Cooking with Wine

Welcome to vine to wine this is your host Linda Moran. Today is food and wine pairing day. Every so often I get the question about how to cook with wine. Today we will address some techniques that are really simple.

It may sound easy but there are many misconceptions about cooking with wine. The first and the biggest is one which I remind you of often – do not even think about cooking with any wine that you would not readily drink. If the wine doesn’t taste good why in the world would you want to put it into something you are going to eat? It will not miraculously get better! In fact it will likely make your food taste bad. Next misconception – you shouldn’t get drunk from food cooked in wine. The alcohol evaporates and disappears as it cooks.  Wine is versatile and can be used in many areas of cooking. You could marinate a piece of meat overnight and then used the marinade to create a sauce for the dish. You can use wine with stock or water as the liquid in stew or soups. After you have pan cooked a piece of fish or meat you can deglaze the pan with wine and make a fabulous sauce. If you are poaching salmon or pears wine is my liquid of choice to poach them in. The same goes for cooking mussels or clams, just add seasoning to your wine when and sauté or steam them. A good rule of thumb is to use white wine with shellfish. Also using wine or sherry in place of vinegar in a salad dressing is a delightful change of pace for a dinner salad. Enjoy cooking with wine – drinkable wine – and remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.