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Great ‘how to use up old booze’ hunt

Former_MSE_Penelope
Former_MSE_Penelope Posts: 536 Forumite
edited 17 November 2009 at 8:39PM in Old style MoneySaving
British households pour £450m worth of wine down the sink every year, according to Wrap. So we’d like to tap MoneySavers for their top tips on using up leftover booze of any description, for example, freezing it in ice cube trays and using for casseroles.

What other top tips and recipes do you have?

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Comments

  • thriftlady_2
    thriftlady_2 Posts: 9,128 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post I've been Money Tipped!
    edited 23 November 2009 at 12:50PM
    You're joking right??? People are pouring wine down the sink? I simply don't believe that, and how on earth do 'they' know?

    However, if there are people out there who are buying wine and then chucking it away then they might think about pouring it in a freezer bag along with some meat and garlic. Stick it in the freezer and you have ready marinated meat to defrost. I saw Nigella do this.

    Freezing in ice cube trays for adding to casseroles is a good idea as you say.

    Adding to any stew, casserole or gravy.

    Use it to make grown up jellies.

    Soak dried fruit in it for cakes.

    I still don't believe it though. I certainly never chuck wine away:beer:
  • spend_thrift
    spend_thrift Posts: 102 Forumite
    Great thread! :T

    I'm looking for ways to use up some fizzy Rose cava that has gone a bit flat. I don't really want to drink it as I'm supposed to be staying off alcohol, but I'd love to cook with it somehow...

    Also, I know it sounds odd that people throw plonk away, but recently I'm starting to see why it might happen... sometimes a glass of wine to use up the bottle is not worth the hangover on a work night... crazy I know, but sometimes it's the truth! :rolleyes:
  • purpleivy
    purpleivy Posts: 3,573 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    poached pears would be nice with the rose I think. if you don't want to do it now, then freeze it. Alcohol will be driven off by the heat.
    [SIZE=-1]"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad"[/SIZE]
    Trying not to waste food!:j
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  • sunflower76
    sunflower76 Posts: 560 Forumite
    What's wrong with putting the leftover wine in the fridge until the next night? I don't think I've ever tipped away wine. :D

    White wine is always drunk but if it's an awful bottle it'll be OK with lemonade and a slice of lemon and ice cubes.

    Red wine is almost always drunk but leftovers would gt used in poached pears, stews, gravies or casseroles.

    Anything else lasts doesn't it until you;re ready to drink it?
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 17,413 Forumite
    First Post I've been Money Tipped!
    I wonder if you could poach apples in it .I have half a bottle of Chardonnay wine in my fridge left from when my sis-in-law visited in September. Neither of my DDs drink wine and I can take it or leave it .I would rather have a G&T with ice and slice. I am too mean to just throw it away and everytime I open the fridge I think I must do something with that ,do you think it will still be o.k. to cook with
  • Oldernotwiser
    Oldernotwiser Posts: 37,425 Forumite
    Leftover wine - now there's an unusual concept!
  • twinkle_star_2
    twinkle_star_2 Posts: 343 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    My housemate had one of those enormous boxes of cheap red wine and decided it was too vile to drink. But we all used it up slowly for sloshing into stews, pasta sauces, frying mushrooms etc. It lasted for months and though I started thinking it really couldn't be ok all those months later it was absolutely fine - it had just turned into red wine vinegar!
  • spend_thrift
    spend_thrift Posts: 102 Forumite
    sunflower76 wrote: »
    What's wrong with putting the leftover wine in the fridge until the next night? I don't think I've ever tipped away wine. :D

    Anything else lasts doesn't it until you;re ready to drink it?

    In my case I have a small amount of red wine left over after opening a half bottle to make boeuf bourginon (sp?) and I find red gives me hangovers, so I haven't felt the urge to drink it yet.

    The rose is left over from when a friend came round a couple of weeks ago. It's more her taste than mine, and there's about a 1/3 of a bottle left, so quite a lot to drink on my own and not quite enough to share... :rolleyes:

    I suppose the urgency with the rose is to have it before it goes flat (probably too late already!) and to find a use for it so I can recycle the bottle and get it off my worktop where space is at a premium!

    Perhaps people don't know how to properly store opened bottles of wine these days? Or how long wine can be stored for? I notice that most bottles of any type of booze these days have ridiculously short "drink within .... days of opening" on them. Perhaps non frugal types just don't want to risk it? :confused:
  • brownhandbag
    brownhandbag Posts: 1,855 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post First Anniversary Photogenic
    Top tip I found in an old recipe book on a torn out bit from a magazine....1960's

    put some dried fruit in a large jam jar and then add all the leftover wine dregs. Keep adding and eventually you use the fruit for xmas cakes/puddings! Genius I thought :)
    total wins 2013 £5500 2014 £7500 2015 £23,900 2016 £10,650 2017 £13,040 2018 £10,620 2019 £10,115 2020 £3970.00
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  • spend_thrift
    spend_thrift Posts: 102 Forumite
    brownhandbag wrote: »
    Top tip I found in an old recipe book on a torn out bit from a magazine....1960's

    put some dried fruit in a large jam jar and then add all the leftover wine dregs. Keep adding and eventually you use the fruit for xmas cakes/puddings! Genius I thought :)

    Sounds fantastic! I'll bet they would be good in muffins too.... mmmmm :p
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