You’ll find more recipes calling for white wine over red due to red having more tannins. Ready to Try Cooking With Red Wine? Check Out These Recipe Ideas Tips for Cooking With White Wine Avoid full-bodied reds such as Syrah/Shiraz and bold Cabernet Sauvignons. Your best bets for red wine are Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese (or Chianti) and lighter Cabernet Sauvignon. If you use a red wine with heavy tannins for a sauce, it can become too bitter once it reduces. You’ll want to use dry red wines with moderate tannins (tannins are what make red wines taste bitter and astringent). It also works well for deglazing and making pan sauces for beef, chicken, duck and lamb. Red wine tends to work best for slow-simmered stews and tomato sauces. For more on sauces, check out our guide to the five mother sauces every home cook should know. As the wine cooks, it will reduce down into a thicker consistency, mixing in with browned bits of meat and picking up the other flavors of the dish, a process called deglazing. For pan sauces, add the wine after removing the cooked meat. In marinades, the wine goes in first along with the other ingredients.įor braises, stews and long-simmered sauces, the wine goes in early, just after cooking the vegetables and meat. However, some chefs will add a dash of a high-quality wine very near the end in some dishes - but you should only do this with a superior wine. Adding it in just before serving can be overpowering and it won’t have time to enhance the flavor in most dishes. When to Add Wine During Cookingįor most recipes, we add wine early in the cooking process. Another option is to buy boxed wine for cooking, which is stored in an airtight bag and can last for about six weeks. Measure one as you’re filling it so you’ll know later how much each frozen cube contains. Most ice tray cubes are about two tablespoons. One easy way to freeze wine for cooking is to use ice trays, then store the cubes in a plastic bag once they are frozen. If you want to use real wine in your cooking but won’t be able to drink the leftovers, you can freeze it and use in other dishes later. For the few extra dollars, use real wine, especially since most recipes only call for small amounts of it. The extra sodium and poor taste won’t improve the flavors of your dish - and could even ruin it. Manufacturers add on average a teaspoon of sodium per eight ounces of wine to extend the shelf life of cooking wine. Despite their convenience and lower costs, most chefs will advise to steer clear.Ĭooking wines contain no alcohol and are undrinkable due to their taste, preservatives and added sodium. If you don’t drink wine often, you might be tempted to buy cooking wines you can find on your supermarket shelves. More on Enhancing Flavors: The Basic Elements of Cooking The Truth About Cooking Wine One rule of thumb is avoiding swapping red wine when a recipe calls for white. Some wine varietals are better suited for cooking than others, which we’ll explain in a moment. This doesn’t mean you need to cook with expensive, vintage wines - save those to enjoy with your meal! It merely means that the wine you use for cooking should be drinkable. While it’s certainly okay to use wine that has been opened for a little while (up to two weeks if tightly corked), wine loses its fruity flavor over time. Heat does not improve a wine’s undesirable characteristics, either - it amplifies them. Using a cheap wine that tastes lousy or a good wine that has turned and tastes like vinegar is just going to ruin your meal. Adding wine to your dishes isn’t complicated, but don’t be tempted to pour in just any old wine – most chefs will tell you to only use wines in your cooking that you would drink. We add wine to food to intensify, accent and enhance its aromas and flavors. Convinced yet? How to Choose a Wine for Cooking With most of the alcohol removed and the healthier compounds remaining, evidence suggests you can gain the same benefits cooking with wine as with drinking it! Wine can also replace less healthy ingredients in marinades and sauces. Heating wine causes the alcohol to evaporate, especially if it cooks for 30 minutes or more. It turns out that heating wine does not remove the healthy compounds, so you could gain wine’s benefits by “eating it.” Regardless, studies have found that antioxidants and natural compounds, such as resveratrol found in red wine, can help lower cholesterol and reduce risks of diseases such as diabetes, some cancers, stroke and heart disease. You’ve probably heard that drinking red wine in moderation can be beneficial for your health (although some dispute this, saying all alcohol is totally unhealthy).
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