There are recipes I see on TV, in books, and online I’d love to try, but many involve cooking with some form of alcohol.
I do not drink any form of alcohol, so I can’t stand the idea of buying wine (most often) to cook with, then watching as the rest goes to waste. Is there anything else I can do with the rest of the bottle that doesn’t involve drinking it or making a huge number of recipes in a row that require the same alcoholic beverage?
Maybe there isn’t, but if there is, this is the place to find it!
No idea. But really wine purchased for cooking doesn’t have to be of the highest quality or anything. A $5 domestic bottle will do ya. And then you’re wasting, what 3 or 4 bucks worth of wine?
Anyway, perhaps you could re-cork it, stick it in the fridge and serve it to guests. It’ll probably keep for a week or two like that.
There are a few things you can do to preserve the wine. Salt is the standard preservative for cooking wine. You can also add olive oil to separate the wine from the air or get an expensive nitrogen system to replace the air in the bottle. I doubt these methods would be effective for what you’re looking for.
A good alternative is substituting vermouth for white wine. Cook’s Illustrated did a test with white wine and substitutes and concluded "Sherry was too distinct and didn’t fare well in these tests, but vermouth was surprisingly good. In fact, its clean, bright flavor bested all but one of the drinking wines. Vermouth has a much longer shelf life than unfortified wine.
Option 1: Buy wine-in-a-box. You can find decent quality stuff, and it’ll keep longer than bottled wine because there’s very limited exposure to oxygen.
Option 2: Buy a decent bottle of wine, cook with some of it, invite a friend to dinner and serve them the rest.
And yeah, vermouth will keep somewhat longer than normal white wine, but it will go bad after a while. You’ll want to keep it in the fridge and use it within a few weeks.
Honestly, for cooking purposes, I can’t tell much of a difference between fresh wine and wine that’s been in the fridge for a few weeks. If you’re really that picky, it’s also possible to freeze it and use it later for cooking.
You can get a vacuum pump for around ten dollars @ Bed, Bath & Beyond-type stores (maybe even Target) that comes with a couple of stoppers. You put a stopper in the open bottle and use the pump to suck out as much air as you can. Then store the wine in your refrigerator. It should keep just fine for a couple of weeks or so, maybe even longer. Box wine is a good suggestion, but most box wines are just so so. If you want to use better wine, the vacuum pump/fridge combo works well. Just be sure to repeat the procedure each time you reopen the bottle.
On another note, Bittman from the NYT claims that you can freeze wine if you’re just planning to cook with it. You might want to make sure that your freezer is set pretty cold, and watch out for freeze-distillation.
Give the rest to a homeless person. They will appreciate it much more than if you gave them food. (I know this because I’ve tried to give homeless people food before and about 50% of them actually refused, asking if I had cigarettes or money instead)
Well, you know, this is why there is this horrible stufff called “cooking wine”, a horrrible, salty, herbed, and fortified concoction. It is an option, but why not cook with Port or Sherry… two fortified wines that can last indefintitely. Perhaps not suitable for every cooking application, but versatile. Marsala is a great fortified wine that has really been ascribed an eternal cooking tradition? Drink it… not so much, cook with it… hell yea.
I second the wine in a box idea and add that some varieties even come in little single serving sizes (sorta like adult juice boxes), that are perfect for the amounts used in most recipes. I’m not saying it’s ideal quality but you’re cooking with it and if it’s not a meal for guests or very elaborate it’ll certainly do.
I don’t like to drink wine, but I cook with it. I buy the small 4-packs of merlot and chardonnay, and I also have a large bottle of Marsala on the counter for a couple of months. If it doesn’t smell like vinegar, it’s fine to me.
Same here. I think one of those little bottles is a cup, which is a pretty common amount for recipes to call for.
And count me among those who didn’t know you had to refrigerate vermouth. I don’t use it very often. Mine has probably been in the cabinet for a couple of years. Oops.
For lots of uses for white wine you can substitute verjuice which is the unfermented juice of wine grapes. It is a fantastic substitute for any acidic ingredient - lemon or lime juice, vinegar, wine. It has a lovely light refreshing taste and a sip from the bottle will let you see how versatile it is. I know someone who drinks it with soda over ice in summer and it’s a refreshing drink.
Here’s another vote for Wine In A Box. Target makes some decent stuff, including 4-packs.
Perfectly fine for cooking. Not bad if you want to offer a glass to a guest. Unless they’re a wine snob–in which case they can bring their own or drink what you’re drinking.
Some liquor stores carry a surprising variety of teeny little airplane bottles of things like sherry and vermouth, occasionally even big-label wines. I also sometimes see single-serving containers of wine in the grocery stores around here, usually not with the rest of the wine and beer, but rather in a display, often near the deli or other fancier prepared-food-to-go stuff, sometimes somewhere unexpected like in the produce section.
Alternately, if you have friends that drink, perhaps you could borrow a small amount from one of them.
