Should the Cooking Wine Also Be the Drinking Wine?

A common kitchen rule is that the wine served with the meal should also be used in cooking. Others, on the other hand, find it a waste to use a high-quality drop as a cooking wine. In fact, arguments can be put forward for both opinions. It is therefore up to your personal discretion whether you also use the drinking wine for cooking or whether you cook a simpler wine to flavor the dish and later serve a complex and high-quality drop with the meal.

Basically, when using a cooking wine, regardless of its quality, a significant part of the aroma is lost through heating. When cooking, the volatile components evaporate first, including alcohol, water and certain volatile flavorings. Only the non-volatile substances such as sugar, proteins, acids, glycerin and tannins remain in the food after the cooking process and affect the flavor of the prepared food.

An expensive, high-quality wine should therefore never be heated for too long, otherwise its special character will be lost. If you want to be able to taste the fleeting aromas of the high-quality wine later in the dish, it should only be added shortly before the end of the cooking time. As part of a simple basic sauce, on the other hand, a rather simple cooking wine is sufficient, since the volatile aromatic substances of a sophisticated wine are lost anyway. Because such a wine can only show its strengths in the glass, it should be served with food instead.

The stronger the inherent taste of a wine is to come into its own later in the dish, the more worthwhile it is to use a high-quality wine for cooking and add it to the dish as late as possible. On the other hand, if the wine is to simmer for a long time, it is better to use a cooking wine of good to average quality. On the other hand, one should not use a faulty or stale wine.

Both red and white wines are suitable as cooking wines. While white wine goes well with light and, if necessary, dark sauces, red wine should only be used for dark sauces, as red wine in a light creamy sauce is not aesthetically pleasing.