California Wine Guide
Sign Up for the Recipe Publishing Newsletter
The Best Tips for Cooking With Wine
Not every recipe benefits from the addition of wine but a lot of famous recipes feature wine as one of the ingredients. Take a simple beef casserole, for example, and imagine how much richer it would taste if you added some red wine. Dark ale would be a nice alternative but red wine gives the casserole a typically French flavor, which is rich, sophisticated, and so easy.
Adding a drop of wine to a recipe is not difficult at all and you can give your recipes a gourmet touch by doing this. Of course, it is important to know when to add wine and when the recipe would be better without it. Also, it is important to choose the correct wine.
Why Add Wine to Food?
Wine might be used to fortify and enhance the overall flavor of the dish or it might be used to thicken or thin a dish and give it a more robust taste. Wine can be used as a flavoring in anything from soups to jellies or even braised foods.
You can poach cherries in rich, red wine or poach fish in a dry, herby white. Red wine is good in recipes using red meat such as beef, rabbit, or venison dishes but you can also use it with fish if you are careful. Likewise, white wine often features in delicate sauces or fish recipes but it is also nice in heartier dishes.
You can use it to make reduction sauces, to liven up jello recipes or to bring out the delicate fishiness of your fish recipe or the boldness of your beef. Wine can be used in delicate dishes, bold ones, savory or sweet recipes. It can add color and alter the consistency of a dish. It might make up most of the sauce, give flavor to a stock or broth or you might only need a tiny bit, just to give a hint of wine flavor.
Choosing Wine for Recipes
Some recipes tell you which wine you should add. If the recipe calls for "a drop of red wine" then you just need to add a splash and any red wine will do. If the name of the dish contains the word wine, for example "chicken in white wine sauce" then you know wine is going to be one of the major ingredients and therefore the taste of it will be apparent. So, for such a dish you will need to use a good quality white wine.
You should never use a bad wine in your wine recipes. After all, if you are not going to be able to taste the wine there is no point in adding any. If you are going to be tasting it, you should use something that has a good flavor. Why ruin a potentially delicious recipe by using a mediocre or bad wine in it?
Use a mainstream red or white wine when you are first experimenting with wine recipes and then you might like to experiment a little. What about using a Sauvignon Blanc to highlight the herb flavor in a dish containing fragrant herbs? Sauvignon Blanc has herby undertones so this would work. A classic Italian red wine in an Italian meat and pasta dish would be good or a full-bodied French red wine in a French style beef or rabbit stew would also be great. Let your imagination and taste buds guide you on your cooking with wine adventures.
