Ideal uses of wine in cooking
THE USES OF WINE IN COOKING:
| Marinades | Both red and white wine are used as marinades for meat. One of the primary uses is for the flavour, but wines also helps to tenderizer the meat and remove offensive flavours, if there are any. |
| Sauces | Wines are used for making sauces, both for savoury items as well as desserts. Most of the stock based sauces are a mixture of stock and wine reduced to a glaze and then thickened with soft butter or various thickening agents. |
| Deglazing | This is the most versatile method employed to retain the flavour of the sauce. Deglazing is the process where the liquid, such as wine and stock, are used for dissolving the remains of the cooked food in a pan. When meat and vegetables are roasted or pan-fried, it leaves some fat and the remaining sediments, such as carbohydrates and proteins, stick to the bottom of the pan. These sediments contain most of the concentrated flavours. Wine is the best medium to deglaze. |
| Flaming | Wines and spirits are alcohol. Thus, upon igniting, these wines flare up and burn until the alcohol burned off. This principle is used for flaming various dishes to give a good visual appeal. |
| Stocks | Wines are commonly used for flavouring stocks. Apart from adding flavour, wines are also added for various other reasons, one of them being to make an acidic stock called court bouillon. |
| Flavouring | Wines are commonly added for flavouring in western food. These can be used to flavour cakes, pastry, sauces, and stocks. |
