Cooking with alcohol

epicuric

epicuric

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morning glory said:
To cook Coq au vin for 4, uses maybe about a half bottle of wine. I keep 'screw top' wine to cook with and the other half will keep for several weeks (in my experience) and be used in other dishes. I use it in tomato based based pasta sauces or other meat dishes such as a beef stew. I never suggested Coq au Vin in the first place! :laugh:
P.S. Are you saying I'm an alcoholic...hic... :cheers: :D. Surely not...

Don't worry, I understand that some can't do alcohol. No problem.
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I wouldn't recommend keeping wine for that long. Oxidation starts as soon as you open it - initially a good thing (hence decanting and swirling) but after about 8 hours it will deteriorate beyond what is acceptable for drinking. Just get it drunk! Incidentally, keeping in the fridge makes matters worse - for reasons I can't remember wine absorbs oxygen more readily the colder it gets.

It is a common myth that all of the alcohol gets burned off during the cooking process. Yes, alcohol has a low boiling point - 78°, but many other factors affect how much is actually evaporated during cooking - the surface area of the pot, amount of agitation (stirring), cooking time, effects of other ingredients etc. No matter what you do you will never get rid of that last 5% of the alcohol - it binds with water in a way that does not break down. So probably best avoid cooking with wine if feeding alcohol intolerants.
 
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I once said to my wife prior to a dinner party we were hosting "I need to get some wine". She said "We've got wine". "Yes that's for the guests, I want some for cooking with". "You cook with wine?" she exclaimed. "No, I drink it whilst I'm cooking."
 
Firstly making it clear that I keep wine that I only intend to cook with, I do recall one of the TV chefs – I forget which one – saying that you should never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t drink. Of course, one might point out that’s okay if you enjoy TV chef kinds of money. I mean, perhaps there is a case to say that 3 bottles for £10 type wine isn’t going to give particularly good results. But surely, you wouldn’t cook with Pouilly Fuissé. I mean you wouldn’t. You couldn’t. Surely…
 
epicuric said:
I wouldn't recommend keeping wine for that long. Oxidation starts as soon as you open it - initially a good thing (hence decanting and swirling) but after about 8 hours it will deteriorate beyond what is acceptable for drinking.
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I'm talking about the cheap screw-top bottle wine that Chef's say you shouldn't use for cooking (about £3.50 a bottle). I don't find it deteriorates much over a couple of weeks and it certainly improves the taste of a tomato sauce or a casserole. Could be my taste buds are shot though!
 
Ken Natton said:
Firstly making it clear that I keep wine that I only intend to cook with, I do recall one of the TV chefs – I forget which one – saying that you should never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t drink. Of course, one might point out that’s okay if you enjoy TV chef kinds of money. I mean, perhaps there is a case to say that 3 bottles for £10 type wine isn’t going to give particularly good results. But surely, you wouldn’t cook with Pouilly Fuissé. I mean you wouldn’t. You couldn’t. Surely…
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No I certainly wouldn't cook with expensive wine - unless the dish just called for a splash and that was all I had. I just use the cheap stuff which I confess is 'normally' what I drink anyway. It rather irritates me the way that Chef's say 'never cook with a wine that you wouldn’t drink' - as you say, they can afford to say that! One of the limitations of on-line chats about this is that I can't invite you all to taste test something I've cooked with cheap 2 week old wine!
 
I keep all sorts of alcohol for cooking: rum, brandy, vodka, pernod, sherry... I never drink any of it (well only once in a blue moon), although occasionally I discover my son has raided the bottles. I'd be interested to know what kinds of things you cook with alcohol and which alcohols you use.
 
morning glory said:
I don't find it deteriorates much over a couple of weeks and it certainly improves the taste of a tomato sauce or a casserole. Could be my taste buds are shot though!
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Kind of suggests that it didn't taste too good to start with :whistling:. The wine that is, not your tomato sauce! After a couple of weeks it's probably the equivalent of adding balsamic vinegar - which would work equally well!
 
A few years ago our local bar owner was giving away vinegar (including balsamic) because it was past it's "use by date". I didn't tell him, just relieved him of a couple of bottles.
 
morning glory said:
I keep all sorts of alcohol for cooking: rum, brandy, vodka, pernod, sherry... I never drink any of it (well only once in a blue moon), although occasionally I discover my son has raided the bottles. I'd be interested to know what kinds of things you cook with alcohol and which alcohols you use.
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Last week I was trying to find a use for some rhubarb poaching liquor left over from making a pudding. I found SNSSO's recipe for a rhubarb breakfast bircher, duly made it and left it in fridge overnight, as stated. Tucked into it the following morning. Absolutely delicious. Two bowls later I suddenly remembered that the poaching liquor had been seriously laced with Commandaria (a Cypriot brandy) :eek:
 
epicuric said:
Last week I was trying to find a use for some rhubarb poaching liquor left over from making a pudding. I found SNSSO's recipe for a rhubarb breakfast bircher, duly made it and left it in fridge overnight, as stated. Tucked into it the following morning. Absolutely delicious. Two bowls later I suddenly remembered that the poaching liquor had been seriously laced with Commandaria (a Cypriot brandy) :eek:
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:laugh: No wonder you liked it!
 
epicuric said:
Kind of suggests that it didn't taste too good to start with :whistling:. The wine that is, not your tomato sauce! After a couple of weeks it's probably the equivalent of adding balsamic vinegar - which would work equally well!
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Thing is I think I know enough to tell if wine is turned to vinegar - and it doesn't (not in 2 weeks) and I think that is because its so cheap. Its designed to travel in vast containers and get bottled elsewhere. I generally use Aldi's Rosso Italian red - relatively low alcohol and cheap. If I was making a red wine reduction for a classic sauce, I'd choose a better stronger wine - but for doshing in slow cooking casseroles or everyday tomato sauce I think its fine. I just wish I could taste test you on it!:laugh:
 
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