Using Wine in Cooking

By Jill Misterka

Turn yourself into a gourmet cook by learning why and how to use wine in the kitchen.

Why cook with wine?

Tenderize.  Wine is somewhat acidic, which helps to tenderize meat and vegetables.

Bring out flavors.  Wine can bring out flavors in food that other liquids can’t because alcohol can dissolve certain chemical compounds in food that are not water-soluble. (This is also why alcohol is used as the base for making vanilla and other baking extracts.)

Make sauces faster.  Alcohol evaporates more quickly than water, so wine will cook down into a thicker sauce in less cooking time.

Retain nutrients.  The vitamins from vegetables tend to end up in the cooking liquid, so cook them in something that tastes good enough to keep and eat.

Use less sodium.  The added flavor from wine may result in less need for salt, thus helping persons who need to limit sodium.

And of course, it tastes good!

Which wine to use?

Don’t use a wine that you hate.  Wine’s flavor gets concentrated as the alcohol evaporates in cooking heat, so a wine that tastes bad will only get worse. Wine with a serious fault like a musty odor should be discarded, not used for cooking.

Don’t use a wine that you love.  Heating destroys some of the complex flavor compounds that give wine its subtle notes. Thus it would be a waste of great wine to cook with it unless it’s very inexpensive or you happen to have some leftover in the refrigerator. Use a mediocre wine that’s drinkable, but not necessarily the best quality.

Don’t use “cooking wine.”  The wine sold in grocery stores that is labeled specifically for cooking contains a huge amount of salt (added to make the wine undrinkable, which is the only way it’s allowed to be sold in a grocery store in New York State). If used, eliminate all other salt from the recipe.

Be color sensitive.  In general, red wines are used for beef or tomato-based dishes, while whites are used for everything else. White wine can usually be substituted for red, but don’t substitute red for white unless you don’t mind the whole dish looking pink.

Stick with dry. Always use a dry wine unless the recipe says that a sweeter one can be used, or you are sure that the sweetness won’t interfere with the dish’s flavor.

It can be fun to experiment and use up opened bottles by adding the wine to whatever you’re cooking at the moment. Substitute wine for the water or broth in many recipes.

Do dishes containing wine have an alcohol content?

Some of the alcohol from wine evaporates during cooking or baking, but the exact amount lost varies depending on temperature, cooking time, and whether the pan is covered or not. Use good judgment when deciding whether to serve a dish containing wine to children, people with certain medical conditions, or those who choose not to drink.

Sources: September 2009 Food and Wine magazine; Mr. Food Cooks With Wine by Jeff Smith; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol.