Why do you cook with wine?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

2 Bar

Assistant Cook
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Messages
10
Location
NJ
I'm new to cooking and am learning by borrowing recipes from online and trying to make them. I recently made a chickedn dish that called for white wine and sherry. It came out great. but left me with the question:

Why do you cook with wine? What does it do to the food? What does it add to the taste? Is all the alcohol removed through the heat? If I understood how it works in recipes, maybe I could start throwing it in a few more dishes or know what to keep in the house.

Thanks.
 
Cooking with wine

I love to cook with wine because of the flavor it imparts to the dishes. I use it to deglaze and to add another layer of flavor to sauces and gravies.

All of the alcohol does not burn off. For people seriously addicted to alcohol it can be a problem.

There are substitutions available - apple juice, some vinegars, etc. This has been addressed in other places on this forum.

Personally, though, I enjoy cooking with wine - the trouble is that you have to check for quality often....if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of wine for instance and I open a new bottle I find there is no wine left when the dish is finished because I keep checking!:wacko:
 
There are numerous reasons to cook with wine. Depending on the recipe those reasons will change.

Chicken or veal marsala uses marsala wine as a main ingredient. In this recipe it is the actual flavor of the wine that you are after.

There are some favors that are only released in the presence of alcohol. For instance, tomatoes have a flavor compound that only comes out when combined with alcohol. You will not taste this flavor any other way. An example of this would be a vodka sauce. Vodka (which is flavorless for the most part) is combined with tomatoes to bring out that "hidden" flavor. I know you asked about wine and not all alcohols, but this can apply to wine as well.

Sometimes wine is used for the acidity. It can add a brightness or fresh taste to some dishes.

Like lindatooo mentioned, the alcohol almost always will not cook off. Even if you flambe a dish you are still left with a majority of the alcohol.
 
A good tip for using left-over wine is to put them in an ice-cube tray and freeze. I then decant them into plastic bags and just add red or white wine cubes to add a little 'oomph' to a dish that tastes as though there might be a 'missing' ingredient! The ice-cube trays aren't very nice, particularly the purply-coloured stained ones I use for red wine. :)
 
leftover wine????????????

ah-hahahahaha ahhhh-hahahahahahahahaaaaaa

ishbel, you kill me...:)

the best reason to cook with wine is some of it might actually get into the dish, enhancing or adding levels of flavor. the rest enhances the meal by making to cook happy.
 
I never really studied the effect of wine in cooking scientifically, but I just love the flavour it produces and I use it a lot, both red and white version, and sometimes marsala. It really gives a depth, sort of three dimentional twist to the flavour of the dish you are cooking... Red goes well with tomato based recipes, also it is a must for my pasta sauce recipe. White is particularly good with seafood, and depends on the recipe chicken can go really well with any kind of wine.
The best way is just experiment with it, even if you don't care for alcoholic drinks most of the alcohol would evaporate while getting cooked and you would hardly taste it in the end, so you shouldn't worry about that too much, unless, like Lindaloo said, you have a severe problem with alcohol, or there is some conflict with some personal principle.
Another thing to remember is, avoid those "cooking wines" you would find in the cooking condiment sections. The quality is awful with lots of unnecessary additives. You don't need to use an expensive wine, but my personal rule of thumb is if it is not drinkable by itself, don't use it.
 
buckytom said:
leftover wine????????????

ah-hahahahaha ahhhh-hahahahahahahahaaaaaa

ishbel, you kill me...:)

the best reason to cook with wine is some of it might actually get into the dish, enhancing or adding levels of flavor. the rest enhances the meal by making to cook happy.


Heheheeee - So I'm only talking about the last coupla inches in a bottle....


And, Urmaniac is right - never put wine into a dish if you would not like to drink it! Luckily we don't see 'cooking wines' here in the UK... :)
 
Not that I've ever detected. But I only use it when I'm tasting a sauce and feel it needs a little more 'oomph'... When I cook a sauce from scratch, I generally use a bottle of good wine from the wine rack.:)
 
Just think of wine an an ingredient and treat it that way.Some countries will use more wine in recipes than others,just like some countries use more coconut.Which reminds me I use too much garlic.
 
flavor as described various ways above. ANd body...broth stock and wine are liquids with texture different from water, and helps build body and texture. helps tenderize as well. (beer also works well in many dishes for these reasons.)
 
Thanks for all the replies. I sort of got an idea now. So, the next time I make some chicken I am gonna toss some wine in it and see what happens. Could I use a red wine with chopped meat or steaks then?
 
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.
 
2 Bar said:
Thanks for all the replies. I sort of got an idea now. So, the next time I make some chicken I am gonna toss some wine in it and see what happens. Could I use a red wine with chopped meat or steaks then?

If you are meaning "beef" here, red wine is excellent for it. It also has a tenderizing effect, too, if you are making some longer cooking (like stew etc.) dish and the meat is a bit on the tough side. If available, try burgandy!
 
Left over wine? Take a third to half a bottle of red -I usually use zin but almost any will work- and slowly reduce it to about 3/4 cup, cool. Let about 1,5 sticks [I think thats like 150 grams] of unsalted butter warm to room temp, with a fork mix the wine and butter.

Serve a ball of this wine butter on a steak. Quite nice.

I've tried this with adding other things in the butter.
 
robt, i like to add fresh sage, or rosemary, or even roasted garlic to compound wine butter. i've tried it on salmon, with basil/white wine butter that was really good.
i've been meaning to buy an avocado and make a butter with it. will probably use white wine with that.
 
Robt said:
Left over wine? Take a third to half a bottle of red -I usually use zin but almost any will work- and slowly reduce it to about 3/4 cup, cool. Let about 1,5 sticks [I think thats like 150 grams] of unsalted butter warm to room temp, with a fork mix the wine and butter.

Serve a ball of this wine butter on a steak. Quite nice.

I've tried this with adding other things in the butter.

You could also take that reduction and mix it in with some cheddar or other cheese for a wine/cheese spread for crackers and such...

I'll have to try that butter on some steaks, sounds really good.

John
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom