is it ok to use cooking wine

Cooking wine is handy for people who don’t consume wine, but still want to use it when a recipe calls for it. Not only does wine add flavor to a dish, its acidity helps break down fats and other flavor components, which is why it’s so great to use as a deglazing tool.

Quick Cooking With Wine: Pan Sauces

To test the effect of a wines flavor on a quick-cooked dish, I whipped up several batches of pan-seared pork loin cutlets, deglazing each pan with wine once the pork was done. The wines I compared here were the tart Sauvignon Blanc; the oaky, buttery Chardonnay; the lean, light Beaujolais; and the jammy, oaky Cabernet Sauvignon. I kept things very simple, whisking in some good gelatinous chicken stock once each wine had reduced, and finishing the sauce with some butter.

Sure enough, the same thing I had noticed with the plain dry wines was the biggest factor here as well: Their acidity had the biggest impact on the flavor of the pan sauce. Most notably, the tart Sauvignon Blanc produced a pan sauce that tasted like it had been finished with a squeeze of lemon juice, even though it hadnt. All the others also had a bright, acidic flavor—not as much as the Sauvignon Blanc, but enough not to require any additional acid in the pan sauce.

That doesnt mean all pan sauces made with wine wont need an acid to balance the flavor, since that depends on the types and quantities of each ingredient in the sauce, but it supports the observation that a wines acidity, above almost all else (aside from sugar), will have the biggest flavor impact.

As for the pan sauces made from the red wines, they were incredibly similar. I had my girlfriend Kate blind taste them, and she was unable to distinguish between the two. Not only that, but the differences between the red- and white-wine-based sauces were more subtle than one might expect: While she could distinguish between them when tasting blind (literally blind, since the color is a dead giveaway), the only clear clue, she said, was the difference in acidity.

Reduction Tests

One of the first tests I wanted to try was to take a close look at how wines change as they cook and reduce. I started with whites, selecting three different varietals: an off-dry (i.e., slightly sweet) Riesling, a dry, tart Sauvignon Blanc, and a buttery, oaky Chardonnay.

I took a cup of each wine and reduced them down to 1/4 cup.

As they reduced, the color of the whites darkened to a more orange tone; the Chardonnay, which started out the most golden before cooking, took on the darkest tone of the three, as you can see in the photo above.

“So, the first big rule of choosing a wine when cooking is to consider the sweetness: Use a sweet wine only if you want sweetness in the final dish, otherwise use a dry wine.”

Tasting these wine reductions, two things jumped out immediately. First (and unsurprisingly), the presence of sugar in a wine like the Riesling has a drastic effect on how it tastes even after cooking, with the sweetness concentrating through reduction; the cooked Riesling wasnt quite syrupy, but it was close. So, the first big rule of choosing a wine when cooking is to consider the sweetness: Use a sweet wine only if you want sweetness in the final dish, otherwise use a dry wine. Most recipes will specify whether the wine should be dry or not, so follow that guidance when using a recipe, lest you end up with a very different creation than the recipe author intended.

The second thing that struck me was that, aside from sugar, the acidity of the whites had the biggest impact on their flavor when cooked. The Sauvignon Blanc, which started out very bright and tart, became extremely tart, almost lemony. The uncooked Chardonnay wasnt as acidic as the Sauvignon Blanc, but its acidity concentrated significantly during cooking, and was the most noticeable quality once cooked; its oakiness, while detectable, was a much more minor flavor once cooked.

I repeated this test with two red wines: an oaky, jammy Cabernet Sauvignon with soft tannins, and a light, tart Beaujolais Villages.

Once reduced, both reds showed the same pattern as the whites, with their acidity becoming much more pronounced. That ripe, jammy fruitiness of the Cabernet Sauvignon helped balance some of the concentrated sourness of the cooked version, whereas the Beaujolais, with less ripe fruit flavors, was more harshly acidic once reduced.

Isolating the wines like this was enlightening, but its not a realistic example of cooking with wine, since other ingredients will have a big effect on how things taste. I needed to do some real cooking.

Beginner’s Guide To Cooking Wines

FAQ

Is it safe to use cooking wine?

Can I use cooking wine instead of regular wine?

Why is cooking wine legal?

Can you use wine that has turned for cooking?

Is cooking wine safe to drink?

One sip will tell you cooking wine was never intended to be sipped. It’s perfectly safe to drink, if you can get past the salty-sweet flavor, but trust me, you’re not going to enjoy it. When Should You Use Cooking Wine? While there are benefits to drinking a glass of wine a day, some people prefer not to imbibe.

Is wine good for health?

Wine has several health benefits: 1. Red wine grapes are higher in antioxidants than white grape varieties, drinking red wine may increase your blood antioxidant levels to a greater extent than drinking white. 2. Wine contains compounds that have anti inflammatory properties. 3. An occasional glass of wine may reduce the risk of depression. 4. Studies have found that drinking moderate amounts of wine as part of a healthy diet may increase longevity. 5. Red wine may promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, which may improve metabolic syndrome markers in people with obesity.

Can you cook with wine?

When it comes to cooking with wine, avoid bottles labeled “cooking wine.” Cooking wine isn’t anything you’d want to cook with — it’s loaded with preservatives, sweeteners and salt, which can make your final dish taste overly sweet, salty or even metallic. Abide by this rule of thumb: Cook only with wine that you’d drink.

Is cooking wine worth it?

“The quality of cooking wine is so low … you have to remember that you’re putting that in your body and in your dishes, so it’s well worth it to spend the extra money to get a wine that’ll really represent the dish,” says Maria Rust, the wine director and founder of Somm Time Wine Bar in New York City.