Wine + food = delicious
Cooking with wine has been a gourmet tradition since the ancient Greeks. The Romans took up the practice and spread it all across Europe. Today, cooking with wine is a staple in French, Italian and Mediterranean cuisines.
How Wine Is Used
Wine has three primary uses in cooking. It can be used as a marinade ingredient, a cooking liquid or a final ingredient after the main dish has been cooked. Normally, especially when learning to cook, use wine while cooking the main dish or in a sauce. The alcohol evaporates when cooked, leaving just the wine flavor, which can intensify food or accent and enhance flavors. Care should be taken to add the proper amount of wine; too much will overpower the food and too little won't make a difference. Boiling the wine down, or reducing, allows for the flavors concentrate.
Selecting a Wine
You should enjoy drinking the wine that you cook with. If you do not like the flavor of the beverage, then you most likely will not enjoy the flavor it adds to the food. Also, wines that are marketed as "cooking wines" are often of low quality.
Wines have their own unique qualities. It is easiest to start with simple, mainstream wine such as Merlot with beef or Chardonnay with chicken. Once you're comfortable with cooking with them, a little experimentation can be fun and tasty.
Some wines are known for their flavor and others for their aroma. Sauvignon Blanc is known to have an herbal smell, and Zinfandels often have subtle berry or cherry flavors. Some wines have more acidity than others as well, so the meal should be carefully planned beforehand.
Fortified Wines
Fortified wines have an added neutral grain to them, which normally increases the alcohol content. Sherry, port, and vermouth are all fortified wines that can be used in cooking. These wines are aged longer and therefore can have more complex flavors. Sweet vermouth and port are often used with fruits or desserts. Sherry can range, but often has a nutty flavor that can complement a variety of dishes.
Pairing
It's common to serve the wine used in cooking with the meal, and certain wines go best with certain foods. Young red wines go well with red meat and red sauces. Dry white wines complement all seafood, poultry, cream sauces and pork. Sweet whites are best with desserts. Also, when cooking a regional dish, try using a wine from the same region.
Tags: best with, cooking with, have more, main dish, Some wines, used cooking