You get what you pay for
While no one expects you to buy a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, it’s not ideal to default to the cheapest bottle on the shelves when choosing a wine for cooking.
They often lack flavour, can be overly acidic and won’t add the richness or complexity that wine should when it’s an ingredient (you may as well leave it out all together). Take advantage of offers in the shops, but don’t use a wine to cook with that you wouldn’t be happy to drink.
Make a reduction
If a recipe asks you to reduce the wine, don’t skip this step.
Bubbling the wine intensifies the delicious flavours and can remove that harsh ‘raw’ alcoholic edge that it can impart on food if not properly cooked down.
It’s worth noting that reducing doesn’t completely get rid of the alcohol content, so don’t assume dishes cooked with added wine are ok to serve to children or people avoiding alcohol.
Time it right
Wine should be used in the early stages of cooking so it has time to evaporate.
Don’t make the mistake of adding it too late in the recipe, as can taste unpleasantly overpowering.
If you forget to put it in, the best thing to do is reduce it in a separate pan, then add the reduction to your dish. That way, you won’t end up overcooking what you’re making, or ruining the flavour balance.
Wine matching
If you’re not sure as to what type of wine goes in which recipe, think about what you’d drink with the meal itself.
It’s not a completely hard and fast rule, but if you’re really stuck, chicken, pork, fish and shellfish dishes go well with white wine, and beef and lamb tend to be cooked with red.
People often associate red wine with tomatoes like in a rich bolognese sauce, but if you’re not adding a red meat to the equation, white wine (especially when paired with garlic and parsley) gives a fresher flavour.
Why doesn’t my wine want to flambé?
Wine won’t catch fire when cooking as it has too low an alcohol content. It only works with spirits that are around the 40% mark.
You’ve no doubt seen chefs spectacularly set their frying pans ablaze whilst flambé-ing, but this can be dangerous in a domestic kitchen.
Rather than try to catch the alcohol alight in the pan, it’s much safer to put the alcohol in a ladle, then hold it at arm’s length over a gas flame until hot. Slightly tip the ladle to ignite the fumes, then carefully pour the burning alcohol over your dish and allow the flames to subside.
Wine as a marinade
For really tender meat, try marinading it in wine, The acidity tenderises the fibres, and adds flavour too.
The tannins in red wine also boost the savouriness of red meat.
Dessert wine
Syrupy fortified wines are more suited to puddings, but regular white and red can work with sweet stuff too.
Try our wine poached pears.
Shelf life
For cooking purpose, once open, keep wine in the fridge (even red) as it slows down the time it takes to oxidise and go off.
It’ll keep for up to a week in the fridge. Some wine experts will tell you that wine goes off quicker than that, and maybe has around four days before it’s no good, but this is more applicable to wines you’re drinking.
The same goes for fortified wines. Although they seem more robust, they still go off eventually.
The drier the sherry the shorter to shelf life. Fino sherry will only last for one week in the fridge after opening. Cream sherries will last for four to six weeks.
An inexpensive bottle sealer such as a Vacu Vin can help prolong the life of vino and can save a fortune on wasted wine.
They work by sucking the air out of the bottle and creating a vacuum in the empty space, which slows down the oxidation process.
Freeze!
If you like cooking with wine but aren’t a big drinker of it, and seem to only use a bit and then end up throwing the rest away, there’s a solution. Pour the wine into an ice cube tray, freeze, then bag up the cubes.
You can then use a couple as and when you need.
A good stand-in
Vermouth is an excellent drink to keep in the fridge for cooking with, in place of white wine. It has a longer shelf life (1-3 months) and it’s aromatics and slightly more intense flavour means you don’t have to reduce it for quite as long (and you can make a martini with it too).
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