Cooking with wine

Yes and no. The truth is you should never cook with a wine that you cannot drink! IE: NEVER cook with the grocery store "cooking wine", usually a oxidized and salted product that is nasty to drink. That being said some wines are better for cooking with than others. When it asks for a sherry, look for a cheap Spanish Sherry, not a california rip off. For a dry white to cook with, I find Trebbiano from Itally to be cheap and a great complement to foods. For a dry red, I like to find a nice cheap blended red, italian chianti, or southern french wine.

 Also if you ever get a "corked" wine, or cork tainted wine, DUMP IT. Corked wine will make your food taste nasty, I've experienced this first hand.

Hey George

This is true and false, both :-)

Its a matter of your liking, realy, however, never cook with cooking wine which will turn any dish to a salty one. It also contains other additives that can affect the dish in the wrong manner. 

There are some good wines to cook with which are not that expensive.  They say also, never cook with wine you wouldn't drink and never cook with wine you want to drink :-) 

You might consider cooking with Dry Vermouths .

Take care

Elinoar

www.cuisinemiddleast.com

Cooking with expensive wine is a foolish thing to do .During the cooking process the alcohol content will have evaporated anyway.Use an inexpensive tablewine.I find the use of a Medium dry sherry very good.Put a bit in a cheese sauce and you'll know what I mean.Paul

Hard to disagree with any of the previous responses.  So I'll reinforce what is already stated and hopefully add a little more insight.

Never cook with a wine you won't drink.

In some cases, the wine is a primary ingredient.  I make a saffron cream sauce where I use chardonnay as a primary ingredient.  I have found the sauce if dramatically better when I use the good stuff!

It pains me in the wallet... but it does pay off on the palate!

I agree with the vermouth idea... try the sweet vermouth also, especially if the dish inclorporates some hot pepper... the contrast between the sweet and the hot makes for a tasty combination.

For white wine cooking, I like to use bordeaux because it is a blend primarily of sauvignon blanc and semmillion.  It provides the fruit I like to impart without the addition of any sugar or taste of oak.  as stated above I also use chardonnay.. but then I am looking for different flavors to include.

For red wine cooking, I use whatever is left over!  But the use of red wine in my cooking is far less frequent than white.  When I do go red, I usually want some sugar so I'll use port and often augment with a little brandy as well.

There are a variety of other wines to cook with and each adds their own character, as suggested, experiment with sherry as well as port, marsala and others.

I hope I added something to the already reat responses!

Please DO cook with a wine you would drink.  That's having respect for your own cooking!

Please DO NOT pour your Opus One into your stew.  That's a travesty.