Cooking wine what kind

White wine helps fish and chicken retain moisture and delicate texture. The astringency or tartness of a wine can also balance out sweetness like in a dessert or richness like a fatty cut of meat.

This can make a dish more sophisticated and take your cooking to new levels. It's also why, in general, you want to avoid cooking with sweet wines: the sugars in the wine might impart excessive sweetness. So should you buy a regular wine or a 'cooking' wine? In truth, the difference depends on the context. Most of the time, "cooking" wine is just standard table wine. However, a wine that you find on the supermarket shelf next to vinegar or olive oil is actually wine combined with salt, sugar, spices, and ingredients designed to make it more shelf-stable.

We don't recommend drinking this, but it deserves a place in any home chef's kitchen. Chinese cooking, for instance, heavily features Shaoxing wine, which is seasoned rice wine. Depending on who you ask, some chefs will tell you never to cook with wine you wouldn't drink.

Other chefs might tell you that the quality of the wine you cook with doesn't matter, as most of the complexity and maturity you pay for in an expensive wine will cook away. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Will it affect the quality of your dish if you use a middle-of-the-road wine vs. Most chefs would say no. However, you also want to make sure you're using a wine with flavor that you actually enjoy.

And if a recipe calls for just a splash of wine, we highly recommend pouring yourself a glass while you cook. The key is balance. There are plenty of decent wines out there at decent prices, wines that are fine for drinking and cooking. It's worth trying them out next time you make dinner. As such, save the sweet wine for desserts where you don't mind adding a little extra sugariness. If the recipe calls for white wine, use chicken or vegetable stock, or light juices such as apple, lemon, or lime.

If the recipe asks for red wine, you can swap in any broth including beef or red grape juice or cranberry juice. Whether or not you're a would-be Giada in the kitchen, it's nice to know that cooking is yet another way where you can include wine. While just about any wine can be used for cooking, not all "cooking wine" is for drinking. The bottom line is that cooking with wine is meant to enhance the flavor of food and add an even greater degree of pleasure.

So in that spirit, let yourself get a little creative, and don't be afraid to experiment with different wines to figure out what you like. Once you get cooking, you may be surprised at what you discover. On the other hand, as the old saying goes, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen — and pour yourself a glass of wine. Well, we added that last part. When takeout or delivery feels like a better option, you can still have your wine and drink it too.

No cooking or cleanup required. Liquid error: include usage is not allowed in this context Your cart looks a little empty! Continue Shopping. What Is Cooking Wine? Cooking Wine vs. Drinking Wine The prevailing wisdom states that you should only cook with wine that you'd be willing to drink.

Here are a dozen of the best wines to get you cooking: Cabernet Sauvignon: Use the intensity of this bold red wine for any red meat. Whether you're braising ribs or making sauces for New York strip steak, venison, or lamb, this full-bodied vino will cut through thick cuts of meat and amp up the flavor. White wine is much less tannic than red—the sensation that sucks moisture from your palate and dries your mouth out. This means that white wine can reduce more without imparting any bitterness.

Red is quite different. Because it's much more tannic, it will turn bitter faster. As for the amount of money you should be throwing down, Morocco likens wine these days to olive oil—there are a lot of decent bottles at decent prices.

Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs.