dish. sometimes you want fruit and acid on the light side, so a young beaujolais works. other dishes require a hearty burgundy or dry chianti.

and i almost never spend more than 7 or 8 bucks on the bottle if i'm using half or all of it for cooking.

 

[lyndalou]

I use Julia Childs' good ole white vermouth. Sometimes pinot grigio if I have a bottle open.

 

[Michelemarie]

I do not use expensive for cooking either - and usually stick to chardonnay. I am a red wine drinker - I have never thought of wine in the box.

What I have found, though, is individual bottles of wine - and on sale, they are only $1! They measure out to be 1 cup exactly. I can't remember the brands, sutter home is one, they are brands you would recognize. Have any of you ever used these?

 

[RDG]

Usually, quality in white wines is not so important in cooking, except that for dishes in which the wine is raw over the food, as champagne risotto, f.i.
So, I use cheap wines, usually.
It's in some way different for red wines. The taste that remaines after you have cooked is very different between one and another, so may be correct to spend some money more for a good wine. I can't do a comparison about prices, but here an all-day wine is from 2 to 4 euro a bottle, a decent wine is about 8-10 euro and a really good wine is about 15-20, or more. (The limit is the sky, we say....)
Ok, to cook with a decent wine I can spend....let'say...10 euros? 12? (of course, if I use just a bit of wine, I use the same I'll drink with the food)

 

[Barbara L]

I don't drink wine, but I love to marinate my chicken in sherry (dry or cream, but never cooking sherry), along with some parsley, then oven roast it or cook it in my rotisserie oven. I do game hens the same way. It is SO good!

Barbara

 

[fireweaver]

aaaaaaaaaaa!! mm, friends don't let friends drink sutter home. that stuff is awful, something about their bulk-tank fermentation gives every one of their wines a particularly nasty ethanol/methanol harsh aftertaste.

my rule of thumb is that if i wouldn't enjoy drinking it, i won't cook with it. probably, in part, because i'm sipping on that first glass *while* cooking. but also, if you cook with what you plan on serving with the meal, the food and wine are magically matched up just perfect.

red wines tend to be in heavy sauces, like marinara, so careful selection of exactly what type not so important, and the same decent middle-of-the-road red could be used in everything from pasta to steak marinade. white wines, though, i find dramatic differences in using a riesling vs a pinot grigio in the same chicken recipe. sydfan, just try experimenting in broad sweeps, like using a sweet wine one time and a drier one the next, until you find what you like best.

 

[Michelemarie]

Fireweaver, thanks for the info on sutter home. i don't normally drink white, so i just open and dump. Maybe I should be more careful on choosing a brand.

Now.....red wine is a different story. RDG - didn't know that about red wine - interesting. Usually I open a big bottle of red wine (750 ml) so I can, as some have said here, partake first then share with this dish!

 

[bluespanishsky]

wow i have never thought of using boxed wines! what a great idea.

i usualy use pino griego when i need a white wine, and sometimes chardoney. i end up getting the $2 buck chuck at trader joe's and that works just fine for me.

i drink a lot of red wine mostly barberra, or barolo's, so i'll use those when i need a red wine since i always have an open bottle on hand. ;-)

 

[RDG]

Fireweaver, this is an interesting point of wew... You consider the white wines more characterizing than red ones...Interestin, true. Can you explain better? TIA.

"my rule of thumb is that if i wouldn't enjoy drinking it, i won't cook with it" This is, normally, the correct position. But sometimes, this happens to be a little...expensive I say... Next year I'be sixty, and I have in mind to open a particular bottle I have. A wonderful Barolo 1976 of a particular good cellar. I'll drink it with a couple of friends, an no else. I think we'll eat just some bites of something, together, but this is because I want appreciate the wine. And to cook with a bottle of 250 € is a little too much. Even to drink, but, once in a life.... ( I don't think to arrive 120....). Surely it's a fault of mine's, but I find enormous differences between different red wines, over all in the very old ones, and I dont feel nothing particular in the whites. Of course they have, but non so important, if you understand what I mean....

 

[jennyema]

I love to cook with nice dry Reislings. Alsatian chicken comes to mind. Mmmmm.

Remember that you can FREEZE LEFTOVER WINE. So it really never has to go to waste. Portion it and put it in a ziplock. It won't freeze solid but will get slushy. Thaw it completely and it'll be good for cooking.

 

[Jikoni]

I use local white wine from our village for cooking, but for some reason I prefer Gamay for my steaks or a bordeaux if we have guests.

 

[biev]

I use wine that I like to drink, for me it's sweet, not dry. And I open a fresh bottle every time. I don't like the taste when it's been open a couple days. Even though you put the cap back on, you can still tell.

 

[fireweaver]

hey RDG, i guess i should have been a bit clearer. i do find *colossal* differences in red as far as drinking, and i definately didn't mean to imply that "all reds taste the same"! perhaps it's just my cooking style, but i tend to prepare dishes with red wine that the wine flavor is only a bit-part in a larger whole (i.e., the particular type of wine not as crucial when you're marinating your steak in it and then flaming it on the grill, or if you're adding a half-glass to a hearty marinara). often, when doing dishes with white wine, i am deglazing the pan with it, resulting in the coating/sauce for the meal being made in no small part of the white wine. there are notable exceptions both ways (try deglazing a pan of sauteed veggies with an earthy tannic red and serve over pasta, or marinate veggies with a little white wine to toss on the grill), but for the most part, there you go.

no, i also would not be cooking with a 250-euro bottle! well, i'd sip whilst cooking, maybe, but it wouldn't end up in the food. definately a great moment to share with good friends.

for both cooking & drinking, those two coming out of the same bottle for me, i tend to keep it under $15/bottle.

 

[RDG]

hey RDG, i guess i should have been a bit clearer. i do find *colossal* differences in red as far as drinking, and i definately didn't mean to imply that "all reds taste the same"! perhaps it's just my cooking style, but i tend to prepare dishes with red wine that the wine flavor is only a bit-part in a larger whole (i.e., the particular type of wine not as crucial when you're marinating your steak in it and then flaming it on the grill, or if you're adding a half-glass to a hearty marinara). often, when doing dishes with white wine, i am deglazing the pan with it, resulting in the coating/sauce for the meal being made in no small part of the white wine. there are notable exceptions both ways (try deglazing a pan of sauteed veggies with an earthy tannic red and serve over pasta, or marinate veggies with a little white wine to toss on the grill), but for the most part, there you go.

no, i also would not be cooking with a 250-euro bottle! well, i'd sip whilst cooking, maybe, but it wouldn't end up in the food. definately a great moment to share with good friends.

for both cooking & drinking, those two coming out of the same bottle for me, i tend to keep it under $15/bottle.

Thanks again, fireweaver, for your explanation.I had'nt understood well, effectively. In point of fact, we have nearly the same position in using wine, in the bottle price too, I see.. . Of course, there is some difference, but I think that this is the nice of cooking: the same recipe is never the same.....if made by two different persons!

 

[BreezyCooking]

Dry Vermouth

If I'm planning to sip while I'm cooking, or am planning to serve wine with the meal, then I'll use whatever I'm sipping or going to serve in the meal. I will say, however, that I definitely do not like to use Chardonnay in cooking. I find that characteristic "oakiness" can come thru too strongly, especially as the wine cooks down.

For the most part, & as someone else here posted, I follow the advice of that Grand High Duchess of Cookery, Julia Child, & use dry vermouth in most recipes calling for dry white wine. According to Julia, even the cheapest dry vermouth is better for cooking than many expensive white wines, & it can be stored after opening without refrigeration. I always have a bottle in the pantry, along with dry sherry - which is another cooking staple for me.

 

[Andy M.]

...I find that characteristic "oakiness" can come thru too strongly, especially as the wine cooks down...

California chardonnay producers decided oakiness was a good thing for chards. I prefer the more traditional non-oaky Australian chardonnays. Cooking with unoaked chards isn't bad.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Thanks for the tip.

I don't mind the oakiness (so long as it's not overdone) if I'm drinking a Chardonnay; I just find it intensifies too much in cooking. I'll definitely have to try one of the Australians. Any particular ones you'd recommend?

 

[Andy M.]

Depends on the price range. For low price and high taste, try Lindemann's Bin 65. Good for drinking and cooking.