To think “Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink” is bollocks?

[WomanStanleyWoman2]

I’ve always thought this, but it came into my head again the other day because I tried a new wine on a whim - and wished I hadn’t 🤢 It was too sweet and had an aftertaste. I thought about pouring it down the sink, but I needed some cooking plonk,
so I just threw a bit into my sauce and hoped for the best. It was fine. I ended up using the rest of it across a couple of different recipes.

Whilst I wouldn’t deliberately buy bad wine, I think there’s quite an important difference between a wine where you’d sit and actively enjoy and savour a glass, and one that you wouldn’t keep for a special occasion, but would add a bit of extra flavour to a sauce (and would do for a quick glass while you were cooking). They’re very different experiences.

I was reading years ago about the launch of New Coke in the USA in the 80s (which, for the youngsters amongst you, failed spectacularly). One of the possible reasons for failure highlighted was that, although it had performed well in taste tests, the experience of drinking a whole bottle or can is very different from sipping a small amount from a sample cup. The theory was the sweeter taste of New Coke was pleasant in a small amount, but too much in a larger quantity.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? Lots of people enjoy drinking gin and tonic or vodka and coke, but far fewer drink neat alcohol. I like salt on my food, but I wouldn’t use a whole cellar-full on one meal. And I think it’s the same with wine - one that doesn’t stand up as a great wine in its own right can still enhance a dish when it’s one of several ingredients.

I also can’t help thinking that the “Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink” and “Always use the best ingredients you can possibly afford” mantras are most commonly used by celebrity chefs who a) earn a lot more than the average person and b) probably have their own branded food and wine range, or a column in the Waitrose or M&S magazine where they’re expected to recommend the wines that make the most profit.

Unimaginative people keep repeating it as gospel though!

As a student, I bought six bottles of red for seven euros on my way back through Brussels. I considered it the height of sophistication to cook with one, and it was bloody delicious!

The wine tasting course I went on also recommended eating an olive if you don't like your white wine as the salt will change your palette of it, and eating something peppery if you don't like your red wine at a party.

But it's all bollocks anyway because our palettes are all different, and wine tastings have been proven to be highly fakeable.

God yes any red wine with jammy in the title is vile

Ha! Around 20 years ago my DH bought me a "Cooking with Leftover Wine" recipe book. I was sceptical before even opening it. The recipes either started with "Take one full bottle of leftover red wine..." which had me yelling That's not bloody leftover then, is it? Or, they were very specific - "half bottle of leftover chateau neuf de pap, 1998 vintage".

I returned the book straight away for something more useful and concluded I was already cooking quite well with the odds and sods from various bottles and the occassional £3 bottle of table plonk bought specifically for that purpose.

YANBU. There's a big difference between wine I wouldn't drink because it's off/oxidised (unless I needed vinegar...) and wine I wouldn't drink because it's not to my taste. I wouldn't choose to drink Chardonnay because I generally don't like it but I was given a bottle, so I used it to poach pears and boiled down the wine into syrup afterwards. It was lovely!

Equally, the whole "best ingredients you can afford" thing is often bollocks too. A pepper from the "£1 a bag" section of the local shop up the road tastes exactly the same as a lovingly hand-polished one from Waitrose, especially when roasted and doused in herbs and cheese. That said, something DO have a correlation between price and quality (meat and dairy, generally). I'm fortunate to be able to afford good ingredients but sometimes it's just not necessary.

See also: specifications in recipes for particular implements. I love Yotam Ottolenghi but I do wish he wouldn't start recipes with "Put a heavy cast-iron pan on a medium heat..." - my stainless steel pans seem to manage to boil things just as well!

I think I prefer my name. To be honest I only bought it once and can remember the name enough to ensure I never buy it again.

You’re drinking the wrong Riesling. The one you want is Riesling trocken which is the dry version and is delicious!

I keep dregs of wine lying around that are past their "delicious to drink" moment for the specific purpose of using them in cooking. I mean, if I was making a coq au vin maybe I'd buy something specific but honestly, if you just want a bit of a boozy addition, no need for the good stuff.

In fact, I use wine in my roasting tin when I roast a chicken so you have to use quite a lot more than if you were just adding some to gravy. I always bitch if I have to open a bottle of my actual wine to use if I don't have old wine lying around!

Yes, I use any old wine for cooking, even if it's days old and undrinkable. As per PPs I just consider it as vinegar by then.

I had some old sherry left from a few Christmases ago, also undrinkable, and I used it to marinate some fresh prawns for a curry - the results were excellent.

All wine is rank
Use whatever you want for cooking

With you on the Jammy Roo - it was awful!

I think some wines with an unpleasant taste are not suitable to cook with as that taste will spoil the overall flavour. If a wine is very sweet, the sauce will be sweet. Some cheap Sauvignons and Soave have a weird taste that still comes through in a sauce. On the other hand, I don't like strong, heavy reds but think they work well in a rich, hearty meal such as beef casserole.

I interpret it as ‘don’t drink with wine that somebody wouldn’t drink’. Cooking wine is meant to be awful and I’d avoid that. Personally I do often use wines I drink to cook with, as I don’t want to use a small amount of wine in a risotto and then have 700ml of wine I don’t really want to drink hanging around.

I have a permanently on the go bottle of "cooking red" and "cooking white". I decant any left over wine that's got too old into the appropriate colour bottle as and when. So there a mix of old white or old red wines. Never tasted bad in cooking!

So I definitely don't think you need a good cooking wine!

Yes I do always use wine that I’m happy to drink! But that’s because I don’t routinely drink excessively expensive wines, and most of the time I only use 150-250 ml wine in sauces/casseroles (cooking for two). I also happily use red wine stock gel pots, which are a very useful fallback!

If I were doing a dish that called for more than half a bottle I’d buy a cheaper red than we’d usually drink.

Yanbu.
I'll fling any old wine in a bolognaise and it will be delicious. Anyone who says they can taste it was made with cheap wine are talking shite.

I buy a 3l box of red and white wine for cooking. Cheapest own brand supermarket "house" wine. It's fine for cooking and keeps for ages

I have a litre of dry vermouth (not the posh stuff!) and the dregs of a cheapo bottle of red in the cupboard at all times for cooking with. I quite like a sweeter red, like the Jam Shed Shiraz, but they are vile in savoury dishes, and a bone dry white which often is too dry for a roast chicken gravy for eg. I certainly wouldn't use a nice Chablis in my dinner. Also love a Barolo and I will never be rich enough to use that in a bolognese.

I hear snobbery in the whole don't cook with wine you wouldn't drink. it sounds like a way to put down the peasants.

That said. I know it's sacrilege but I can't bear St Keith of Floyd. We shouldn't be celebrating someone who got drunk and was vile to his camera crew. See Jeremy Clarkson.

I read an interesting snippet in an Elizabeth David cookbook aeons ago, she had made a beef bourguignon type casserole and a friend who ate it and asked her for the recipe.
The friend came back a few days later complaining that she (David) hadn't given the correct recipe as her version didn't turn out nearly as well. ED insisted she had given her the full and correct recipe until she remembered she had used half a bottle of leftover wine (something very good like Côte Rotie) while the friend used a cheapo. ED concluded the richer, expensive wine made all the difference...
But I use whatever I have to hand and I've never noticed any difference, especially if it's a casserole type dish.

I always have cheapo bottles knocking around for cooking, nobody has ever complained!

But I love Jammy Red Roo, to drink and in a chilli 🍷

Absolutely. If I need wine in a dish and have no leftovers I always buy the cheapest "house" wine from the supermarket.

It wasn't Jammy Rammy Roo was it? One if the few wines I found undrinkable.
@Iwantmyoldnameback is that Jammy Red Roo or Jam She'd? I fndboth eminently drinkable

My SIL used to work for the Beeb and one of the series she worked on was Keith Floyd in Spain.
The great man would not travel with the crew and insisted on driving his Rolls-Royce to Spain, and then driving it from location to location for the entire series while being reimbursed ££££ for doing so. In addition to his very hefty fees for the programme.
She was not impressed by the man, and that's putting it mildly.

I'm not that keen on wine so I just use anything to cook with. Often you don't need a lot so I just buy those mini bottles for a few quid.

I am quite keen on wine, but we buy the mini bottles for cooking as well. Saves me using my decent stuff, and is often actually the amount that I want for eg a risotto anyway!

The wine tasting course I went on also recommended eating an olive if you don't like your white wine as the salt will change your palette of it, and eating something peppery if you don't like your red wine at a party.
I'm taking this bit of guidance to confirm my opinion that those Salt & Pepper Kettle Chips are perfect with a glass of wine. And nicer than olives.

I too used to love Keith Floyd programmes.