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.

I took a really nice bottle of Chablis (I thought) round to a friends for Sunday lunch once and she bunged most of it in the meal... She is wonderful but both her taste and budget are clearly far superior to mine.

I used to subscribe to this. And then one day, I just.... stopped. I have never noticed a difference in the standard of the food I produce.

I am a wine drinker, and I am fairly well informed about it. I am also a very keen cook. I honestly see no reason to use anything other than cheap plonk in my bolognese, it makes absolutely no difference once it has simmered for 2 hours.

I might make an exception wine was the main ingredient and leading flavour, but this is very rarely the case, it's usually in the background.

I’m amazed there’s a wine Keith Floyd wouldn’t drink

If my memory serves me well I'm amazed that there was anything Floyd wouldn't drink, not just wine!

When we lived abroad and were fairly flush we brought back a bottle of duty free Remy Napoleon brandy for my parents, they were not big drinkers but usually kept a bottle of brandy in the sideboard. Later in the year my brother dropped in and she had just made the family's Christmas cakes, she told him that she'd used 'that bottle of brandy, to save the Martells for best'. When he took her shopping later he took her down the alcohol section and pointed out Remy, he then told her that a supermarket would probably not stock the Napoleon version as it was too expensive!
Bloody goos cakes though!

The vermouth is a Nigella tip, I do it too as we don't drink white. She suggests Marsala for red, but we do have red in the house.

Classic TV…..

You would never get a chef on TV again who would show their recipie & technique being destroyed throughout

In the above clip it cuts as he translates her description. I’m convinced that I remember him then saying she’s right

My other favourite Floyd moment is this with my mad uncle. The pair of them are made from the same mould

I don't use wine in much cooking but got a few dishes that I use marsala or Madeira for and normally have a bottle of each knocking about. Wouldn't particularly drink either of these but both fantastic in the right dishes

I use Nigella's vermouth tip too. It lasts for ages.

I always have a bottle of marsala knocking around in the cupboard too. I don't drink it but every so often I get a craving for marsala chicken.

Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa on food network) always says “use something you would drink”. And I’m always like: nonsense.

it doesn’t strike me that she is on her uppers, though!

I would just drink the Marsala!

If it's oxidised, bin it, otherwise yeah, any old plonk will do.

That said, the Jam Shed stuff is disgusting. I wouldn't even cook with it. Positively sickly stuff.

@FallopianTubeTrain I am huge fan of Keith's.
Bless him.
He cooked some gross looking food around the world whilst getting drunk and arguing with the camera man.

Every rerun of a clip is wonderful.

I'm often seduced by the descriptions on red wine bottles. They invariably taste horrible and I use them for cooking. When I do stumble across a nice red, I wouldn't want to waste it in a sauce.