Cooking Wine and Cooking with Wine

I’m sure pretty much everyone has seen a recipe that calls for a dry white wine or a fruity red.  I’m also pretty sure that most people have seen those little boxes of cooking wine in the grocery store, often costing less than a dollar for a liter.  Are these cheap little boxes the answer to cooking with wine, or are they just cooking wine?  The answer is easy, they are just cooking wine.  While this isn’t always the case in the wine industry, you get what you pay for with cooking wine.  The cheap boxes of cooking wine are likely barely wine at all, and if the liquid in there can be classified as wine, it is only just.  Think about it, if what was in those boxes were any good, don’t you think they would have bottled it and sold it as wine?

When a recipe calls for wine, it is to add the flavors of that wine to the food.  The bland cooking wines can rarely accomplish the desired result and should probably be left sitting in the grocery store.  When I cook with wine, I like to use a bottle that I am familiar with, one that I enjoy and something that is just quality wine to drink.  This often means that I spend more than the dollar per liter on my cooking wine, but on the whole, I think it’s worth it.  My general rule for cooking with wine- if I wouldn’t drink it by itself, then why would it be good enough to make it into my food?

Another benefit to cooking with a decent wine is that once you are done cooking with the wine, you can use the rest of the bottle to drink with the meal.  If the flavors of your wine have made their way into the dish you cooked, it will almost certainly be a great partner for your meal.  Definitely try to use quality ingredients when cooking with wine and you will notice the difference immediately.  Contrary to my beliefs for the rest of the industry, price is an indication or quality that you want to be aware of in this situation.