Let's Cooking: TNL!

[icarusfall]

I use Riesling for almost all my white wine cooking needs. They're right though, any cheap Pinot Grigio would work best. A really good cheap brand is Yellow Tail - all of them are a great value for the money at around $6 a bottle.

[Josh]

Theory: box wine keeps longer and is thus a better value for cooking. Is this heathen talk?

I made a tomato sauce for some eggplant with tomato paste, spices and Dogfish 90min. It was good, but might have been just as good without the beer.

Thoughts? I feel like this is something important for me to get the hang of.

[Advocate]

Box wine is okay for cheap drinking and I would assume NOT okay for cooking.

Personally I wouldn't buy a 45 bottle wine for cooking, but I wouldn't get a 4 dollar one either.

You want the flavour not the alcohol content. Problem with Box wine is that its cheap and the reason it keeps longer is the more alcohol content, For cooking the flavour is what you want. The alcohol will burn away aka steam.

[arjue]

If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.

[animegirl]

If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.

This. I cook with 8-10 dollar bottles of wine with great results. Stay the hell away from "cooking wine", that shit is terrible (and salty).

[icarusfall]

I'm the opposite. Cheap wine is better for cooking in my eyes as you're not picking up on the subtleness of the beverage by using it in a dish mixed with so many other flavors.Good wine is for drinking not cooking - good does not mean expensive.

[Josh]

I used a bit of ginger, butter and Allagash Dubbel (the beer I was drinking while I was cooking) for the pan sauce. It gave it a dark brown color. The shrimp was so good I don't even know what to say about it. I put the sauce on the carrot and pea pod stir fry. The vinaigrette was great on the salad. I am very happy with what I am cooking these days. Its exciting

edit: I'm saving the sauce and I'm going to cook it with the shrimp parts from tomorrow night and use it as a sauce on something on Saturday. Maybe asparagus. Is shrimp sauce on asparagus gross?

[Drewbacca]

Box wine is okay for cheap drinking and I would assume NOT okay for cooking.

Personally I wouldn't buy a 45 bottle wine for cooking, but I wouldn't get a 4 dollar one either.

You want the flavour not the alcohol content. Problem with Box wine is that its cheap and the reason it keeps longer is the more alcohol content, For cooking the flavour is what you want. The alcohol will burn away aka steam.

Some alcohol always remains. Cook with wine you'd drink, as a rule. White or red is fine. I believe red and white go better with certain meats. But since you're all veggie, Josh, I'm kind of confused as to what to do. White seems like a decent choice. But next time try red to experiment.

[arjue]

I'm the opposite. Cheap wine is better for cooking in my eyes as you're not picking up on the subtleness of the beverage by using it in a dish mixed with so many other flavors.Good wine is for drinking not cooking - good does not mean expensive.

Even so, you don't want to cook with wine that doesn't taste nice.

[Advocate]

To be fair ... cooking and baking is one area where there is no WRONG opinion.

Recipe calls for vegetable shortening - aka cookies, but you'd rather use butter ... thats okay!

You don't like rice, you can use couscous or egg noodles. Its up to you.