Do you use really good wine for cooking?

[TanyaK]

TV chefs often say you must only use really good wine for cooking as it reflects in the food - I just can't get myself to pour half a bottle of really nice wine into a pot when I can drink it. I won't use really horrible or off wine but I will use entry level wine (we get it in 5L boxes over here - I don't know about there)
So the question is - do you use your good wine for cooking ?

 

[GotGarlic]

Hi, Tanya. I use the same wine I'm drinking with the meal, although my recipes using wine usually call for 1/2 cup or less. About the only exception I can think of is poached salmon, which uses 2 cups. DH isn't happy about that, but I really like the flavor of the salmon done that way, so I just let him grumble

 

[Andy M.]

If you're drinking $100 per bottle wine, I would suggest you should use something less expensive in your cooking.

When you hear the expression, "Don;t cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.", the real truth is that you should use drinking wine to cook with and NEVER use cooking wine. So if you are cooking a beef dish that calls for a red wine in the cooking, save the $100 cabernet sauvignon for the table and use a less expensive yet drinkable cab for the stove.

Cooking wines contain salt and taste awful. They will make your dish taste awful as well.

 

[YT2095]

Cooking wines contain salt and taste awful. They will make your dish taste awful as well.

Seconded! the same applies to cooking sherry as well AND some sake! *YUCK*

the way I do it is simple (for me), if we have a drink and the bottle isn`t all used, it goes in the fridge with a blast of CO2, then I plan a recipe that will use it sometime in the next day or so.

Beer is a different matter, there`s always several crates of beer in the house so it`s never an issue.

 

[jennyema]

TV chefs often say you must only use really good wine for cooking as it reflects in the food -

I can't say I have ever heard chefs say you must use "really good wine" when you cook.

They generally say (like the others have suggested here) to use a quality of wine that is suitable for the table.

There is really no need to cook with "really good" wine. So many dimensions of a very fine wine would be lost in the cooking process that it would hardly be worth it.

 

[BreezyCooking]

I agree with what others have already posted. Use a "drinkable" wine in your cooking & save the really pricey stuff for drinking. Just keep it in the same family.

For instance, I'll use a decent California jug wine (like Gallo, etc.) to cook with - especially if the recipe calls for a decent amount of it - but will serve a nicer wine of the same type or in the same family to accompany the meal. I've never been disappointed or received any complaints. : )

Something else to keep in mind is advice from that cooking diva Julia Child, who recommended in her cookbooks the use of a good dry vermouth in the place of "dry white wine" in many recipes. She claimed that a good dry vermouth was frequently better than a cheap white wine - although as a caveat she did write that before the influx of better California jug wines.

 

[Baketech]

Luckily the market is so flooded with sub-$10 drinkable wines right now, that I don't have to make this choice. Anything I grab out of the pantry is good for drinking or cooking...

 

[ChefJune]

TV chefs often say you must only use really good wine for cooking as it reflects in the food - I just can't get myself to pour half a bottle of really nice wine into a pot when I can drink it. I won't use really horrible or off wine but I will use entry level wine (we get it in 5L boxes over here - I don't know about there)
So the question is - do you use your good wine for cooking ?

No, and neither do they! They talk a good game. If you went into their walkin, you might very well find a BOX of Peter Vella.... Many chefs use box wine for cooking. Much of it is NOT the plonk we've been led to think it is, but even so, it does not impart a bad flavor. Some "really good" wines will give you a worse result... as in oaky chardonnay is likely to leave your dish tasting like wood chips, and a tannic young Cabernet is going to leave those puckery tannins in your dish, as the flavors concentrate as they reduce!

I most often cook with Frontera wines from Chile. If you live where wine is sold in supermarkets, this one will be there. It costs about $8 for a 1.5 liter bottle. Good enough to drink for supper, as well.

 

[ChefJune]

Something else to keep in mind is advice from that cooking diva Julia Child, who recommended in her cookbooks the use of a good dry vermouth in the place of "dry white wine" in many recipes. She claimed that a good dry vermouth was frequently better than a cheap white wine - although as a caveat she did write that before the influx of better California jug wines.

Julia cooked with Vermouth -- specifically Noilly Prat Vermouth -- even after there were good inexpensive Cali wines.

One good reason to use vermouth, is that it keeps quite a bit better after opening than does white wine, because it is fortified. You should be good with an opened bottle of dry vermouth in your fridge for a month. Not so the wine.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Yes, that's true. I always have dry vermouth in the pantry. Never even refrigerate it & it lasts just fine.

 

[CharlieD]

I like to use the same wine I like to drink. Good or not, that I do not know. It is good for me and I make sure it is good enough for my guests.

 

[Jeff G.]

If you won't drink it, don't cook with it.

Flavor is flavor regardless of how it is used. Bad tasting wine will carry that bad taste into anything you cook.

 

[Caine]

I buy a jug of Carlo Rossi or Gallo when it's on sale. It's drinkible, but I don't drink it, I use it strictly for cooking. The wines I drink I would never consider using to flavor a recipe any more than I would consider using 24k gold leaf to decorate a cake.

 

[Fisher's Mom]

I have used some more expensive wines for sauces ($25) but I usually use modestly priced, good tasting wines ($10) and honestly, I don't notice much of a difference in the taste. I will say that I tried using a very sweet, very cheap wine once and the sauce was so sweet, it was almost like candy - yuck.

Recently, I got a box of red wine to see if I could make a good sauce with it and I was surprised to find it worked very well. I also used it in a slow cooker roast and it was very tasty. So I think the common advice here of using inexpensive wines that taste good to drink is very good advice.

 

[auntdot]

If there is anyone who can tell a sauce, a robust sauce perhaps made with a demi, using a ten buck bottle of a decent red from a hundred dollar one - good for him. My palate is not that sophisticated.

It is the subtleness of flavor that separates an expensive fine wine from a nice relatively inexpensive one.

But toss in all sorts of other flavors to a sauce, including herbs, and, at least to me, the delicate flavors of the expensive wine would be overwhelmed. I certainly could not appreciate the fleeting flavor of, perhaps, apricot the more expensive wine is supposed to impart.

It is kinda like taking a fine single malt Scotch and mixing it with Coke. You might as well mix the stuff with 'shine.

Maybe there are some very delicate concoctions that are served with little more than a reduction of wine that could be tastier with a pricier wine. If so, I don't know about them.

To me the addition of wine to many dishes and sauces is a fine thing to do and certainly improves the dish because it adds the fundamental flavor of the grape. After that the subtle flavors are lost. But if one picks a wine with a nasty taste, those flavors will survive. Off tastes, for some reason, never go away. Rats.

Does not seem fair but that that is the way things go.

So I sign onto the cook with a wine you can drink concept.

Just my take on things. Take care.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Bravo Aunt Dot. I find the inexpensive - yet still drinkable - California wines just terrific for cooking. Gallo is my jug wine of choice - I use the Chablis Blanc in seafood dishes & sautes; & the Burgundy & Chianti in my Cassoulet & Italian sauces. They always turn out well without any unpleasant aftertaste that one would get from a really poor cheap wine.

 

[college_cook]

I love wine, but I'm not really a huge drinker, so the mood has to strike me. I often end up using 3/4 of a bottle just for various cooking applications because I won't drink it soon enough before it turns bad.

 

[Billdolfski]

If there is anyone who can tell a sauce, a robust sauce perhaps made with a demi, using a ten buck bottle of a decent red from a hundred dollar one - good for him. My palate is not that sophisticated.

It is the subtleness of flavor that separates an expensive fine wine from a nice relatively inexpensive one.

But toss in all sorts of other flavors to a sauce, including herbs, and, at least to me, the delicate flavors of the expensive wine would be overwhelmed. I certainly could not appreciate the fleeting flavor of, perhaps, apricot the more expensive wine is supposed to impart.

It is kinda like taking a fine single malt Scotch and mixing it with Coke. You might as well mix the stuff with 'shine.

Maybe there are some very delicate concoctions that are served with little more than a reduction of wine that could be tastier with a pricier wine. If so, I don't know about them.

To me the addition of wine to many dishes and sauces is a fine thing to do and certainly improves the dish because it adds the fundamental flavor of the grape. After that the subtle flavors are lost. But if one picks a wine with a nasty taste, those flavors will survive. Off tastes, for some reason, never go away. Rats.

Does not seem fair but that that is the way things go.

So I sign onto the cook with a wine you can drink concept.

Just my take on things. Take care.

^^
This.

You certainly don't need to break your bank or use up something you would rather drink, but just like everyone else said, "don't cook with something you wouldn't drink."

 

[wysiwyg]

I think Aristotle said: "If it ain't good for drinking, it ain't good for cooking"

 

[Maverick2272]

If you're drinking $100 per bottle wine, I would suggest you should use something less expensive in your cooking.

When you hear the expression, "Don;t cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.", the real truth is that you should use drinking wine to cook with and NEVER use cooking wine. So if you are cooking a beef dish that calls for a red wine in the cooking, save the $100 cabernet sauvignon for the table and use a less expensive yet drinkable cab for the stove.

Cooking wines contain salt and taste awful. They will make your dish taste awful as well.

Amen!! And I will have to remember the advice about using dry vermouth insted of white wine in the recipe. We just dont make that many recipies calling for wine in them, so spoilage is often a problem for us.