What's a good cooking wine?!
Answers: For regular, day-to-day usage.
Lancer
Gallo
Sutter Home
In fact, I buy the little "baby" bottles of Sutter Home that come in a 4-pack. They are perfect for cooking, and have a screw-on cap so if I don't use all of 1 bottle, I can seal it and keep in the fridge for the next use. I keep chardonnay and merlot on hand just for cooking.
Rule of thumb if you wouldn't drink don't cook with it. Red or white?
What we chefs go by is this "If you would not drink it, don't cook with it !!"...
I usually use sutter homes white zin for daily cooking.
I never use cooking wine I use the table wine the alcohol evaporate on the regular wine and it gives a better taste
cornbread Farand Chang
When cooking with wine, think about the wine you would want to eat with the meal. What wine would compliment the dish? Use it to cook with, and then drink it at dinner time. Here is a great little article from foodandwine.com that might help. If you need help pairing wines there are tons of articles on that website.
Storing Wine
When a recipe calls for half a cup of wine, what should you do with the rest of the bottle if you don't want to drink it with your meal? Colin Alevras, chef and owner of the Tasting Room in New York City and author of the recipes that follow, extends the life of his opened wines by limiting their exposure to air: He transfers both whites and reds to small, clean containers—preferably glass or plastic water bottles—then seals them and stores them in the fridge. Sometimes Alevras also uses Private Preserve, an aerosol that replaces the air in half-empty bottles with inert gases ($10; 707-252-4258). Stored either way, these wines remain vibrant enough to drink for up to four days; you can cook with them for up to a week.
—Lesley Truett
*I personally use an aerosol like the one mentioned here. It really does work great.
Don't believe the wine snobs; cooking wine doesn't have to be high buck or particularly high quality. The stuff you get from the grocery store is bad; aim for a bottle that's drinkable but cheap: Yellowtail, Carmen, Rosemount.
When you cook w/ wine you are concentrating the flavor. Therefore you should only cook w/ a wine that you would be willing to drink. Your recipe should tell you whether you should opt for red or white.
Honestly 2 buck chuck is just fine for cooking. Although people say if you won't drink it don't cook with it, to me that means don't keep a bottle of wine around for two weeks thinking you'll cook with it later, the oxygen ruins it and it's gross. Cheap wines are fine to cook with and actually the 2 buck chuck has done well in tastings.
One more opinion....
Use Red Wine when cooking Red Meats and Sauces.
Use White Wine when cooking Seafood, Chicken, and light colored sauces.
As for the quality of the wine....well, I have used both an expensive wine and cheap wine....in cooking. Both work, fine.
However, an inexpensive wine like Mogen David...is too sweet for many dishes....
I wouldn't worry about it too much....What ever drinking wine you have open in the fridge would be fine to use for cooking. Just remember the uses for the Reds and White Wine that is where a dish can be ruined....or almost so to speak.
Example: Making a white garlic cream sauce for Scallops or Shrimp...if you use a Red Wine...your sauce will turn Pink....that's not appetizing.........
I just get a bottle of cheap(er) Cabernet or Merlot for cooking red meat ... Reisling or Chardonnay for "white" meats.... I'm talking about a $5-$7/bottle of wine, not "rot-gut":) .... Save the $25 bottle for drinking WITH the meal:)
anyone will do , as long as your able to drink it , if you cant drink it dont cook with it.
Du- choani!! Great taste! Uh!