cooking wines

[Holly8864]

When a recipe calls for a cooking wine, what does that mean, and can someone recommend a white and a red?

[NoahHunter]

I typically do not use a "cooking" wine, instead I like to use whatever wine I'm currently hot on that will fit the recipe. That way I can get a hint of the good flavour instead of some cheap $3 bottle.

[Drew]

A good rule is....If you won't drink it, don't cook with it!

Drew

[mrdutton]

You got that right Drew!

The dreck that is sold in the grocery stores as cooking wine is just that, dreck. It is not wine and it is not vinegar, it is just stuff in a bottle. You would never want to drink that stuff (I hope), so you should not cook with it.

Whatever the recipe calls for, red or white, take the recipe to your local wine merchant and ask for some suggestions. Cook your recipe with wine the merchant suggests and then drink some of the same wine with the meal!

[Innkeeper]

All this advice is right on. One additional thought. Though a good theory, it is not always practical to cook with the wine you are drinking with the dish. If you are making Beef Burgoyne, and are planning to have a $30 Burgundy with it, we would hesitate dumping two cups of it into the stew. An inexpensive Pinot Noir (not quite an oyxmoron) would be a much more pragmatic choice. If you cook a lot with wine like we do, you can keep a 1.5 liter bottle of Chilian red or white or both in the fridge as your "cooking wine."

[Thomas]

You should also be aware that wines labeled "cooking wine" in the U.S. must be salted to render them undrinkable and then sold in gorcery stores. So, cooking wine is not only terrible dreck wine, it is loaded with sodium.

I like to keep around the house a few bottles of inexpensive California "sherry" and "madeira" wines, plus some homemade cooking wine.