Because another wine food and travel blog was way too long.
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Cooking with wine
If a bottle is completely cooked or is severely corked it won’t get used, and if I paid much for the bottle it is going back to the store, but in most cases it ends up in a sauce of some kind. Minor flaws that ruin the drinking experience are imperceptible once they have spent time in the pan. In other cases I buy cheap wines with the intent of using them in the cooking process. Nothing works better in a turkey brine than the cheapest, flabbiest bottle of over-oaked chardonnay available. I wouldn’t drink that swill on a bet, but the very things that make it so abhorrent to my palate as a drink add a wonderful buttery richness to the flavor of the turkey, especially if it is being smoked. Many a bottle of cab, zin or syrah that were deemed undrinkable in my house have been transformed into fantastic BBQ sauces. Reduced with some jalapenos, onions, garlic, spices and maybe some tomatoes and/or brown sugur, and there isn’t much better on a brisket or a slab of ribs. Sure, there are times when a dish requires a reasonably decent wine, but for everyday cooking in most cases there is no reason to sacrifice a perfectly drinkable wine. 
View Comments to “Cooking with wine”
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January 24th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
A hearty amen to this. I’ve heard this tidbit yammered out of the mouths of Food Network creatures for years, and I’ve never bought into it.
Your sentiment also goes for unfinished bottles of wine that are getting long in the tooth (hey, it happens). If I have a third of a bottle of cabernet that I opened last week sitting in my fridge, you bet your ass I’m going to use it boost my marinara sauce or deglace a pan of sauteed veggies instead of throwing it away.
Now, you still want to pay attention to your flavor compatibilities when determining whether an old/flawed wine will go with your dish (i.e., don’t dump a super sweet wine into a savory recipe unless you want the dish to have a hint of sweetness and likewise, don’t pour a tannic red into a crock of chocolate fondue, etc.), but by and large, the subtleties (and flaws) burn off during cooking.
There’s a reason why God made $4.79 bottles of Yellow Tail, plentiful at every supermarket in the U.S. Because it’s absolutely ludicrous to pay more for a wine that’s going to be cooked with.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Well.. let’s take this a step further… I completely understand the concept of not buying “cooking wines”…I believe they are still on the shelves…but they are collecting dust.
But are you saying you wouldn’t cook with a wine that you WOULD drink? Are you denying that what you said earlier confirms your aforementioned thesis? (Okay…I’m joking) But seriously, do you simply wait for a bottle that you deem ‘unpalatable’ and then set it next to the stove? Personally…I’m with the bumper sticker people…”Sure I cook with wine….sometimes I put it in the food” And if I’m cooking Italian…(which is what I do best…) then whatever bottle I’m drinking at the moment, be it a Montepulciano, a chianti or maybe even a dolcetto…(or maybe a mixture of the three…I’m crazy like that) be sure that some of that is going into the food. So yes, I only cook with wine I drink.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
A hearty amen to this. I’ve heard this tidbit yammered out of the mouths of Food Network creatures for years, and I’ve never bought into it.
Your sentiment also goes for unfinished bottles of wine that are getting long in the tooth (hey, it happens). If I have a third of a bottle of cabernet that I opened last week sitting in my fridge, you bet your ass I’m going to use it boost my marinara sauce or deglace a pan of sauteed veggies instead of throwing it away.
Now, you still want to pay attention to your flavor compatibilities when determining whether an old/flawed wine will go with your dish (i.e., don’t dump a super sweet wine into a savory recipe unless you want the dish to have a hint of sweetness and likewise, don’t pour a tannic red into a crock of chocolate fondue, etc.), but by and large, the subtleties (and flaws) burn off during cooking.
There’s a reason why God made $4.79 bottles of Yellow Tail, plentiful at every supermarket in the U.S. Because it’s absolutely ludicrous to pay more for a wine that’s going to be cooked with.
January 24th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Papa Lou: Unfinished bottles of wine? I’m confused…
January 24th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Steve: I don’t wait for a bottle that I don’t want to drink, but those tend to pile up now and then. I’ll go buy a bottle for cooking if need be, but I rarely waste any of what I am drinking.
January 24th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Well.. let’s take this a step further… I completely understand the concept of not buying “cooking wines”…I believe they are still on the shelves…but they are collecting dust.
But are you saying you wouldn’t cook with a wine that you WOULD drink? Are you denying that what you said earlier confirms your aforementioned thesis? (Okay…I’m joking) But seriously, do you simply wait for a bottle that you deem ‘unpalatable’ and then set it next to the stove? Personally…I’m with the bumper sticker people…”Sure I cook with wine….sometimes I put it in the food” And if I’m cooking Italian…(which is what I do best…) then whatever bottle I’m drinking at the moment, be it a Montepulciano, a chianti or maybe even a dolcetto…(or maybe a mixture of the three…I’m crazy like that) be sure that some of that is going into the food. So yes, I only cook with wine I drink.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Papa Lou: Unfinished bottles of wine? I’m confused…
January 24th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Steve: I don’t wait for a bottle that I don’t want to drink, but those tend to pile up now and then. I’ll go buy a bottle for cooking if need be, but I rarely waste any of what I am drinking.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Unfinished meaning stuff I opened but didn’t like enough to make a priority out of drinking. Or that second or third bottle that got opened over a dinner with friends and ended up forgotten in a corner of the fridge after we cleared the table.
Those of us in cold-weather climes are also big on mulling leftover/not-that-great red wines in winter time, too. (I believe the term for this stuff is Glogg, with an umlaut over the “o”). Round mulling spice baskets are available at your local kitchen-supply store for $4 (the mesh is similar to a flour sifter). Load ‘em up with a few broken-up cinnamon sticks, some whole cloves, orange zest and a couple small pieces of apple (optional) and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the wine is piping hot and the flavors from the basket are imbued throughout. I like to add a couple teaspoons of sugar at the end, and if I’m feeling adventurous, a small pinch of curry powder.
I realize this is not really “cooking” with wine, per se, but it’s a great way to finish an opened bottle of red that you weren’t crazy about.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Unfinished meaning stuff I opened but didn’t like enough to make a priority out of drinking. Or that second or third bottle that got opened over a dinner with friends and ended up forgotten in a corner of the fridge after we cleared the table.
Those of us in cold-weather climes are also big on mulling leftover/not-that-great red wines in winter time, too. (I believe the term for this stuff is Glogg, with an umlaut over the “o”). Round mulling spice baskets are available at your local kitchen-supply store for $4 (the mesh is similar to a flour sifter). Load ‘em up with a few broken-up cinnamon sticks, some whole cloves, orange zest and a couple small pieces of apple (optional) and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the wine is piping hot and the flavors from the basket are imbued throughout. I like to add a couple teaspoons of sugar at the end, and if I’m feeling adventurous, a small pinch of curry powder.
I realize this is not really “cooking” with wine, per se, but it’s a great way to finish an opened bottle of red that you weren’t crazy about.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:31 am
I was kidding, Papa.
While it is rare that a good bottle ever has anything left in it at my house, the same things you describe happen here, as well. While I’ve never been able to develop much of a taste for mulled wine, around the holidays there are few things that can make a house smell as festive as a pan of it warming on the stove.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I was kidding, Papa.
While it is rare that a good bottle ever has anything left in it at my house, the same things you describe happen here, as well. While I’ve never been able to develop much of a taste for mulled wine, around the holidays there are few things that can make a house smell as festive as a pan of it warming on the stove.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
[...] but forget the old canard about never cooking with a wine that you would not drink. First of all, I find that to be nonsensical advice to begin with. Secondly, we want a flabby, buttery, over-oaked monstrosity of a Chardonnay for this [...]
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
[...] but forget the old canard about never cooking with a wine that you would not drink. First of all, I find that to be nonsensical advice to begin with. Secondly, we want a flabby, buttery, over-oaked monstrosity of a Chardonnay for this [...]