Cooking with Wine
Mark Vogel, a columnist at the Food Reference web site, says, “There’s a plaque in my kitchen that reads: ‘I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.’” Kidding aside, however, why would anyone want to cook with wine? After all, doesn’t the alcohol burn off?
The experts at the Food Network addressed that very question recently in a Culinary Q&A. Contrary to popular belief, all the alcohol does not burn off. “Anywhere from 5 to 40 percent of the alcohol can remain in the food,” they say. But that’s not the primary benefit of cooking with wine. Taste is. “You want wine, which produces different nuances in taste,” they continue. Examples are Zinfandels which impart a “raisin-like quality” and lighter whites with apple and citrus flavors.
Which brings us to wine selection. Vogel takes pains to stress a point that all the pros agree on, “NEVER, under any circumstances, not even at gunpoint, use cooking wine.” Instead, cook with a wine you would be happy drinking. “If a recipe calls for dry white wine without mentioning the type of wine, use any good dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc, if you are a complete beginner,” suggest the culinary experts at OChef.
For other tips on selecting and cooking with wine, visit the Wine page at the Hormel Foods web site. There you’ll find details on preferred cooking times, alcohol evaporation and more.