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Cooking with wine

Credit: Tyler Delgado

How To: Pick the Perfect Cooking Wine

5 Minutes read
Journalist

Houston chef Aaron Bludorn shares expert tips on choosing the perfect cooking wine, from budget-friendly picks to common mistakes to avoid.

Wine aficionados recognize fermented grape juice for versatility in the glass, but chefs also celebrate wine as a multifaceted culinary ingredient.

Wine can be used for sautéing, braising, poaching, deglazing (releasing slightly charred bits on a pan to join the rest of the ingredients), adding moisture to roasted meats, or simply for elevating the layers of flavor in a recipe. “Wine can bring complexity to a dish in the form of acidity, sweetness, fruitiness, and also an earthiness, depending on the type of wine used,” explains Aaron Bludorn, chef of Perseid in Houston.

Choosing the Right Wine for Cooking

Bludorn was raised in the Pacific Northwest before moving to America’s wine country, Napa Valley, where he trained under chef Douglas Keene. He also worked for Daniel Boulud. His time around French technique and close proximity to wine shaped his approach to cooking, leading him to incorporate wine into a variety of dishes. Among his favorites are coq au vin, bœuf bourguignon, spaghetti alle vongole, and sauce bordelaise.

While these are popular recipes that call for wine, it’s not always clearly stated exactly what type of wine is required. Recipes often vaguely list “dry red” or “dry white” cooking wine without much guidance as to what that actually means.

To clarify, dry wine simply refers to a wine without high levels of residual sugar. A wine is categorized as dry when it contains under 10 grams per liter of residual sugar, or about one percent sweetness. Wine stores, however, usually arrange their bottles by grape or region, not by levels of dryness or sweetness, so it’s better to know a few key varieties—both red and white—that are classically dry. Keeping them on hand or knowing what to look for makes it easier to shop for the right bottle when a recipe calls for it.

“For an all-purpose red wine, I look for a Pinot Noir or red Burgundy. For white, it’s usually a Chardonnay or white Burgundy,” advises Bludorn. Yet, in case he’s ever in a pinch, Bludorn says he will use any dry wine—this could include Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or Viognier for white wines, or Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Sangiovese for red wines—as there’s “not too much of a difference if you are reducing it and cooking off the alcohol,” he explains.

Budget-Friendly Tips & Cooking with Wine Like a Pro

Though the variety doesn’t matter as much as the dryness, Bludorn points out another factor to help narrow down your cooking wine selection: don’t overspend. He says as long as it’s a dry wine, any bottle under $10 will get the job done. If you’re concerned about the waste of opening a $10 bottle just to use a cup of it, Bludorn recommends storing it in the fridge for up to two weeks to use in multiple recipes.

If you prefer to drink a little wine while you cook and turn your nose up at a $10 bottle, follow a page out of Bludorn’s book: “Cook with a little bit of the wine I plan on drinking with the meal, knowing that it will pair nicely.”

Mistakes to Avoid

When it comes to the don’ts of cooking wine, Bludorn suggests using a chilled wine rather than one at room temperature to slow oxidation, the process that breaks down alcohol into vinegar.

Further, make sure to follow the recipe’s measurements, as “you can absolutely use too much wine,” warns Bludorn. “Too much wine can make a dish too acidic or too sweet or just taste too much like wine,” he adds. In case you end up adding too much wine, he suggests rectifying it by adding more butter to help “mellow it out.”

“Once, I used too much wine reduction in a sauce and needed to save it on the side for a day while I made more just to even it out. I made so much sauce that I had to freeze half in order to not have it go bad,” says Bludorn, showcasing that a recipe can be saved, but it’s better to stick to the measurements from the beginning.

Remember, you can always add more wine, but you cannot take it out once it is in there.

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