I like to cook but I’m not much of a wine afficionado (I think that I can tell the difference between “tasty” and “plonk” but that’s about it). The last few times I’ve made Coq au Vin I’ve used Two Buck Chuck and it’s turned out excellent. Served it at the table with…Two Buck Chuck. It’s inexpensive but it’s decent.
How does one cook with wine? Say for instance I’m making pork chops and rice, would I cook the chops in some wine, or would I put it in with the rice? I wouldn’t mind playing around a bit but I don’t know where to start. I might try it out tonight since the wife is out of town and the only one to eat it would be me.
Exactly. It’s hilarious to see the ‘I don’t own a television machine*’ type people pretend that it is simplah supeeeerior to cook with The Best Wines. :rolleyes:
*Dick Van Dyke Show reference
I use the wine I’m going to drink with the meal. I’m alone and a whole bottle of wine is too much for me. 2/3 bottle (50cl) is about right, just slightly too much; the rest goes into the gravy or sauce or cooking. Otherwise I drink half a bottle one night and the other half the next.
I like to use it to get the lovely brown bits up, so say you sauteed your chops, then removed, you have that nice flavorful stuff left in the pan, so put in some wine there, perhaps some chopped shallots and fresh herbs, and cook, scraping up the bits, and reducing the wine, to make a nice sauce. Perhaps whisk in a bit of butter just before serving?
That’s just a quick answer, w/out getting into any recipes.
Depends on the dish, obviously, but in many cases you just glug some in with the ingredients and let it simmer. When I make minestrone soup I add some red wine to the broth and let the soup simmer.
Also good with slow-cooked meats, such as stews. Coq au vin is chicken simmered in red wine - I soften carrots and onions/challots, add chicken breasts and sear the outside, stir in some flour, herbs and spices, and then pour in some red wine. Cover and let it simmer until the chicken is just about tender, add sliced mushrooms for the last few minutes and voila.
The wine adds color, taste and smell (there’s nothing like lifting the lid and releasing a great cloud of wonderful smelling goodness into the kitchen). I think that the alcohol can also help tenderize meat. It’s pretty much like using any other cooking liquid, you just have to think about the flavor and texture that it adds.
I’m not a pork fan but I assume that you’d put the wine in with the chops. If you sear them in a pan perhaps you can remove the chops and then add some wine to the pan, use that to deglaze the pan (get all the little stuck bits off, combines with the wine to make a delicious sauce, let it simmer down a bit while keeping a close eye on it, then pour over the chops).
Since we’re talking boxed wines anyway, may I slightly hijack and ask what are some good ones? I like to drink wine on occasion, and cook with it often, but since the only other adult in the house abstains, I can’t really go buy a nice bottle of Caymus cabernet, drink one or two glasses, and let the rest go nasty.
One of the perks of cooking with wine is having a glass while doing the work, so I won’t cook with a wine I wouldn’t enjoy drinking.
I don’t think you need to buy fancy wine for cooking, but if you have one with an “off” taste, or that is corked, that will affect the taste of your dish.
Sure, but I think Two Buck Chuck is a drinkable wine (at least, I’d say it is). It’s certainly not offensive and perfectly fine for cooking. I would never dream of wasting a bottle of wine that costs more than $20 in a dish. And a $70 Barolo? No way.
The rule is simple: if the wine tastes bad on its own, it’s going to taste bad in the food. I think Charles Shaw is a perfectly acceptable table wine, and it’ll work fine in food.
I cook with Gallo Hearty Burgundy all the time. I only serve it when we’re camping, because I have much better wines in the rack, but it makes a perfectly good campout wine, and the flavor really adds to any number of dishes. But Charles Shaw really can’t be beat as a cooking wine…not at that price.
Honestly, I’m a cheap date, I guess, but I buy Franzia. The 5l boxes of their “basic” ones are $9.99 here, and then go a bit upwards…Pinot Grigio is around $13.99, and the Merlot and Cab are perhaps $1 more??? We’re still talking FIVE LITERS, and I think very drinkable.
If people want to take it up several notches, actually, many halfway decent wineries have put some good stuff into boxes as well, although you’ll be looking at (well, here anyway) closer to $20 for 3l, which is still a bargain! I bought a smaller box of Shiraz recently, and wasn’t all that impressed for the higher price, as I probably would’ve enjoyed the Franzia Merlot or Cab better.
What I like about it is almost like having beer on tap at your house (not that I’ve ever DONE that), but you can pour a glass or two, and it’ll stay fine for awhile, WITHOUT a nitrogen machine, or whatever it is that preserves open bottles?
I would go to your local liquor store and inquire myself.
DAMN, I wanted to add this as well…I’m in the home stretch of preparing a beautiful chicken piccata, made w/ boxed chablis, that is filling the air w/ a wonderful odor, and I need to go do final prep…angel hair to be cooked, and ciabatta bread to be cut…oh, happy first (full) day of spring!!! I am one happy camper right now!!! 
Yea, there are a few decent boxed wines out there.
Off the top of my head:
Fisheye (Their Pinot Grigio recently took a Gold medal in a wine competition.)
Delicato
Corbett Canyon
Trove
Black Box
Hardy’s
There are also wine tetrapaks that I buy from time to time. Three Thieves is pretty good, and I think their ‘bullets’ are just the cutest things ever. Perfect size for throwing in a stew, deglazing a pan, or cooking up some shrimp scampi.
I cook with the same wine I serve. No point in opening a bottle of wine just for cooking, after all. So, by default, I wouldn’t cook with anything I wasn’t willing to drink. Considering how many other tastes are in most dishes you add wine to, most of the time you wouldn’t notice any subtleties, so you could get away with using an inferior wine for cooking as long as there were no really objectionable elements in it. I don’t see why you’d bother though.