Homey bird,

"What exact purpose does wine serve in sauces? Does it add a tangy flavor or what? I do see a lot of recipes that call for adding wine." It gives food a depth or new flavor, red will punch it up, white give a lightness or refreshing taste.

"while cooking in wine, do you "saute" things in wine or do you saute in olive oil and add wine to it and reduce? " Never saute in wine, but add at the end. The flavor will evaporate with prolonged heat. You can cook with it, adding at the end and if you freeze the leftovers for later, you may find that you need to add more to punch it up.

Experiment a bit. Saute some chicken in EVOO, garlic, salt and pepper and at the end, add a touch of lemon juice, a pat of butter, some dry white wine(Chardonnay) and teaspoon of capers. Yumm! Taste the sauce before you add the wine and after and you will know the differance. Sip a glass while cooking to get its flavor.

Use dry whites for white meats, chicken, fish, seafood, veal and red for beef. Coq au Vin (chicken in wine) is done in a hearty red for a full flavor. Veal in a sweet marsala wine if wonderful. Steaks with a Port wine reduction is to die for. Chickenin a mushroom sherry sauce is also very elegant and very easy.

If you are cooking for children, remember that the alcohol burns off, so they will not be little drunks.

I hope this helps,

Peppi

You never have to apologise for asking questions. That's what this forum is all about and we are happy to help.

Wine adds a taste and a tang. You usually saute things in oil or butter, add wine and reduce. Chicken broth is added many times with white wine before reduction also. Yes, there is a difference in taste in the red wine and white wine. You usually add red wine for hearty meats like beef and white wine with fish and chicken dishes, but there are cases where that's not the way it goes. I love adding white wine to many dishes. I'm not a lover of red wine to drink or cook, but that makes me a minority.

Sorry Peppi, we were typing at the same time.

Beverly

Wine adds complexity and balance to the flavor of dishes. If a dish is otherwise lacking a bit of acidity, sweetness or fruitiness to balance its other flavors, wine will provide that element. It's an all purpose flavor ingredient.

The type of wine to choose is usually the same type as the one you will drink with the dish, even more so for the wine to cook with. Red wine, with some exceptions such as coq au vin, will yield an unattractive gray sauce when used with light colored chicken or seafood dishes.

Sherry or white vermouth are flavorful and keep well in partially used bottles and are versatile. Just a splash can upgrade a dish.

Jim

Do you question why you add lemon juice to a recipe? or Coconut milk, or onions? all are added to add flavor to a dish....
Wine also adds flavor.
Pour some wine into a glass....taste it....that's sort of the flavor it adds...but with cooking and the evaporation of the alcohol, the flavor changes.
And I disagree with Peppi, the flavor of wine diesn't disappear with cooking, just the alkcohol does...the flavor intensifies.
Linda c

There are also some recipes where wine adds acidity that is needed - these will specify a dry wine and usually will have more wine because it is only a little acidic. For example, in making a fondue, the acidity helps the cheese melt without becoming stringy. If the cheese is still not melting nicely you can add some lemon juice for a stronger hit of acidity.

Looking back at the original pose, I see an important question I didn't address.

True, sometimes wine is used in a reduction to make a sauce. The usual method is to remove the sauteed food and add more fat if necessary, then add wine, cooking and stirring to make an emulsion. This is cooked to reduce the volume and concentrate the flavors. The food is not sauteed in wine, because wine is a liquid, not a fat.

For other sauces, wine can simply be substituted for other liquids to make a "wine sauce". The most useful one, IMO, is to make gravy, using pan drippings for the fat and wine for the liquid.

Jim

But....wine can be used as a poaching liquid. chicken breasts poached in white wine are very nice....and you can then reduce the poaching liquid and use it as a sauce.
and pears poached in port wile are a classic dish.
Linda C

Quite right, Linda. I was thinking only in terms of sauces. Poaching or steaming is a good use of wine. For steamed mussels I use straight. For fish fillets or other things that require more volume, I dilute it.

Jim

Great sandwich fixings: use a pot roast, a couple of thin-sliced onions and some garlic and a cup of red wine in the crock pot for 6 to 8 hours. Serve on crusty sourdough rolls using the juice as you would au jus. The dish is simply not the same if made with broth or water.

The only thing I will add to all the great info posted above is to always use a decent wine to cook with, something you would be pleased to drink on it's own. Don't ever use those "cooking wines " sold in the grocery store. Better to skip the wine all together than use one of those.

As Jim mentions dry white vermouth and sherry are great wine subs and they last in opened bottles foralmostever (new word! LOL)

Ditto on Chase's comments on 'cooking wine'. Those are lousy wines rendered undrinkable by adding enormous quantities of salt; since they're not drinkable, the manufacturers can avoid paying alcohol tax.

If it isn't good in your glass, it will be even worse in the dish. You don't need to use expensive wines, but for goodness sake don't use swill, either.

I found that when my children were little they didn't like the taste of wine in anything and could detect it at a hundred paces. So introduce it in very small amounts to begin with if you cook for kids.

Fortunately their tastes matured and will now eat just about anything set before them.

"The only thing I will add to all the great info posted above is to always use a decent wine to cook with, something you would be pleased to drink on it's own."

I don't particularly agree with that.

Cooking COMPLETELY changes the character of a wine, espeically if it's cooked for awhile.

A good example of using a wine I would NEVER drink for cooking is a nasty Portugese white wine I was give a number of years ago.

Horrid stuff, but I never got rid of it.

Through a chance discovery, though, I found that it added the PERFECT back base flavor to shrimp scampi.

I can't add much to what already has been said (just feel like talkin' - LOL!) but I love beef cooked with it - gives a wonderful flavor like the pot roast stated above. Homemade spaghetti sauce with some good wine is excellent. could go on and on. It does bring a nice depth of flavor to certain dishes and the dish wouldn't be the same without it IMO.

I can't add much either, except to make sure you like wine before you ruin an entire dish with it.

I've tried and tried and cannot learn to like wine. Not white or red or pink or fruit flavored or sparkly. Since I don't like the flavor, I don't like dishes cooked with it.

I learned this with a batch (actually two) of Julia Child's Coq Au Vin. The first was horrible, I threw it out and assumed I'd messed it up. I bought better wine, made it again. It was still horrible, LOL, and then I realized it was because it tastes like wine.

So, if you don't particularly like red wine, or white wine or whatever, don't think you'll like it if you cook it! The same goes for beer, incidentally, which I don't like either.

Annie (who can choke down a glass of wine if I mix it half and half with Diet GingerAle, but I still don't like it)

Kframe,
I agree with you! I'm always hesitant to say that, because people are adamant about not cooking with a wine you don't like for drinking. I like to try different wines and sometimes they just don't match my palate. That doesn't make them swill exactly, just means it's not to my taste. So... I use them in cooking. I've never had a bad experience doing this.

As was said above, wine adds a flavor dimension to a dish. The dish doesn't end up tasking exactly like the wine, so the flavor from the wine, even a wine that's not one I enjoy drinking, enhances rather than dominates the dish, especially as the alcohol cooks off.

My philosophy, why throw out perfectly good wine just because the flavor didn't thrill me? Cooking with it is the perfect solution, at least in my kitchen!

I am somewhere in the middle here. With white wine you're not adding a whole lot more than perhaps a bit of fruitiness. That's why so many recipes will call for "dry white wine, or chicken stock, or water." I have no issue putting a cheap wine in my piccata, risotto, etc., as I'd never taste the difference.

Red wine is a different story. It plays a much bigger part in the taste of the final dish and a bad choice can ruin a great pot of whatever in one fell swoop. Unfortunately I don't have it down to a science by any stretch, but seem to do best with a decent tasting, not overly complex, not overly fruity wine. I used an African wine recently that I was really happy with but of course I threw out the bottle so no idea what it was. The one thing I know is that experience has shown me that unpalatable reds belong in the drain, not in the food.

Yummy! Thanks a lot for all the replies. I read some last night and then some just now; and it made me hungry (though I had a handsome lunch earlier) :-)

Anyways, while on this topic, I wanted to now ask more specific questions:

1. LindaC: can you please elaborate chicken breasts poached in wine? Also any chicken/seafood recipes using wine anyone?

(Primarily interested in chicken and seafood recipes because of some dietary restrictions).

2. All this wine business started in my head when I recently visited a pricey restaurant where I ate a vegetarian Penne pasta in white wine. All I have with me now is the following description from the menu:
"Penne with roma tomatoes, kalamata olives, capers, artichoke hearts, fresh basil, feta cheese, red onions, white wine, olive oil and garlic"

This was a tossed pasta with all the listed ingredients. Any idea when/how they would have used white wine?

3. Has anyone tried marinating food in wine based marinade? Can you post the recipe?

Since holidays are around the corner, I would love to try these out!!

Honey Bird,
In addition to all the great input you've already received, wine is a great ingredient to deglaze a pan. Sear your meat or poultry in oil over high heat. After browning, add a splash of wine to the pan and scrape with a wooden spatula... instant sauce base with added flavor, and a clean pan to boot!

I also like adding red wine to my tomato-based sauces. Unlike what others mentioned earlier, it does not give a "wine" taste at all, but instead manages to blend the flavors better together, so you don't just strongly taste tomato and oregano and ...

As for your penne recipe. I would first saute the red onions, then garlic in the olive oil. After they were soft/translucent, then add the artichoke hearts (either marinated or already steamed) along with the olives and capers to coat in the olive oil as well. Add in a bit of white wine (maybe 1/4 cup), bring to a boil, toss in the tomatoes and simmer for a minute or two longer. Remove from heat, add pasta, feta cheese and basil, toss and serve.

Chicken breasts in white wine...
I pack boneless chicken breasts, with or without the skin, and some skinny slices of onion, into a heavy sauce pan, and cover with white wine....I like a fruity sweet wine...like a Rhine wine auschlase... spatelease...sweet.
If you have snuggled the chicken close, it should only take about a cup...maybe less to cover the chicken.
Set at a simmer and cook until the chicken is no longer pink, don't over cook.
Then in a skillet melt some butter....couple of tablespoons, and brown the cooked chicken at a fairly hot temp. They should brown but nor burn, when they are brown, remove to a platter and keep warm, add 1/2 the cooking liquid/wine and deglace the pan....fairly hot temp...s.tir up the browned bits....mix 2 tsps of corn starch with the rest of the cooking liquid and add to the fry pan....with the onions....and cook until thickened....add the chicken back to warm and serve with the sauce.
You can add some fruit...like dried apricots or pineapple to the wine poaching liquid if you wish....and though I haven't tried it, I think some coconut might be good in there somewhere.
Linda C

"If you have snuggled the chicken close..." My next door neighbor told me just the other day about a pet chicken he used to have that would sit on his lap like a cat or lap dog. Does that count? lol

I've heard Ina Garten advise to use wine you'd want to drink in cooking, but my son disagreed, and insisted cheap wine is fine. I guess it might have a lot to do with your income level. Actually, the explanation about the difference in whites and reds makes a lot of sense.

Homey Bird, I'm glad you've asked these questions, they've been very helpful.

Sally

Cheap wine is fine...but don't use spoiled wine or that awful "cooking wine" from the supermarket that has salt added.
Linda C

Wine you cook with doesn't have to be expensive, it can be cheap, but it should be to your liking, especially red.

My favourite red wine to cook with cost $7.45 a bottle.... which is a bout as cheap as you can go in Canada. I would not use a really expensive bottle of wine to cook with, I would rather drink it.

I agree, it's fine to use an inexpensive wine, just not "cooking wine". But since I usually serve the wine for dinner as well (minus the small amount needed to cook with), I pick one I like to drink! One other tip is to choose a wine from loosely the same region as the dish you're cooking. So many times a recipe just states "white wine" or "red wine"...
spaghetti sauce... chianti or other tuscan red
coq au vin... burgundy, rhone
cheese fondue... gewurztraminer or riesling