Cooking with Wines

From: Stacy Slinkard , www.about.com

Cooking with wine, like drinking wine can add another dimension to a recipe. Cultivating and enhancing flavors while accentuating textures are the main incentives for adding wines to recipes.

How to Decide Which Wine to Use

When deciding what kind of wine to cook with, many agree that your best bet is to cook with a wine that you would drink. Remember, it is only the alcohol that diminishes during the cooking process, not the poor quality or undesirable flavor. Wines designated as “cooking wines” tend to be cheap, salty and often incorporate additional spices or herbs. Bottom line - they will do little to enhance your recipe. You do not need to spend big bucks on a wine that you intend to cook with, save that for the wine you plan on serving and drinking with the meal itself.

Using Wines as a Spice

Think of flavoring a recipe with wine in the same light as you would adding a spice. The flavors tend to mellow the longer you cook the wine in the dish and it is recommended that a young, strong red wine is allowed to cook for at least 45 minutes. The next question, is typically should I use a red or a white wine? Reds tend to bring color, clarity and a distinctly dry characteristic to the foods they flavor. White wines are known to bring an acidic quality with a bit of pucker power. Use reds for flavoring red sauces with red meat. For example, a bold red wine would be perfect for a meatball marina or stout stews with lots of heavy vegetables. Steer towards white wines if you are making cream sauces or emphasizing white meats or seafood.

Alcohol and the Cooking Process

Keep in mind that not all of the alcohol will evaporate from the cooking process. The concentration of residual alcohol that remains in your dish depends on the length of time and way in which it was cooked. For example, boiling a sauce for 25 minutes will remove considerably more alcohol than merely baking a dish for 15 minutes.

Cooking with wine should be fun .

If you are just starting out, keep it simple - try a young bold red (Zinfandel, Merlot , Cabernet Sauvignon ) or a dash of Chardonnay in kosher recipe. Experiment with using wines in recipes, it is not rocket science and shaking recipes up with a splash or two of wine will likely make your favorite recipe that much better!

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