<p>I’m at a loss when the recipe says “a good dry white wine” or “a full-bodied red.” If it gets even more detailed (a non-oaked white? How do I find that out?), I’m even more lost.</p>
<p>My husband enjoys wine so we always have a variety of bottles in the house. Sometimes he’ll walk into the kitchen, blanch, and say, “You’re not cooking with that, are you?” Um, yes – it was open. Something that’s important to me because I have a hard time opening wine bottles without leaving bits of cork inside, and even some twist-tops are tough on these old hands.</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter that much. The difference in flavor in a cooked dish between one dry white wine and another dry white wine or between one dry red wine and another dry red wine is infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things. It’s not like sipping the wine as the flavors are intermingled with much more dominant flavors. So…</p>
<p>I just buy whatever white wine and whatever red wine is in the sale bin at the grocery and stick a bottle of each in the fridge for use in cooking until they are gone. For whites, it’s usually a chardonnay or pinot grigio. For red, it could be a cabernet, a merlot, or a pinot noir. Something from the $3 to $6 a bottle range. I never drink a glass of it. It’s literally cooking wine in the fridge.</p>
<p>I also keep a bottle of cheap dry marsala in the fridge. Just for cooking.</p>
<p>I cook with wines that cost less than $10 a bottle, usually closer to $6 a bottle. I’ve been cooking recently with Crane Lake, which is inoffensive, but definitely not great wine. In general cook with the style of cooking - so you might want an Italian chianti in your red sauce, or a German riesling with your pork roast.</p>
<p>I don’t use wine all that frequently, so I buy the single serving bottles. Not the best quality wine, but at least it is freshly opened when I use it.</p>
<p>I cook with whatever white wine I have open. I can’t drink red wine so for cooking (I use it in my sauce, chili and in the marinade I make for steak) I will buy a really inexpensive bottle of red and don’t spend more than $5. </p>
<p>I cook with whatever’s open–which is usually what my husband is drinking for his post-work glass of wine. I won’t cook with something I wouldn’t drink and enjoy. That said, I think halibut poached in Pinot Gris is sublime. </p>
<p>Since I’ll just finish the bottle that I cook with at dinner, I prefer to buy a white wine that I like to drink. Really enjoying the Menage a Trois White blend now </p>
<p>Cooking with whatever we are going to drink on the weekend works out well. 2 glasses for us to enjoy with the meal, and the rest gets used in the dish (with plenty of leftovers to reheat later). And if sometimes it means red wine with a chicken dish - so what! Like idad, I have some cranberry liqueur and dry Marsala set aside for baking and cooking, respectively. </p>
<p>Vermouth is also good for cooking. I usually splash some around under roast chicken to make a really yummy sauce. And it doesn’t go bad from sitting around open. I do sometimes also cook with the wine we are going to drink with dinner as long as too much isn’t called for! Cooking wine should be drinkable. </p>
<p>I just bought a couple of Bota Boxes to evaluate over the holiday weekend. My son cooks and has some recipes that use wine, but he does not drink. (No, this is not a “my 18 year old is going to college, where can he find friends that don’t drink since I’m sure my little snowflake has never tasted a drop” thread. He’s 24, has tried, it, can’t figure out the appeal, and is over it). He’s a poor grad student, but will spend money on good ingredients to cook with. I’m going to open the bota boxes while there is family around so we can see if the wines seem good enough to cook with. I hate to put a bad tasting ingredient into any recipe, and he hates to spend a lot of money on wine when he is going to throw the rest out, so we’re looking for something affordable and acceptable. </p>
<p>Agree on the Apothic Red, I tried it and like it, but need to try 4-5 more bottles to make sure. The Apothic white went right down the sink after about 3 sips. I foolishly bought 2 bottles of the Apothic white since the red was so good. I opened the second bottle to make sure the first wasn’t just a fluke, and poured it down the sink as well. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.</p>
<p>MomofJandL, if you like the Apothic Red, you will probably love the Apothic Dark. Might have to buy an entire case to ascertain that.</p>
<p>I generally cook with whatever the worst wine I have in the house is (and I rarely have bad wine). Basically because anything cooked in any wine seems to taste great, and I don’t want to waste the good stuff!</p>
<p>For me it depends on whether its weekday or the weekend. On a weekday I usually look for a wine that
will complement the meal well. Scualum put it well. On the weekends I, well, don’t want to waste the good wine in the menu. I usually cook with a lesser expensive wine (I use Tradre Joes version of the Bota box for my red wines) and save the better wines for drinking with the meal. If your going all out for the meal or a use a wine from the same region as the recipe or one that specifically complements the dish.Making an Italian pasta dish use chiant, risotto, a Spanish or Italian red, cassoulet, a French red. </p>
<p>For cooking, I think wine will keep indefinitely in the fridge. I use a Vac U Vin stopper (removes all the air from the bottle), but I don’t even think that’s necessary for cooking wine in the fridge. Certainly several weeks is fine.</p>
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