Why do you cook with wine?

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Why throw perfectly good wine into the food when I can throw it directly into myself instead? But, seriously I cook very seldom with wine added into a recipe. I also enjoy wine BEFORE a meal rather than with a meal. With a meal I normally choose ice water. Veal, with a nice sauce fortified with wine is excellent; Ukrainian beet stew with red wine is good.

Again, there are flavors in some foods that dissolve only in alcohol, so cooking with wine not only adds the wine flavor but releases flavors from the food that you won't taste without it.

I like to keep the small bottles of wine in a four-pack on hand to use in cooking.
 
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Red wine adds a depth of flavor and hardiness to make a tomato sauce taste much better. White wine adds great acidity and brightness to a dish, taking it over the top. Of course this is just my opinion.

I have an Italian friend who grew up in Italy that never puts red wine or any wine in his sauces.

I've watched famous chefs make tomato sauce but didn't use red wine.

I must be missing something from this depth of flavor you guys are mentioning. If you like that wine taste in your food, then your free to do that.
 
I don't know what 'chopped meat' might be, but you could certainly use it in a beef casserole or a sauce for a sirloin, rump or fillet steak.

I prefer to use white wine or sherry with chicken dishes, although I have a chicken chasseur recipe that uses red wine.
I think the OP means what we called mince :).
I often use a splash of wine in cottage pie.
 
I have an Italian friend who grew up in Italy that never puts red wine or any wine in his sauces.

I've watched famous chefs make tomato sauce but didn't use red wine.

I must be missing something from this depth of flavor you guys are mentioning. If you like that wine taste in your food, then your free to do that.
I always used red wine in my bolognaise ragu until my Italian neighbour told me to use white as she said that Italians prefer it..

You shouldn't get a "wine taste" in the finished dish. If it tastes wine-y then it hasn't been cooked off properly.

Famous chefs can do as they please but famous doesn't always mean good. A friend of mine with more money than sense took me to a restaurant owned and supposedly run by a VERY famous chef (no names, no pack drill but you would instantly recognise the name). The food was awful. A chilled soup that I could swear came out of a tin; soggy, over-cooked veg and limp salad; a steak that was ordered as rare arrived on my plate black and tough and a "Speciality of the house" crème brulee that a school child in its first cookery class would be ashamed of. The restaurant wasn't busy - I wonder why? Oh, and the wine we ordered wasn't what the wine list or the label on the bottle said it was! And that contravenes the Trades Description Act and is fraud.

Having sent each course back my friend refused to pay the bill. When The manager threatened to call the police my friend quietly invited him to do so and pointed out the wine issue, adding, for good measure and truthfully, that he was a Queen's Counsel (the very top sort of lawyer in the UK). At which the manager turned pale and backed down.
 
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I have an Italian friend who grew up in Italy that never puts red wine or any wine in his sauces.

I've watched famous chefs make tomato sauce but didn't use red wine.

I must be missing something from this depth of flavor you guys are mentioning. If you like that wine taste in your food, then your free to do that.

As Mad Cook said, being a famous chef does not mean that your food tastes good. Also, living in Italy or being Italian does not automatically mean you cook well either. There are plenty of people in Italy who do not know the first thing about cooking.

As for what you are missing, it has been said over and over. There are flavor compounds that only exist in the presence of alcohol. It doesn't have to be about tasting wine in your food. That is why there are vodka pasta dishes. Vodka (if it is any good) is flavorless. So what is the point in adding a flavorless liquid to food? Same answer. The alcohol brings out an alcohol (only) soluble flavor in the tomatoes. You can ONLY taste that flavor once it is mixed with alcohol. The flavor simply does not exist otherwise.
 
My daughter-in-law was born in Naples. Her mother is a fantastic cook. Along with her father. I would put them both up against Lydia any day. My DIL? After all these years she still can't boil water. :angel:
 
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As Mad Cook said, being a famous chef does not mean that your food tastes good. Also, living in Italy or being Italian does not automatically mean you cook well either. There are plenty of people in Italy who do not know the first thing about cooking.

As for what you are missing, it has been said over and over. There are flavor compounds that only exist in the presence of alcohol. It doesn't have to be about tasting wine in your food. That is why there are vodka pasta dishes. Vodka (if it is any good) is flavorless. So what is the point in adding a flavorless liquid to food? Same answer. The alcohol brings out an alcohol (only) soluble flavor in the tomatoes. You can ONLY taste that flavor once it is mixed with alcohol. The flavor simply does not exist otherwise.
Exactly.
 
I have an Italian friend who grew up in Italy that never puts red wine or any wine in his sauces.

I've watched famous chefs make tomato sauce but didn't use red wine.

I must be missing something from this depth of flavor you guys are mentioning. If you like that wine taste in your food, then your free to do that.

I use red wine in many dishes where marinara is the base sauce.
The wine is always added at the deglazing stage and most is cooked off. Evaporated.
No one would ever know there was wine in these dishes.

I bet I could fool Addie. ;)
 
Alcohol (in general) also helps in that there are flavors that are alcohol soluble. It can open up flavors/aromas that wouldn't be there otherwise.

Food also benefits from alcohol's second remarkable quality: It bonds with both fat and water molecules. In this way, alcohol bridges the gap between our aroma receptors (which respond only to molecules that can be dissolved in fat) and food (which consists primarily of water). This is crucial, because most of the great "flavor" in food comes from aromas in the nose rather than tastes in the mouth. (Notice that you can't fully "taste" your food when you have a stuffy nose.)

Alcohol's ability to bond with both fat and water is well illustrated by a marinade or brine. In this case, the flavor compounds in aromatics like garlic, herbs, or other seasonings dissolve only in fat (i.e., they are fat-soluble). Alcohol helps carry those compounds into the meat that's soaking in the marinade. At the same time, alcohol also carries any water-soluble flavor compounds into the meat's cells. (Water-soluble flavors include sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.) The result of alcohol's efforts? More flavor and aroma in the marinated food. And it doesn't take much: Adding even a tablespoon of neutral-tasting vodka to a marinade or brine noticeably improves the flavor penetration of the marinade.

The same principle is at work when you baste a piece of meat with wine, beer, or spirits during cooking. Of course, the liquid helps moisten the meat's surface, but the alcohol also carries flavor compounds into the meat, improving its taste.

Here is a pretty comprehensive article on alcohol use when cooking.
 
I use red wine in many dishes where marinara is the base sauce.
The wine is always added at the deglazing stage and most is cooked off. Evaporated.
No one would ever know there was wine in these dishes.

I bet I could fool Addie. ;)

You probably could. I don't mind alcohol in food, as long as I can't taste the alcohol. I have had many dishes with wine in them. :angel:
 
Alcohol (in general) also helps in that there are flavors that are alcohol soluble. It can open up flavors/aromas that wouldn't be there otherwise.



Here is a pretty comprehensive article on alcohol use when cooking.
Great info. Thanks.

I always wondered why someone would add oil to a marinade. I guess it's to help dissolve those fat soluble flavours.
 
Roll_Bones;1375285 The wine is always added at the deglazing stage and most is cooked off. Evaporated. [/QUOTE said:
Actually, most is not cooked off or evaporated. Do a Google search on "alcohol cookoff chart" to see. You will be very surprised.
 
...I must be missing something from this depth of flavor you guys are mentioning. If you like that wine taste in your food, then your free to do that.
Again, it's not the "wine taste" that is desirable, it's the food qualities that are enhanced by adding wine to the dish while it is cooking.

If you are dubious, the next time you make a pot of sauce do a little experiment. Part way through the simmer, take some of the sauce out of the main pot and put it into a different vessel. Add a bit of wine to the sauce, then continue to simmer the two sauces side by side. When they are done put some on plain noodles on one side of your plate, the second sauce on plain noodles on the other side of your plate. Then taste and compare. From then on you know whether the choice to add or not add wine to food appeals to you. After all, your cooking doesn't need to make my taste buds happy. Cook the way it makes YOU happy. :)
 

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