Wine selection:
The first and most important rule:
Use only wines in your cooking that you would drink.
Never, never use any wine that you WOULD NOT DRINK !
If you do not like the taste of wine, you will not like the dish you choose
to use it in.
A good quality wine, that you enjoy is your best choice.
Using Wine in Cooking
Wine has three main uses in the kitchen - as a marinade ingredient, as a cooking liquid, and as a flavoring in a finished dish. The function of wine in cooking is to intensify, enhance and accent the flavor and aroma of food - not to mask the flavor of what you are cooking but to fortify it. As with any seasoning used in cooking, care should be taken in the amount of wine used - too little is inconsequential and too much will be overpowering. Neither extreme is desirable. A small quantity of wine will enhance the flavor or the dish.
The alcohol in the wine evaporates while the food is cooking, and only the flavor remains. Boiling down wine concentrates the flavor, including acidity and sweetness. Be careful not to use too much wine as the flavor could overpower your dish.
For best results, wine should not be added to a dish just before serving. The wine should simmer with the food, or sauce, to enhance the flavor of the dish. If added late in the preparation, it could impart a harsh quality. It should simmer with the food or in the sauce while it is being cooked; as the wine cooks, it reduces and becomes an extract which flavors. Wine added too late in the preparation will give a harsh quality to the dish. A wine needs time to impart its flavor in your dish. Wait 10 minutes or more to taste before added more wine.
Remember that wine does not belong in every dish. More than one wine-based sauce in a single meal can be monotonous. Use wine in cooking only when it has something to contribute to the finished dish.
Sulfites in Wine
All wines contain at least some small amount of sulfites. They are a natural result of the same fermentation process that turns grape juice into alcohol. Even wines that have not had any sulfites added during the winemaking process contain some amount of sulfites. Sulfur dioxide(SO2) is used by winemakers to keep freshly pressed must from spoiling. It keeps down the activities of native yeast and bacteria and preserves the freshness of the wine.
When cooking wine contains sulfites, you do not concentrate them as you would flavor, but rather they evaporate like alcohol. The sulfite goes through a conversion in the liquid of the wine to produce sulfur dioxide. This is actually the compound that prevents the oxidaion. It also is a gas, and when subject to heat, it disipates into the air. All that remains is some salts, but they are so minute in quantity that they have no affect on flavor.
Storage of Leftover Wine
Leftover table wine can be refrigerated and used for cooking if held for only one or two weeks. If you have at least a half a bottle of wine left over, pour it off into a clean half bottle, cork it, and store it in the refrigerator, without air space at the top, the rebottled wine will keep for a least one month.
Wine Reduction for Pan Sauces
1/2 to 3/4 cup raw wine= 2 Tablespoons of wine reduction
For ultimate flavor, wine should be reduced slowly over low heat. This method takes more time and effort, but will achieve a superior sauce because the flavor compounds present in the wine are better preserved.
Actual Comsumption of Alcohol
The amount of alcohol that remains in your dish is dependent on the manner and length of preparation. Typically, the alcohol in the wine evaporates while cooking the flavor remains. The following table of alcohol remaining after food preparation is from the Agricultural Research of the USDA (1989).
100% / Immediate Consumption
70%/ Overnight Storage
85% / Boiling liquid, remove from heat
75%/ Flamed
Dishes that have been baked or simmered:
40%/ After 15 minutes
35%/ After 30 minutes
25%/ After 1 hour
20%/ After 1.5 hours
10%/ After 2 hours
5%/ After 2.5 hours
*******STORING WINE*******
Because wide temperature swings will ruin a wine faster than you can pop a cork, it is best to store any wine that you do not intend to drink within a week or two in a temperature-controlled enviroment. Even if you don't have a cellar, there are ways to do that.
Here are a few facts about wine storage:
* Wine should be kept free from wide temperature swings.
* Wine should not be exposed to extreme heat. It is the bane of many winemakers to see their newly purchased wine being hurled into the backseat of someone's convertible, knowing that it's occupants will likely be tooling around under the summer sun for several hours.
* Wine should always be stored on it's side. When wine stands upright for a long time, there is no contact between the wine and the cork, significantly increasing the liklihood of the cork drying out and cracking, allowing air to get into the wine. Oxidized wine is compromised at best and usually undrinkable.
*The ideal temperature for wine is between 55 degrees and 65 degees F. Some may quibble with higher temperature in this range, but some wine purveyors believe a slightly higher temperature is a better way to coax a wine along. If wine is kept too cool, they say, it will stay stagnant, or progress at a much slower rate. This matter is surely up for debate, but the point is that wine definately likes relatively cool, constant temperatures.
* Do not store wine in the refrigerator for more than about a week. Just as extreme heat is a wine's enemy, so too is extreme cold. Unless your refrigerator is less than 50 degrees F. you will compromise the flavors in the wine. Also, when wine is in the refrigerator, it is subjecty to constant vibration. That type of movement is not good for wine.
* Place wine in the refrigerator about one hour before serving and sparkling wine three to for hours before serving. The thickness of the bottles used for sparkling wine is thicker and makes a longer cooling time.
* Chill a bottle quickly, fill a container, such as an ice bucket or pitcher, with ice and water and immerse the bottle for ten to fifteen minutes. Do not place wine in the freezer.
So how do you achieve optimum storage conditions? First, many people are able to create makeshift cellars by squareing off a small area of the basement and installing shelves or ready made wine racks. This will work fine, as long as the area retains a constant temperature that is below 65degreeF. does not get sunlight, and is not next to your water heater, air conditioner, or the like.
If you do not have the luxury of space, there are many small wine refrigerators on the market these days. These are helpful because they control the temperature for you. Or you may simply buy only as much wine as you have appropriate space to sote it in. It will do no good to buy a really terrific bottle of wine if you cannot keep it properly. By the time you go to drink it, you have run the risk that it has already gone bad, or at least been diminished in quality.
WHAT KIND OF WINE BUYER ARE YOU???
"Enthusiast"
"Image Seeker"
"Savvy Shopper"
"Tradionalist"
"Satisfied Sipper"
"Overwhelmed"
---------From Constellation Wines. U. S.
