28 April 2008 by Shifrah Combiths
Cooking with Wine
Wine is often used in sauces and stewing juices, as well as in some types of desserts. The first and foremost rule to keep in mind when cooking with wine is to never cook with any wine that you wouldn’t drink. Always suffuse your wine-enhanced dishes with flavors that you’d enjoy on their own and you’ll notice their pleasant effect with gladness every time.
That said, when and how should wine be used in cooking? Wine is not used in cooking to impose its own flavor in a dish; rather, it is used to augment existing flavors and round them out. Wine in cooking is meant to strengthen the effect of the main ingredients. This is one of the main reasons that oftentimes the wine added to sauces, soups, or stews is added well before the dish is ready to serve.
While the food boils or simmers, the alcohol in the wine evaporates, leaving behind only the sweetness and acidity of the wine’s actual flavor. Be sure not to add too much wine to a dish; otherwise, these flavors could become overpowering. Once you add wine, wait at least ten minutes to taste and know the results of wine’s addition to your dish.
Deciding which wine to use in what kind of dish is similar to pairing wine with food. For instance, red meat stews can take the addition of a full-bodied red wine, as can tomato-based sauces. Lighter cream sauces, however, are better suited to the addition of white wines. The same is true for most seafood dishes. Desserts also tend to do better with the addition of white wines, sweet ones in this case.
The amount of wine to add is another thing to consider. About one to two tablespoons per cup in soups, sauces, and gravies, is a safe rule of thumb. Stews and meats can take about a quarter of a cup per pound of meat. Add more wine in small amounts because there’s no going back. (Tip: if you do accidentally impart an unintended harshness to your dish with too much wine, you may sometimes balance this out with a little sugar. This works well in tomato sauces, for instance.)
In addition to use in actual cooking, wine is also often used as a component of a marinade. One important function of wine in a marinade is the alcohol’s effect of tenderizing the meat. Another way wine is used is in finishing a sauce. Wines used in this manner are almost always lighter-flavored white wines (reds would be too overpowering to use without cooking time to reduce them and evaporate the alcohol). This process of finishing is used to round out the sweetness of a dish.
Subtlety is key when cooking with wine. Using too little is the same as using none because its effect will go untasted; using too much could kill the delicate flavors of your meal. But wine’s unparalleled flavors, tempered with knowledge of how they behave when you cook with them, can push many dishes closer to the height of perfection.