Cooking wine or sherry recommendations requested

littlemoney

Initially I'm looking to use the wine when I cook minced beef which I'm hoping to use for a range of meals. I already add a beef stock pot to the meat when I'm cooking.

Grumpelstiltskin

If you are lucky you can get a small bottle of red wine for £1.99 in places like Home Bargains. Is it any good, well I guess is it's as good as the mince. BTW why add a beef stockpot? a supermarket own brand stock cube is good enough and much cheaper.

-taff

Go with the small bottles for now to try or go to Lidl/Aldi and get some there. Their wine is cheaper and better than the cheap stuff in other SMs. Usually, white wine with fish, or pork or chicken, or white risottos red with beef or some risottos. I use marsala instead of sherry and I will use a barolo or rioja or chianti type for stews, and dry whites for frying chicken, or milanese risottos, sweeter ones for desserts. But to be honest, any drinkable wine will be fine for cooking. If it makes you want to spit it out, don't use it.

DullGreyGuy

goldfinches said:

I go by the cuisine the recipe I'm making originates from e.g. for a bolognese or a risotto use an Italian wine and for things like chilli get as near as you can geographically e.g. Californian wine.

Chilli is a tex-mex invention, proven by the fact its name is backwards to what it would logically be in Spanish. You can get Texan and Mexican red wines... the later, mainly from Baja California, is actually fairly good and can be very good value 

Glad

I've been buying wine and sherry for cooking from my local Co-op. They have a nice enough Spanish white for £4.45 (it's only 10% but great in cooking), their sherry is a reasonable price too, cheaper than Lidl

littlemoney

-taff said:

Go with the small bottles for now to try or go to Lidl/Aldi and get some there. Their wine is cheaper and better than the cheap stuff in other SMs. Usually, white wine with fish, or pork or chicken, or white risottos red with beef or some risottos. I use marsala instead of sherry and I will use a barolo or rioja or chianti type for stews, and dry whites for frying chicken, or milanese risottos, sweeter ones for desserts. But to be honest, any drinkable wine will be fine for cooking. If it makes you want to spit it out, don't use it.

I don't drink any alcohol as I never found anything I like the taste of. It was suggested to me that wine or sherry in my mince beef would improve the taste and give it some more body. I have eaten foods which were said to include wine and it was ok

If I sipped any wine I would probably spit it out.

A small bottle of red wine sounds good and if the first batch is ok I could use the idea of wine ice cubes.

I'm told drinking wine goes off within a few days of opening but cooking wines contain preservatives so last longer once bottle is opened.

-taff

The cooking snob in me went haywire reading that [about cooking wine that is] You could always try the wine stock pots, but yes, a small bottle would be better to start with. And to be honest, if you don't like the taste of alcohol, there's no good reason to be using it because while the alcohol will burn off, the flavour won't. It's an added extra flavour for those that like the taste [of cooked wine/sherry etc] it's not essential. Don't neat yourself up if you don't like it..

Now I have to ask, do you have rum or brandy sauce with christmas pud [if you like it that is]

DullGreyGuy

littlemoney said:
I'm told drinking wine goes off within a few days of opening but cooking wines contain preservatives so last longer once bottle is opened.

Wine starts oxidising once air gets into the bottle, it can be slowed by keeping it in the fridge and most wines, even non-cooking, contain sulphite to increase lifespan. You can get various tools to extend the life of opened wine or even items to get wine out without opening it but they aren't cheap and the later designed for very expensive wines where you may really want to have a glass but not a whole £300 bottle. 

Consequence of oxidation is acidification, ultimately it will become vinegar though not necessarily in a nice way if done uncontrolled. The level of alcohol also is a consideration, higher ABV lasts longer than lower ABVs but you will still be losing volatile elements which are typically where smell/flavour come from. Whilst for drinking a bottle is probably past its best after 2-3 days for cooking you can stretch if further but may need to adjust for it being more tart.

It's not really an issue though, buy small bottles and use it all or buy normal sized bottle and ice cube the left over. 

Cooking wine is concentrated wine, salt, more sulphites and water (sulphites are an allergen for some), it's like comparing fresh orange juice and UHT orange juice. They are broadly the same and you can get away with either but few are going to say that the UHT from concentrate is the better tasting thing.