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Wine to Cook with

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Comments

  • Mine's_a_guinness
    Mine's_a_guinness Posts: 123 Forumite
    I had a couple of bottles of mulled wine left over from Christmas and added half a bottle to a beef stew. Tasted great - must be the fruit and spices in it.
  • Garnet_Gem
    Garnet_Gem Posts: 681 Forumite
    If I've not got a bottle opened, I buy a little bottle of red or white depending what I need for cooking. Lidls have them for £1.19. I can't tell whether it's a good or cheap wine in the dish.
  • paddy's_mum
    paddy's_mum Posts: 3,977 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    I don't bother putting wine into the food I cook. I prefer to put it directly into the cook!
  • Seakay
    Seakay Posts: 4,265 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    I keep a bottle in the fridge into which I decant any half inches of wine which gets left in the bottle, fine for slow cooked stews, spag bol etc. If the fridge bottle is empty then I use a bit of a bottle I'd like to drink, or if it's for somethin where I need a lot, then I get a cheap bottle (cheapest I can find). Chefs etc always say use the best wine you can afford in cooking, but I honestly can't tell the difference. the only time that I have bought something 'special' to cook with was when a specific sort of white wine was required for a dessert - even then it wasn't much because I went and got a mini bottle (you can get them from Morrisons, M&S and other places as well I expect) ad the are very useful for the sort of recipe that requires a glass or so of something specific.
  • JoeyEmma
    JoeyEmma Posts: 913 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    I was in Italy this summer and they sell wine in Tetrapack cartons for about 1.20 Euros for 75cl. It made me think about how much duty we pay on a bottle of wine.
  • odds-n-sods
    odds-n-sods Posts: 864 Forumite
    Seakay, if you get a really cheap bottle of wine and its a very sour, vinegarry type, even if its not gone off, you will be able to tell the difference in the food.
  • Debt_Free_Chick
    Debt_Free_Chick Posts: 13,276 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    odds-n-sods wrote: »
    only advice I can give you is to use a wine you would drink, if you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it, whatever you make will taste worse than if you hadn't added it.

    I know this is supposed to be the case, but I can honestly say that I've never noticed a difference. I put the dregs from all sorts of different wines into an old wine vinegar bottle and just slosh some of that in :o

    It really shouldn't make a lot of difference to a robust dish like bolognaise (ragu) or borguignon as there's plenty of flavour without the wine and the wine simply adds a "depth".

    I wonder if this advice is given so as to avoid some of the "blended" wines of dubious quality? :confused: There are some very reasonable wines, sometimes from a single grape variety, which should be perfectly adequate. I certainly wouldn't slosh a glass of a chateau-bottled Bordeaux or Burgundy in to a Spag Bol ;):D
    Warning ..... I'm a peri-menopausal axe-wielding maniac ;)
  • Debt_Free_Chick
    Debt_Free_Chick Posts: 13,276 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    odds-n-sods wrote: »
    Seakay, if you get a really cheap bottle of wine and its a very sour, vinegarry type, even if its not gone off, you will be able to tell the difference in the food.

    That's a fair point - although a "very sour, vinegary" taste would suggest that the wine is corked anyway. I'd be taking that back for a refund/replacement :D
    Warning ..... I'm a peri-menopausal axe-wielding maniac ;)
  • krispyg76
    krispyg76 Posts: 79 Forumite
    Does your nearest supermarket not sell small bottles of wine, you know the ones about £1.50 for 250ml size?

    They tend to be pretty decent and well known brands.
  • Seakay
    Seakay Posts: 4,265 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    odds-n-sods wrote: »
    Seakay, if you get a really cheap bottle of wine and its a very sour, vinegarry type, even if its not gone off, you will be able to tell the difference in the food.

    True, but I've not actually bought a bottle like that since the early eighties. It may be luck but the only nasty wine I've had in recent years was the house white in Ha Ha's Bar and Canteen, Cardiff about two years ago. I find that wine is much more reliable from Supermarkets than it used to be in the 1970's, and while I may prefer some to others none are badly kept.
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