I just watched a video of Notorious Foodie cooking beef cheeks. It looked good, but he used Tiganello as the his cooking wine. Kind of overkill.
Serious Eats did a blind tasting and as long as the wine is dry it doesnt really matter what it is.
4 Likes
So you are saying it’s overkill to make coq au vin with 59 Musigny?
3 Likes
Kirkland wines are great for this. Maybe Charles Shaw as well.
One time I was gifted a bottle of Prisoner, and I used that to cook a stew. That was not a great decision as the stew turned out quite sweet and bizarre tasting.
2 Likes
For a white wine, I use vermouth quite a bit, otherwise a <$20 bottle of red or white
1 Like
No. Shitty Burgundy belongs in a pot, not a glass.
2 Likes
Did you see him open the bottle of Tig? Who knows what really was in there, if not.
2 Likes
For deglazing or pan sauce, basic marsala or basic sherry (“amontillado” ish but whatever is around that is not utter swill. ). Each <$20 a bottle, last forever open, make maybe 15 dishes.
1 Like
^this here^
I buy/keep a 1.5 of Costco chard and use it for deglazing skillets, marinades etc.
long braises that require a red I try and find an inexpensive fruity non oak wine…also at Costco usually
Nobilo sauv blanc is my go to white
For most applications, IMO, those little bottles of Sutter Home work well since there is nothing left over.
For recipes that require more than a cup of wine, like peposo or coq au vin, then I use a decent $15 or so chianti, burgundy, cotes du rhone, etc. as appropriate for the recipe.
Happy to use any inexpensive red or white that isn’t sweet and hasn’t seen new oak.
3 Likes
I never buy cooking wine. I have lots of “daily drinkers” that can do the job. More often, I will use a bottle of something that is not off, but just no longer suits my tastes. I have found that many traits that I do not like - brett, new oak, flabbiness, overly tropical - disappear in the mix of cooking. I make lots of stews and braised dishes and once all the fat is rendered and the herbs and spices mixed in, I’ve never thought “Oh crap. That was the wrong wine to add.”
3 Likes
Thats exactly the conclusion the aformentioned blind tasting had. As long as the wine is dry, it makes no difference what kind of wine it is.
Residual sugar is the only thing you can taste, everything else gets evaporated and/or jumbled up into new flavor compounds with heat.
2 Likes
I use Trader Joe’s mostly. I remember seeing cases upon cases of Mouton Cadet in Berns’ cellar that the Somm told me they used for cooking wine.
I would be curious to see a test based on the wines pH. Maybe there would be a detectable difference in acidity in the final dish?
Probably would if you dont use any seasonings or adjustments. Hard to imagine cooking like that though. Difference would be very small to start with, the pH differences arent that extreme in wine after all.
1 Like
Usually the rests of our tastings - great beef with 1998 Chateauneuf …
In the 80s, Paul Bocuse said he liked the 1984 or 1985 Caymus Special Selection because it reduced well in sauces.
All he had to do was take a match to it- reduced by about 20% almost instantly.
1 Like