- Wine Army
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
Cooking with Wine
Cooking with wine can be intimidating. After all, no one wants to ruin a perfectly good meal by adding too little or too much wine. You don’t want to use the wrong wine, either. Incorporating wine into your recipes simply adds another dimension to your cooking, but with it comes some potential complications.
The good news is that wine is rarely the most important ingredient in a recipe. It’s a supporting ingredient, more like seasoning than anything else. So, there’s no reason to be afraid. Here’s what you need to know about cooking with wine and which wines are best for cooking.
Jump to Section
Does Wine Really Make a Difference?
Before we talk about the best wines for cooking in your sauces and stews, let’s ask the real question. Does using wine really make a difference? After all, recipes that call for wine usually recommend using only a splash of red or white. How much difference can it make?
With all honesty, most recipes can do without wine. Wine is a nice addition, and it does change the flavor profile of the dish, but only in rare cases will skipping it ruin the dish. Some specialties, like Coq au Vin (literally chicken in wine) and beef bourguignon, a hearty beef stew, really require wine to taste the way they’re supposed to, but for ninety-nine percent of other recipes, wine is a ‘nice-to-have’ but not a ‘must’.
The Science Corner
Here’s the thing with cooking with wine. Wine is roughly 99% of water and alcohol, and both will evaporate when you cook it. What remains are small amounts of acid, tannins, pigments, and sugars.
If you boiled down an entire bottle of dry table wine, you’d get 11 grams of this dry extract for white wine and 15 grams for red. That’s a tablespoon at the most. Of course, you’re not adding an entire bottle of wine to your beef stew. The booziest recipes call for two cups of wine at most, so you’re adding only about half a tablespoon of wine-derived flavor to the pot. Is it worth it? Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s not. It’s up to you!
The Art of Deglazing
Sometimes we cook with wine, not just for what it adds in terms of flavor, sweetness and acidity, but for what it physically does when poured into a hot pan, especially when the pan has a thick crust of burnt bits after searing meat or something else. This is the art of deglazing. It turns out those browned bits carry a lot of flavor. In fact, they can take your food to the next level. You don’t want to leave that burnt crust in the pan; you want to incorporate it into the food. For that, you must add a splash of liquid — it will loosen and dissolve the browned bits nicely, turning them into the beginning of a great sauce.
Should I Cook with White or Red Wine?
White and red wine have different flavor profiles. White wine is more acidic than red, and red wine is more complex texturally thanks to its tannins. Both styles also have their own characteristic flavors and aromas. Red wine might smell and taste like red, black or blue berries, while white wine might taste like citrus, stone fruit, pitted fruit or tropical fruit.
These different personalities are more compatible with some foods than others. We generally drink red wine with red meat, and white wine with seafood for a reason. They work well together.
In the kitchen, we can follow the same rules. Use red wine when cooking red meat or working with tomato or brown sauces. Use white wine when cooking white meat and seafood, or if you’re making a white sauce.
Red wine is a fantastic ingredient in beef stews and tomato sauces for pasta. And if you want all the flavor and acidity of wine without the extra water diluting your sauce, add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar instead, the good stuff. You’ll be amazed by the results.
Cooking with Sweet Wine
Sweet wines, such as fortified wines like Port, Sherry and Marsala have an immense impact on food. They have lots of sugar, and they can really change the flavor profile of your dish. Use these wines carefully. Unlike cooking with table wine, fortified wines are not a supporting ingredient but usually become the dominant flavor. Of course, these wines are the most fun to cook with.
Sweetness balances saltiness and complements rich, fatty dishes, so a splash of sweet wine can truly be your sauce’s secret ingredient. A splash of it can balance your food’s flavors beautifully.
Start Cooking with Wine
Now that we’ve covered the best wines for cooking, we’re sure you’ll feel comfortable adding a splash of wine into your pan. To summarize, any wine you have on hand will probably create the effect you’re looking for. Inexpensive wine is your friend, but wine that has gone bad has no place in your 3 food.
So, how do you choose a wine for a recipe? Think in general terms. Does using dry wine make sense, or do you want the sugar of sweet wine to shine through? And remember, red wine makes more sense when you’re working with brown and tomato sauces, while white wine will work better in more delicate recipes and white sauces. Experimentation is key. With wine, a little goes a long way, so have fun!
Comments