Wine for cooking....need 101 for dummies

[Ottakee]

I am a born and breed good Baptist girl so the one and only time I ever purchased alcohol was for a friend.

I am looking at recipes that call for either a dry white wine or a red wine for cooking.  They say don't buy "cooking wine" but rather get a good wine.

I have no idea what a dry wine is, I can figure out red vs white, but have no idea what makes a good wine good.

Obviously I wouldn't be using these regularly so do I look for something in the small bottles?  Is it stored in the cupboard?  How about after you open it.....does it stay good for a while?  Do you put it in the fridge then?

Be gentle.  This is a big step for this teetotaler.  Bonus points if I can get it at Aldi or Walmart.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Ottakee

[regentrude]

Dry means "not sweet". The label would say.

In my experience,  the wine you get in the small bottles isn't particularly good. But if you're not used to wine, it probably won't matter as much. I would just try and see if you like the result.  Don't overthink at this point.

I would stay away from the super cheap ones (2.99) at Aldi and step up slightly. You can still stay well under $10.

Best if you invite someone to drink the rest, lol. Wine keeps in the fridge for a while; white is served chilled,  red is served room temp. I would not refrigerate a good red I wanted to drink, but if you just want to cook with it,  it's fine.

ETA: "Good" is a matter of taste. Even the ranking won't tell you if you would like a particular wine.

Edited January 18, 2020 by regentrude

[cjzimmer1]

31 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

I am a born and breed good Baptist girl so the one and only time I ever purchased alcohol was for a friend.

I am looking at recipes that call for either a dry white wine or a red wine for cooking.  They say don't buy "cooking wine" but rather get a good wine.

I have no idea what a dry wine is, I can figure out red vs white, but have no idea what makes a good wine good.

Obviously I wouldn't be using these regularly so do I look for something in the small bottles?  Is it stored in the cupboard?  How about after you open it.....does it stay good for a while?  Do you put it in the fridge then?

Be gentle.  This is a big step for this teetotaler.  Bonus points if I can get it at Aldi or Walmart.

As another non-drinker, when I see directions like that, I just use cooking wine anyways and decrease the salt a bit.  I know foodies would tell you it's an abomination but if you are not accustom to the flavor of drinking wine, I doubt that you would notice the difference.

[Familia]

I keep a bottle of Gallo Extra Dry Vermouth next to my stovetop.  Recommended by Cook’s Illustrated Magazine as their go-to for cooking.

I use a splash of it in many items, and it gives them life!  Perfect for deglazing pans when sautéing, added to most sauces, etc.   If a recipe calls for Sherry, a sweet wine, I just use my vermouth with a few pinches of sugar added.

[Karen A]

I grew up similarly--and this reminds me of one of my first trips to the grocery store as a young adult 🙂.

I was to buy "dry sherry" for a recipe.  I looked through the entire alcohol aisle, the spice aisle, by all the powdered salad dressings and seasoning packets, and finally had to find someone that worked in the grocery store where to find it!  In my mind, "dry" was the opposite of "wet", and I was sure there was some powdered sherry to add to the beef (or whatever it was) somewhere...

[KungFuPanda]

1 hour ago, Ottakee said:

I am a born and breed good Baptist girl so the one and only time I ever purchased alcohol was for a friend.

I am looking at recipes that call for either a dry white wine or a red wine for cooking.  They say don't buy "cooking wine" but rather get a good wine.

I have no idea what a dry wine is, I can figure out red vs white, but have no idea what makes a good wine good.

Obviously I wouldn't be using these regularly so do I look for something in the small bottles?  Is it stored in the cupboard?  How about after you open it.....does it stay good for a while?  Do you put it in the fridge then?

Be gentle.  This is a big step for this teetotaler.  Bonus points if I can get it at Aldi or Walmart.

Ask the guy in the wine store to help you or read the labels. It's normal to go in and say "I'm cooking X and need a dry white wine."  For cooking, I don't usually spend more than $15.  If you have no intention of drinking the rest with the meal, freeze it for future sauces.  

[marbel]

I enjoy drinking and cooking with wine, but sometimes I don't have wine when I want to make something. I will often sub chicken, beef, or vegetable broth and, as Patty Joanna said, a little acid. Maybe lemon juice or vinegar, it depends on the recipe. In my experience, the dish is still good though may not be as spectacular as it would have been if I'd used wine.

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by marbel

[regentrude]

8 minutes ago, Patty Joanna said:

And don't use red with anything that isn't a dark color already.  If you put it in a chicken something-or-other, the final product will look...disgusting.  

Coq au vin doesn't look disgusting at all. Yum.

[Anne]

Another option is boxed wine - you can get quite small boxes (3 cups?) very inexpensively, and they’ll stay fresh longer since you’re not going to drink them.

 

Anne

[Selkie]

3 hours ago, marbel said:

I enjoy drinking and cooking with wine, but sometimes I don't have wine when I want to make something. I will often sub chicken, beef, or vegetable broth and, as Patty Joanna said, a little acid. Maybe lemon juice or vinegar, it depends on the recipe. In my experience, the dish is still good though may not be as spectacular as it would have been if I'd used wine.

 

Same here, I use vegetable broth because I dislike the taste of wine. 

[Katy]

I'd go in your local liquor store (ones connected to large grocery stores tend to be particularly helpful IME as long as you go in at a non-busy time, like mid morning or mid afternoon) and tell them you want wine just for cooking.  They probably have some very small bottles (like 1 glass bottles) that are perfect for cooking.  I usually buy a 6 pack so I don't have to go back for a couple of years. You want a dry variety of each unless a recipe specifies something specific, like Marsala for chicken Marsala, etc.

Will it be the Cook's Illustrated best option?  No, but it will be better than buying a huge bottle and letting it slowly rot in your cupboard after it's been opened until the next time you need some for a recipe and find out at the last minute you need to go get a new bottle

Since you're experimenting, while you're there grab a tiny (airplane) bottle of bourbon and find a recipe that incorporates that too.  I find it particularly good in chili.  And multiple desserts. And many people use it to make homemade vanilla extract.  If any Baptists run into you and raise an eyebrow in the grocery store parking lot just smile and say it's for a recipe.

[Storygirl]

I don't drink and never have, but a few years ago, I did decide to make some recipes that call for wine, and I do like them. All of the ones that I use call for cooking the wine for a while in the pan or pot to reduce it, and the alcohol taste disappears, leaving just the flavor of the wine behind.

I use the small four packs of Barefoot brand wine. There is about 1 cup in each little bottle. Usually my recipes call for half of that, so I will pop the rest of it into the freezer and use it the next time.

It's totally fine for cooking to freeze the wine that you haven't used. Wine enthusiasts will probably be aghast, but if you are only using it for cooking, it's just fine.

I get confused about dry wines, too. I use Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc for recipes that require white wine. Merlot for ones that require red.

I have used cooking sherry for recipes that require sherry, but this time when my bottle ran out, I bought a bottle of sherry from the wine section. When I open it, I think I will freeze it in an ice cube tray, so that I can easily use it for recipes that call for 1 or 2 tablespoons.

Don't laugh, people. It could take me a few years to use a whole bottle of wine, and this way I can preserve it.

Anyway, buy the tiny bottles and then freeze the leftovers. It's fine!

Edited January 19, 2020 by Storygirl

[sarahbobeara]

I was also finding recipes calling for wine and I am NOT a wine drinker. Yuck. 

So at Walmart I found a 4 pack of tiny bottles by Sutter Home. I don't see a size on these, I'm guessing 1.5 cups each? I got one of chardonnay (white) and one of cabernet sauvignon (red) and I'm set. I don't have a bottle of wine eating up fridge space and I imagine these will last in my cupboard for another year. And if a wine drinker visits me, I'm not completely empty handed and can offer them something. Although maybe this is crap and they'd rather have water? IDK. I"m not test-tasting it lol

[TravelingChris]

I tend to keep a bottle of vermouth in the fridge since I often need only a quarter cup or sometimes even less.  Other times, we do use a bottle of wine.  I rarely drink and then only a quarter cup amount because of its blood thinning properties and me being in a blood thinner but other family members do drink.

[alisoncooks]

Interesting thread. Born and raised teetotaler here and just never developed the taste for it. I also just sub in broth sometimes for alcohol in recipes. Going to save some of these suggestions in case I feel like expanding my cooking repertoire. 

[Sneezyone]

I’m a big wine drinker, so there’s that caveat, but I don’t drink a lot of sake or rice wine. I keep a small 1-2 cup bottle of Japanese rice wine/sake (Kroger) in my fridge for all of my Asian recipes. It’s not shaoxing but it works well for most things.