One of my favourite pastimes is cooking, there’s something very satisfying (and therapeutic) about it. I do nearly all the cooking at home, including a lot of the traditional English dishes that I crave from time-to-time. Angela has now acquired a taste for one or two of these and sometimes even requests them….. Chicken and mushroom pie? No problem! In English cooking I will sometimes use an ale or stout when preparing meat or sauces, but usually the use of wine is reserved for ‘continental style’ dishes and sauces. After all, until recently, the UK was not considered as a serious wine producing country, which is probably the reason that it was never considered as an ingredient in traditional English cooking. However, as cooking around the world becomes more eclectic and fusions of different styles become more common, the use of wine in preparing sauces is now considered quite normal. 

I saw an article the other day entitled ‘the art of turning wine into sauce’ – a statement that could possibly offend one or two top wine producers. The thought of having their precious libation slopped into a pan and boiled might be a bit upsetting to them. Of course, I doubt very much if any chef would be using a First Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy to prepare their Coq Au Vin, but it does beg the question, will using a better or more expensive wine result in a better sauce? Well, the answer is, to a certain extent, yes.

Now I’m not suggesting for one moment that you should use a very expensive wine for cooking, but rather that, if you use a very cheap and nasty wine then you will probably be able to detect this in the finished dish. Wine, after all, is used to add flavour or perhaps a bit of acidity, so the quality, to an extent, will be reflected….. but there is a limit. Not all the flavour in a wine will survive a good boiling, so don’t waste too much money on cooking wine – just make sure that it is at least drinkable before you add it. Finally, don’t forget to boil the wine for at least a few minutes after it is added to burn off the alcohol – the alcohol will not enhance flavour and might even leave a harsh or unpleasant taste.

One of my favourite pastimes is cooking, there’s something very satisfying (and therapeutic) about it. I do nearly all the cooking at home, including a lot of the traditional English dishes that I crave from time-to-time. Angela has now acquired a taste for one or two of these and sometimes even requests them….. Chicken and mushroom pie? No problem! In English cooking I will sometimes use an ale or stout when preparing meat or sauces, but usually the use of wine is reserved for ‘continental style’ dishes and sauces. After all, until recently, the UK was not considered as a serious wine producing country, which is probably the reason that it was never considered as an ingredient in traditional English cooking. However, as cooking around the world becomes more eclectic and fusions of different styles become more common, the use of wine in preparing sauces is now considered quite normal. 

I saw an article the other day entitled ‘the art of turning wine into sauce’ – a statement that could possibly offend one or two top wine producers. The thought of having their precious libation slopped into a pan and boiled might be a bit upsetting to them. Of course, I doubt very much if any chef would be using a First Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy to prepare their Coq Au Vin, but it does beg the question, will using a better or more expensive wine result in a better sauce? Well, the answer is, to a certain extent, yes.

Now I’m not suggesting for one moment that you should use a very expensive wine for cooking, but rather that, if you use a very cheap and nasty wine then you will probably be able to detect this in the finished dish. Wine, after all, is used to add flavour or perhaps a bit of acidity, so the quality, to an extent, will be reflected….. but there is a limit. Not all the flavour in a wine will survive a good boiling, so don’t waste too much money on cooking wine – just make sure that it is at least drinkable before you add it. Finally, don’t forget to boil the wine for at least a few minutes after it is added to burn off the alcohol – the alcohol will not enhance flavour and might even leave a harsh or unpleasant taste.