Pure Flavor by Kurt Beecher Dammeier

Author:Kurt Beecher Dammeier [Dammeier, Kurt Beecher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307489920
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2007-06-16T07:00:00+00:00

Wine is not only wonderful in the glass, it's also an important ingredient in cooking. Wine can add depth and complexity to a dish, assuming one heeds the old saying “Don't cook with a wine you wouldn't drink.” That doesn't mean you need to spend a fortune on cooking wine, but it does mean that if a wine doesn't taste good to you on its own, it's not going to taste great in the final dish either. If you can afford to cook with the wine you're serving, that's a perfect flavor match.

When choosing a wine to cook with, think about how big a role the wine plays in the recipe. If you're making chicken braised in red wine or making a red wine reduction, pick a good-quality wine because it plays a key role in the dish. But if you're making fish stock you can use an everyday, inexpensive bottle of white wine. As a rule of thumb, white wines used for cooking should be light, fruity, and acidic (dry), and reds should be young and fruity; Sauvignon Blanc or Viognier are good choices if the recipe calls for a dry white wine, and for reds a good standby is any Rhône varietal, including Syrah. Rhône varietals have bright fruit flavors and are light- to medium-bodied, and they're great choices for cooking because bringing a little fruit to a dish is the reason to cook with wine. Use a heavier-bodied red wine for heavier dishes such as beef and lighter-bodied reds for poultry dishes. Cooking with wine accentuates the flavors of the wine, so heavily oaked or highly tannic wines aren't good choices for cooking because once the wines are reduced, those oak and tannin elements can overwhelm the other flavors in the dish.

Try not to use that open half-bottle that has been in the refrigerator for a month. Open a fresh bottle—with the added benefit that you can have a glass while you cook. And whatever you do, stay away from bottles labeled “cooking wine”; they are usually cheap wines that food coloring, salt, and preservatives have been added to.

Many people wonder if the alcohol in wine burns off during cooking, and USDA research shows the following: If wine is added to a boiling liquid and then the dish is immediately removed from the heat, 85 percent of the alcohol remains; if the food is simmered with the wine for 15 minutes, 40 percent of the alcohol remains. After 2 hours of simmering, 10 percent of the alcohol remains. For flambés or flaming dishes, most, but not all, of the alcohol is burned off. Because wine contains only about 12 to 14 percent alcohol to begin with, this should be a minor concern for most people.

Sherry, Madeira, port, and Marsala are fortified wines that appear frequently in recipes. They add an intense flavor to a dish and stay fresh in your cupboard for months because of their higher alcohol content.

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