The Secret to Cooking with Wine

Have you ever wondered what the effects of wine in cooking are? What does it do to sauces, and why do we use it when we cook anyway? How does it affect the flavor of your food, and is there a proper method of using wine when we cook? Well, you need go no further. Let us explore a few of these issues so that you will have a better understanding. Here is a basic primer on cooking with wine.

First and foremost understand that the central purpose for cooking with wine and spirits is to give a greater 'depth' and 'complexity' to our sauces. Wine and spirits (like brandy) provide a 'lift' and impart a sense of 'roundness' to a sauce. You can feel it in your mouth. The alcohol transforms what would normally be a flat and one dimensional flavor into a dynamic multifaceted one. It is the difference between a sauce that might attract just the sour taste receptors at the tip of your tongue alone, or the sweet ones in the middle, or maybe only the acid around the sides, or a sauce that actually attracts and mingles all three at the same time.

Are there any rules that should be observed when cooking with wine? Of course there are. Generally, this is one place where the old cannon of red wine with red meats and white wines with poultry and fish do aptly apply. However, consider this as well: Use a dry white wine for savory sauces, as sweetness would not be desirable. Reserve the sweeter wines for dessert sauces, such as Marsala is used in a sabayon (a sweet egg sauce). Also, it is important to note the cooking process and just when and how you use the wine. The notion that foods properly prepared with wine or spirits can get you drunk is a false one. Take note of the world 'properly'. Wine is most often used to 'deglaze' the aromatics in the bottom of the pan, and then a process of reduction immediately begins. When this happens the alcohol is cooked off in a gaseous vapor and what you are left with is the 'body' of the wine or spirit. It is then often combined with either cream or stock that will ultimately help to define the greater dynamic quality or roundness of the sauce. Always apply the wine after the garlic, shallots, or aromatics are sautéed in the pan, and then reduce the liquid until the gas vapor has cleared. Never deglaze a pan with wine after the flour has been added as in dusting with flour, or making a roux in the pan as this will impart a sour taste to the sauce.