@@scmtnchick You can also serve wine with wine ice cubes at the followin dinner party, which i think wud look prty awesome heh (and yes i know wine isnt normally iced, but all drinks taste best cold imo; and rly its only not iced to not water it down)
I would suggest little 3 oz lidded deli containers instead of the tray + ziploc method. Because of the alcohol, wine doesn't freeze as solidly as other liquids. When you then transfer the frozen wine cubes from the ice cube tray to a ziploc bag they will start to melt very quickly and it might get messy. This also happens everytime you take that ziploc full of wine cubes out of the freezer for longer than 15 seconds or so.
@@ShatteredGlass916 This is what always happens to my mom's lemon juice ice cubes. We end up just throwing them out because they eventually taste absolutely awful. They're stored in a freezer Ziploc bag inside a container so I'm not sure what more we could reasonably do.
@@fallout0624 you can always gift your old wine to unsuspecting friends or family odds are by the time they open it they will not suspect you set them up
@@Michael-bn1oiyeah, I don't know if he meant what I think, but in Italy there are really small boxes of wine that serve only to cook. Probably used in lots of other countries tho
in australia the smallest box wine you can get is 2L so if you're just using it for cooking you still usually don't go through it quick enough even with its much longer shelf life
Box wine was invented in Australia, & I'm both surprised & pleased that people in Italy are using it. It's perfect for cooking because the bladder prevents air from getting back into it, so your wine doesn't go bad if you keep it in your cupboard after opening it.
As someone who rarely drinks wine my solution is to keep a bottle of dry sherry or madeira in the pantry. They do lose flavor over time but they last a lot longer than regular wine and can serve as more than adequate substitutes in something like a pan sauce
@@SuperfanGirl86 You could definitely do that, I mainly keep sherry/madeira around for when I just need a splash of wine. So for times when opening even a small bottle isn't worth it
@SuperfanGirl86 one if you are going buy cheap wine, stick with yellow tail or barefoot not greatest wine but heads shoulders above anything that comes in a box and lot less waste. ( small bottles run about five to seven dollars each)
The only advantage I can think of that “cooking wine” potentially has is that you can buy it if you’re under the drinking age (21 in the US). I started cooking in college at 19, and I wanted to make things like beef stews and bolognese but couldn’t buy red wine at the store. Honestly though, cooking wine tastes so gross that it would have probably been better to opt instead for chicken or beef stock spiked with a small splash of balsamic or red wine vinegar.
yeah ive been a line cook since i was 17 and cooking wine simply isnt worth it. Id rather deglaze with almost anything else, mirin though was my savior for a lot of non beef dishes
You can buy it on food assistance programs in a lot of places as it doesn't ring up as alcohol. You can't drink it due to the salt, so it's safe to keep in a home with someone who's fighting alcohol addiction. Just a couple more advantages it has. I used to keep some cooking brandy around for doing flambe dishes like saganaki.
While true, theres another thing you can do as a minor who cant legally purchase alcohol, which is **entirely legal**. You can brew your own wine from sugars, yeast, and water; plus anythin else ya wanna add beyond that, but thats the most basic I had a friend who actually started homebrewin at 17 so that he cud bring alcohol to conventions to give out to ppl who cud legally consume it. And he nvr even picked up drinkin much himself, he just liked the whole process of homebrewin and loved bein able to see others enjoy the fruits, wines actually, of his labour I personally dont drink, so if i know like half a wk ahead, i rly want a cookin wine or even like a small ale for a recipe; im just gonna mix smth together from sugars, bread yeast, and water. Itll brew enuf to provide the benefits of the alcohol and i dontve to go anywhere near an alcohol section of a store Which is good as well bcuz due to my state bein transphobic; i cant currently get ID without changin my gender marker from X to smth else, which my state wont let me do without it bein in line with my gender... which it wudnt be as my gender is most well repped by X not M or F. So im in a catch 22 where i cant get ID, so i cudnt even buy a beer or wine if i wanted to; assumin they card me, which 50/50 on that id guess They didnt card me for cigs when i bought them for friends (who cud legally get them but cudnt leave where they were workin at the time) in my early 20s (when i didve ID), so i somehow doubt a decade later id get carded... But aint riskin without ID xD
Something I learned from Jack Monroe is that you can substitute strong black tea for wine in cooking. It actually works really well and doesn’t taste like tea, but adds those tannins that make food taste yummy
To help you a little more you can also use box wine. Spent a decade working in a kitchen we used boxed white wine for cooking and never refrigerated it.
Quick Google search says “wine is not preserved well when frozen and can go bad if left too long in the freezer” so that might also affect the taste if you don’t cook with wine often.
Nothing lasts forever in the freezer. The issue with wine is that it has alcohol in it, which freezes at a different temperature than the water in it. So thawing out a cube of ice won't make a great drink, but it is perfectly fine for cooking.
Too many people sleep on pomegranate molasses. Just use a little of that alongside a splash of water/stock. PS it goes great with salad and any vinaigrette (what it is mainly intended for).
@@lily824 really depends on your definition of "speciality". Where I live (Germany), there are tons of Turkish and Arab supermarkets which carry that stuff
@@lily824 Your best bet would probably be your local middle eastern market, unless there's some part of Walmart I haven't been to where they just have pomegranate molasses.
Wow that is such a unique allergy but I got to ask does it only apply to wine yeast or if other alcoholic beverages are affected like beer? Or just specifically residual wine yeast
Just a heads up, try boxed wine or goon bags as they're sometimes fondly called. They're shelf stable for about 6-8 weeks and last a bit longer in the fridge. They're very cheap, often taste pretty good, and you can still freeze whatever is leftover at the end of their life.
Not only that, but they make tiny 500ml (about 16oz) boxed wines if you don't need a lot and you don't want to have a big box taking space in your fridge.
I'm someone who downright refuses to touch anything alcoholic (and some things that aren't) so learning I could use a stock instead of a wine for deglazing is so nice to know. I can't tell you how many times I've been listening to a recipe and it calls for wine and I get frustrated
@@rachelbachel2 No see I know this. And while I do appreciate you telling me, it does NOT stop me from being paranoid, unfortunately. I've had this conversation with a few people in my lifetime. And while I do believe you, I still can't do it 😅
Yeah, I don't drink for religious reasons and people always try to convince me that the alcohol evaporates if you cook it look enough. I'm not 100% sure about that. No vodka sauce or irish stew for me lol
@@AM-yi4qb Yeah, exactly. I don't do it for religious reasons, but because my dad drank and both my parents smoked, I swore I would never in my life touch those things. I don't want even a little of it in my food. I don't want to get a taste for it. And I know well and good I would undercook something or other and end up with alcohol in my food. So I steer plenty clear 😅
Ive worked in multiple fine dining restaurants, we always use salted cooking wine, and i do too at home. Its truly fine to use as long as it isnt the main focus of a dish
Yeah, I think his issue is he's not adjusting the recipe for the salt already in the wine. Of course it's going to be gross if you add a ton of salt before adding salted wine.
note that this does NOT apply to shaoxing cooking wine/liaojiu which is used in chinese cooking! it's a rice wine which has its own distinct flavor that's an important feature of many chinese dishes.
I literally just made this comment before seeing you mention this. Worth mentioning in case anyone does a lot of Chinese cooking or wants to get started. Shaoxing wine is honestly the best, especially if sauteing or stir frying veg.
In lieu of bottled wine, I use stock, half vinegar half water (red or white wine vinegar) or boxed wine that I keep in the fridge. I buy box wines that use internal pouches that reduce the amount of oxygen that comes into contact with the wine as it's drained.
In Spain, cooking wine would usually come in a tetra-brick instead of a bottle, and is usually just simply lower quality wine. People here do not want to use their good wines for cooking, since it is common to drink a little glass with lunch or dinner, so this is a better option. It is also cheaper, so if you just want some quick booze you can drink it as such too.
This is my JSUK of the day, you can always find cheap yet good wine. Grab that white Merlot from your local grocer that's on sale. Snag that discounted Moscato from the liquor store you frequent. Wine makes a wonderful addition to almost any dish. Keep some on hand
You would not have learned anything remotely relevant or substantial when it comes to cooking an entire dish. Never covered sauces, never covered half of what cooking is and how things work lmao. The American education system might just be as big a scam as the American prison industrial industry.
When I started living on my own on a budget I found out that you can keep bottles of wine opened in the fridge for months and even after that it's usually just becoming vinegar so you can keep it even longer. Unless there's mold on it or it's doing obviously weird shit it's basically shelf stable for forever.
This was my immediate thought. I'll buy a bottle of inexpensive pinot grigio every couple of months and go through it a half cup at a time. I've never tried to drink it after the first week, and if there's a difference in cooked flavor between just opened and a month old my palate isn't sensitive enough to spot it. On top of that I've been making teriyaki sauce with the same bottle of Gekkeikan for at least two years (if you've tried making teriyaki at home and it didn't taste right it's because sake is an essential ingredient that most English recipes just leave out for some inexplicable reason)
True, I don't know why Googling it says wine only lasts for a couple days after opening I keep my cheap cardboard box in the pantry for weeks or more never noticed it going sour...
@@primeslayer6673For drinking you can definitely notice a difference in taste after a day. But for cooking it doesn't matter because you won't taste the imperfections
I don't drink, but I do occasionally like to cook with wine. I would usually end up either forcing myself to make many dinners in a row that included wine. Or I would end up throwing out a nearly full bottle of wine. It never crossed my mind that I might be able to freeze it. Thanks for the tip. I will definitely be trying this in the future.
The benefit of cooking wine isn’t the flavour. If the recipe calls for a splash of white wine for instance, it’s about a touch of acidity and the alcohol dissolving flavour compounds. Chicken stock isn’t a substitute for that.
Tomato sauces will call specifically for cooking wine because it's between a sweet red wine sauce and a tangy red wine vinegar sauce. The salt also helps when adding spices because now you don't need to add nearly as much of your own.
Brian Lagerstrom said in a video he usually uses cheap Bota Minis for wine in recipes. About as cheap as cooking wine in small enough quantities to finish before it turns. Also heard some people use sweet vermouth for cooking since they buy it for cocktails but it turns before they get a chance to use it all, so if you got it anyways you might as well use it.
I've tried sweet vermouth before, wouldn't recommend. However dry vermouth as a replacement for white wine can often be great if you want something more herbaceous.
Cantonese chef here, we often use mirin or shaoxing wine when its called for. Shaoxing wine is a type of chinese cooking wine popular in many east and southeast asian cuisines, and mirin is a type of sweetened Japanese sake that is good for nullifying strong scents.
The intention is different though. Red wine is used for the purpose of adding flavor, acidity, and moisture to many dishes, including marinades, sauces, and glazes. The acidity in wine helps tenderize meat and keep delicate ingredients moist. The alcohol in wine helps release flavor molecules and dissolve fats, allowing ingredients to reveal their unique flavors. As wine cooks, its flavor becomes more concentrated, adding savoriness or sweetness to a dish. Shaoxing wine is most often used as a meat marinade that refines and enhances flavors in the dish. It tenderizes the meat and balances the flavor to dispel any fishy, ducky, or gamey taste.
If I'm cooking I typically use Franzia. It's not super delicious wine but it's not undrinkable either. Not to mention it keeps indefinitely on the shelf.
Most denatured compounds are altered through chemical change, alcohol in the other hand is denatured by adding something to it like salt or methanol to discourage drinking
It's kinda accurate tho. You want the general flavor of wine, which cheap wine usually delivers. Cheap wine sucks in the nuances, which is why you don't buy it for drinking - but if you're boiling it with something like tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper, those nuances just don't matter at all. The good nuances of expensive wine would be mostly wasted, the bad nuances of cheap wine don't interfere.
Thank you, because I thought I was just doing something wrong or crazy whenever I used cooking wine and the recipe just didn't taste right. It's not even that much more expensive to buy the sampler bottles of bottom shelf wines to keep on hand and it doesn't go to waste, I don't love drinking it but "one for the pot, one for the chef" is an important step in cooking.
Vermouth is a great shelf stable alternative to small amounts of white wine in cooking. Its also never a terrible thing to have a versatile cocktail component kicking around either :)
this man is actually giving us pro tips for free. Freezing little wine cubes for convenience portions that are preserved is genius, this only comes about from experience and realizing "hold on..."
I can confirm this tip is a life saver. As a child, wine cubes were my favorite midday treat. My mom even left toothpicks in them to create winesicles for me and dad to enjoy while she was out with her boyfriend.
That revolting stuff in your hand ruined a dish I made in the infancy of my cooking career. Down the grinder it all went! I love your posts. They are so informative and helpful!!!
Worked with a guy who had been in the wine business 50 years. He said the better the wine you use the better the flavor you get. You can also just buy a split of a good brand of wine so it doesnt cost as much and theres just enough for cooking
It's perishable but it takes months. Taste it if you're unsure. It may taste bad but it won't get you sick(...er than any other wine). Cheap wine doesn't go as bad because it already isn't something you'd want to drink - you cook with wine to add fruitiness, florality, mild acid and alcohol (which functions different chemically than water or oil), so as long as it has those qualities you can probably use it. FYI, my wine palate is terrible.
@@hugopringle9159 I purchased a 4 pack of Pinot Grigio for cooking. Not refrigerated. Never opened one bottle. When I finally used it. I opened it. Tasted it. It was bad. That was surprising.
It's gonna be gross. Even if it's not spoiled (which it most likely is) it will have picked up the flavors of everything you've stored in that fridge. It will taste like all of your leftovers for the last year. If it's special or something like that, dump the wine and put the bottle on a shelf.
So it just turns to vinegar. Where I'm from, they sell wine vinegar, but really that's just wine that's been left out too long. Some recipes call for it though so you can keep it, just not use it as wine anymore.
@@user-Aaron- one of the most common ones (if you're into cooking Chinese cuisine at least) is shaoshing rice cooking wine. You can buy the actual wine (I'm sure it's better) but it most commonly comes with 1.5% salt and most recipes afaict assume you're using the salted version. I have looked and haven't been able to find the unsalted higher quality wine.
@@stevenjacobs2750 Huh, you're right. I've actually been looking for some shaoxing wine but didn't realize it was a "cooking" wine. Guess I'll have to look into that more too!
@@jdb101585 Definitely. Sucks that it sounds so reasonable. Question: if someone really could taste the difference, can you imagine them not choosing to upgrade of their own accord, without an expression telling them they have to?
I'm definitely going to start freezing the leftover wine from now on. I always only need a small amount, so I'll get the small cartons, but most of it still gets dumped down the drain because it goes bad. Thank you for the tip!
I cooked at a Rehab as a private chef for a while, I found that grape juice mixed with red wine vinegar is a decent substitute if you can't have alcohol in the house.
I buy packs of tiny bottles (187.5 ml, think hotel minibar) for my cooking. After opening I refrigerate it for up to a week as they also have convenient screw caps. It’s never a fancy brand, smth like Woodbridge or Sutterhome but still miles better than cooking wine. Comes out to less than $2 a bottle and throughout the week I usually use it a couple times
Great points. Box wine with a bladder is also excellent for cooking, since the remainder doesn’t get exposed to the atmosphere. The old adage, “Only cook with wine you would drink,” has been debunked.
..... Always thought that "cooking wine" means "not very tasty cheap wine", "not good enough for drinking but still nice in a dish". I learn something every day.
Love it. If you have a smart speaker, like Alexa, ask it for alternatives for ingredients you don’t have. Like, if you need buttermilk and don’t have it. Saved my butt a trip for a single item at the groceries.
I live in a state where they don't sell alcohol at the grocery store and don't always want to make a separate trip to the liquor store! Ive never used that "cooking wine" though. Blech. The freezing trick is a great tip!
Thank you for the advice! I always thought cooking wine never made the dish taste as good as with regular wine. Even if using regular wine may be more expensive, I say it's worth it if actually makes your dish taste wonderful. And an excuse to drink a little lol. Just remember to keep it out of reach from little hands
that's why I love being childless. I don't have to worry about putting everything out of reach. If there's "little hands" in my kitchen, that means either a raccoon got in or there's a little Victorian ghost child taking up residence in my kitchen. in which case I'd think they'd technically be old enough to drink
The wine really makes a difference. One time I went to a charity dinner and they were serving some type of sheep dish (don't remember what it was exactly). It was the first time I ate something cooked with wine and it was amazing, the wine added a lot of dimension to the flavor.
Damnit, your ideas are always so simple, but I’m always left feeling foolish because why tf didn’t I think to FREEZE THE WINE 😅?! Love your common sense shorts, you out here saving lives lol
you could also just use some vinegar... which is basically spoiled wine. _I feed an Apple Cider mother in separate containers with different feeds like Red Wine vs. White. Spray bottles for basting, seasoning, etc._
Or! Buy the normal wine, and whatever is left turn it into wine jelly! We had to do that one year after a holiday where a memo got missed and four people brought enough wine for everyone. We used what we could day of, but had so much left over. Rather than throw it out, we made it into jelly (the alcohol cooked out), and gave the jelly as after-holiday gifts! It tasted really nice.
Хобби
I feel like an absolute rube for not realizing I could just freeze wine for sauces.
Me too! I'm going to do this next time I have leftover wine from a dinner party
you sound like a rube using that word tbh
@@scmtnchick You can also serve wine with wine ice cubes at the followin dinner party, which i think wud look prty awesome heh (and yes i know wine isnt normally iced, but all drinks taste best cold imo; and rly its only not iced to not water it down)
Yeah, Idk why that never occurred to me either
the solution was right under our noses!
The ice cube thing is genius.
Learn somethin new everyday lol
I would suggest little 3 oz lidded deli containers instead of the tray + ziploc method.
Because of the alcohol, wine doesn't freeze as solidly as other liquids. When you then transfer the frozen wine cubes from the ice cube tray to a ziploc bag they will start to melt very quickly and it might get messy. This also happens everytime you take that ziploc full of wine cubes out of the freezer for longer than 15 seconds or so.
Just be careful for the ice to not absorbed whatever smells from inside the fridge.
@@ShatteredGlass916 This is what always happens to my mom's lemon juice ice cubes. We end up just throwing them out because they eventually taste absolutely awful. They're stored in a freezer Ziploc bag inside a container so I'm not sure what more we could reasonably do.
Same. I’ve known about freezing cubes for things like stock or demi glace but I’ve never thought about freezing things like wine
@@ShatteredGlass916p
"it's cool for x y and z... But none of that matters cause it's disgusting" is such a great take
@DogEater3211_ wine does go bad over time it's not meant to keep long in most cases otherwise special storage is required
@DogEater3211_wine that’s been opened will absolutely go bad
@DogEater3211_Vinegar means bad wine
Wine will go bad over time. especially after being opened. So just use it before then. It should keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.
@@fallout0624 you can always gift your old wine to unsuspecting friends or family odds are by the time they open it they will not suspect you set them up
Here in Italy, we have wine in cartons.
It's usually the cheapest wine you can buy and is mainly used for cooking.
Goon ❤
Boxed wine exists in most places!
@@Michael-bn1oiyeah, I don't know if he meant what I think, but in Italy there are really small boxes of wine that serve only to cook.
Probably used in lots of other countries tho
in australia the smallest box wine you can get is 2L so if you're just using it for cooking you still usually don't go through it quick enough even with its much longer shelf life
Box wine was invented in Australia, & I'm both surprised & pleased that people in Italy are using it. It's perfect for cooking because the bladder prevents air from getting back into it, so your wine doesn't go bad if you keep it in your cupboard after opening it.
As someone who rarely drinks wine my solution is to keep a bottle of dry sherry or madeira in the pantry. They do lose flavor over time but they last a lot longer than regular wine and can serve as more than adequate substitutes in something like a pan sauce
In that case would refrigerating them help retain their flavours?
@@user-Aaron- Yes, it would. Colder temperatures enable lower amount of reactions that could affect wine flavour.
Why not just buy small box wine then? They're cheap but not horrible and only cost few dollars
@@SuperfanGirl86 You could definitely do that, I mainly keep sherry/madeira around for when I just need a splash of wine. So for times when opening even a small bottle isn't worth it
@SuperfanGirl86 one if you are going buy cheap wine, stick with yellow tail or barefoot not greatest wine but heads shoulders above anything that comes in a box and lot less waste. ( small bottles run about five to seven dollars each)
The only advantage I can think of that “cooking wine” potentially has is that you can buy it if you’re under the drinking age (21 in the US). I started cooking in college at 19, and I wanted to make things like beef stews and bolognese but couldn’t buy red wine at the store.
Honestly though, cooking wine tastes so gross that it would have probably been better to opt instead for chicken or beef stock spiked with a small splash of balsamic or red wine vinegar.
yeah ive been a line cook since i was 17 and cooking wine simply isnt worth it. Id rather deglaze with almost anything else, mirin though was my savior for a lot of non beef dishes
I live in a dry area. Can't buy alcohol without a drive
You can buy it on food assistance programs in a lot of places as it doesn't ring up as alcohol. You can't drink it due to the salt, so it's safe to keep in a home with someone who's fighting alcohol addiction. Just a couple more advantages it has. I used to keep some cooking brandy around for doing flambe dishes like saganaki.
While true, theres another thing you can do as a minor who cant legally purchase alcohol, which is **entirely legal**. You can brew your own wine from sugars, yeast, and water; plus anythin else ya wanna add beyond that, but thats the most basic
I had a friend who actually started homebrewin at 17 so that he cud bring alcohol to conventions to give out to ppl who cud legally consume it. And he nvr even picked up drinkin much himself, he just liked the whole process of homebrewin and loved bein able to see others enjoy the fruits, wines actually, of his labour
I personally dont drink, so if i know like half a wk ahead, i rly want a cookin wine or even like a small ale for a recipe; im just gonna mix smth together from sugars, bread yeast, and water. Itll brew enuf to provide the benefits of the alcohol and i dontve to go anywhere near an alcohol section of a store
Which is good as well bcuz due to my state bein transphobic; i cant currently get ID without changin my gender marker from X to smth else, which my state wont let me do without it bein in line with my gender... which it wudnt be as my gender is most well repped by X not M or F. So im in a catch 22 where i cant get ID, so i cudnt even buy a beer or wine if i wanted to; assumin they card me, which 50/50 on that id guess
They didnt card me for cigs when i bought them for friends (who cud legally get them but cudnt leave where they were workin at the time) in my early 20s (when i didve ID), so i somehow doubt a decade later id get carded... But aint riskin without ID xD
@@thenewhew1136 But you can buy sugar and yeast, and make it yourself at home
Something I learned from Jack Monroe is that you can substitute strong black tea for wine in cooking. It actually works really well and doesn’t taste like tea, but adds those tannins that make food taste yummy
I appreciate the tempo of his speech.
Shaoxing cooking wine does a pretty good job of replacing white wine for many dishes and is shelf stable
That is an EXCELLENT idea.
same with mirin, which is easier to find where I live
Any replacement suggestion for red wine?
@@ZakkyB red red wine
@@ZakkyBdiluted balsamic vinegar
This confusing groceries series feels like it's turning me into a real adult 😂
To help you a little more you can also use box wine. Spent a decade working in a kitchen we used boxed white wine for cooking and never refrigerated it.
Quick Google search says “wine is not preserved well when frozen and can go bad if left too long in the freezer” so that might also affect the taste if you don’t cook with wine often.
Why don't people just drink the rest?
I like to pour it up my ass
Nothing lasts forever in the freezer. The issue with wine is that it has alcohol in it, which freezes at a different temperature than the water in it. So thawing out a cube of ice won't make a great drink, but it is perfectly fine for cooking.
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684the whole point of the video is that it's for people who don't drink wine but need it for a recipe
Too many people sleep on pomegranate molasses.
Just use a little of that alongside a splash of water/stock.
PS it goes great with salad and any vinaigrette (what it is mainly intended for).
That sounds like it's only sold online or in specialty stores.
@@lily824 really depends on your definition of "speciality". Where I live (Germany), there are tons of Turkish and Arab supermarkets which carry that stuff
@@lily824 Your best bet would probably be your local middle eastern market, unless there's some part of Walmart I haven't been to where they just have pomegranate molasses.
You can also replace wine with pomegranate juice in most recipes. (I do this because I'm seriously allergic to the residual yeast lurking in wine.)
Good that you know it is the yeast and not the sulfites
@clarehidalgo right, also I have no idea whar y'all are talking about
@@clarehidalgoright, also I have no idea whar y'all are talking about
@@clarehidalgo39,1,6h1h
Wow that is such a unique allergy but I got to ask does it only apply to wine yeast or if other alcoholic beverages are affected like beer? Or just specifically residual wine yeast
Just a heads up, try boxed wine or goon bags as they're sometimes fondly called. They're shelf stable for about 6-8 weeks and last a bit longer in the fridge. They're very cheap, often taste pretty good, and you can still freeze whatever is leftover at the end of their life.
Not only that, but they make tiny 500ml (about 16oz) boxed wines if you don't need a lot and you don't want to have a big box taking space in your fridge.
Goon bags?
Yo… y’all be gooning in bags, bro?
Hello fellow Aussie. up the goon!
*edges aggressively*
I'm someone who downright refuses to touch anything alcoholic (and some things that aren't) so learning I could use a stock instead of a wine for deglazing is so nice to know. I can't tell you how many times I've been listening to a recipe and it calls for wine and I get frustrated
The heat burns off any alcohol when cooking with wine. So it really shouldn't be a big deal
@@rachelbachel2 No see I know this. And while I do appreciate you telling me, it does NOT stop me from being paranoid, unfortunately. I've had this conversation with a few people in my lifetime. And while I do believe you, I still can't do it 😅
Yeah, I don't drink for religious reasons and people always try to convince me that the alcohol evaporates if you cook it look enough. I'm not 100% sure about that. No vodka sauce or irish stew for me lol
@@AM-yi4qb Yeah, exactly. I don't do it for religious reasons, but because my dad drank and both my parents smoked, I swore I would never in my life touch those things. I don't want even a little of it in my food. I don't want to get a taste for it. And I know well and good I would undercook something or other and end up with alcohol in my food. So I steer plenty clear 😅
@@AM-yi4qb But... it does evaporate? I'm a minor, I've had wine sauce, there's no residual alcoholic flavor there
Ive worked in multiple fine dining restaurants, we always use salted cooking wine, and i do too at home. Its truly fine to use as long as it isnt the main focus of a dish
This may be a purely Canadian thing as our sin taxes are insanely high
Yeah, I think his issue is he's not adjusting the recipe for the salt already in the wine. Of course it's going to be gross if you add a ton of salt before adding salted wine.
note that this does NOT apply to shaoxing cooking wine/liaojiu which is used in chinese cooking! it's a rice wine which has its own distinct flavor that's an important feature of many chinese dishes.
True, it is the only "cooking" wine that I use.
Who asked? 💀
@@RealRustGangstaThis is important information for people that don't know better
I literally just made this comment before seeing you mention this. Worth mentioning in case anyone does a lot of Chinese cooking or wants to get started. Shaoxing wine is honestly the best, especially if sauteing or stir frying veg.
@@Ash_Wen-li Everyone who is half a competent chef knows that.
In lieu of bottled wine, I use stock, half vinegar half water (red or white wine vinegar) or boxed wine that I keep in the fridge. I buy box wines that use internal pouches that reduce the amount of oxygen that comes into contact with the wine as it's drained.
My wife has taken to buying red wine stock; mostly because they are lower in calories. They taste Ok, but I don't get to finish off the bottle.
In Spain, cooking wine would usually come in a tetra-brick instead of a bottle, and is usually just simply lower quality wine. People here do not want to use their good wines for cooking, since it is common to drink a little glass with lunch or dinner, so this is a better option. It is also cheaper, so if you just want some quick booze you can drink it as such too.
This is my JSUK of the day, you can always find cheap yet good wine. Grab that white Merlot from your local grocer that's on sale. Snag that discounted Moscato from the liquor store you frequent. Wine makes a wonderful addition to almost any dish. Keep some on hand
We just drink the left over wine whenever my husband cooks with it! No waste here 😅
Same. I don't drink a whole lot of wine, but if I need it for a recipe, I find a $5-$7 bottle that tastes good so I won't mind polishing it off.
Honey, don't make such a large dish, there'll be no leftover wine to drink 😅
My man is teaching me all the stuff I should've learned in Home Economics, if they hadn't gotten rid of Home Ec in my public school years ago.
I had Home Ec and this was not covered.
Home Economics dgaf about our skills and or abilities lmao
@@commandercorner5575little subjects were that were relevant tbh.
@MidlifeCrisisJoe Doesn't matter. None of this was taught in Home Ec
You would not have learned anything remotely relevant or substantial when it comes to cooking an entire dish. Never covered sauces, never covered half of what cooking is and how things work lmao. The American education system might just be as big a scam as the American prison industrial industry.
I don't know why I find the way you say "tasty wine" so agreeable to the point I keep coming back to this video. I'm not even a wine drinker!
When I started living on my own on a budget I found out that you can keep bottles of wine opened in the fridge for months and even after that it's usually just becoming vinegar so you can keep it even longer. Unless there's mold on it or it's doing obviously weird shit it's basically shelf stable for forever.
This was my immediate thought. I'll buy a bottle of inexpensive pinot grigio every couple of months and go through it a half cup at a time. I've never tried to drink it after the first week, and if there's a difference in cooked flavor between just opened and a month old my palate isn't sensitive enough to spot it. On top of that I've been making teriyaki sauce with the same bottle of Gekkeikan for at least two years (if you've tried making teriyaki at home and it didn't taste right it's because sake is an essential ingredient that most English recipes just leave out for some inexplicable reason)
Box wine stays good for months and you can often get it in 500ml or 1L boxes
True, I don't know why Googling it says wine only lasts for a couple days after opening I keep my cheap cardboard box in the pantry for weeks or more never noticed it going sour...
@@primeslayer6673For drinking you can definitely notice a difference in taste after a day. But for cooking it doesn't matter because you won't taste the imperfections
@primeslayer6673 It lasts way longer. Normally, it comes with a retention valve that doesn't allow air to go inside, preventing oxidation.
I don't drink, but I do occasionally like to cook with wine. I would usually end up either forcing myself to make many dinners in a row that included wine. Or I would end up throwing out a nearly full bottle of wine. It never crossed my mind that I might be able to freeze it. Thanks for the tip. I will definitely be trying this in the future.
To prevent wastage just give it to a family member or friend instead of throwing it away.
@@Steven-hq3go ya I should probably do that.
My friend’s very Italian grandmother: “If you do notta drinka de wine, you do notta cooka de wine.”
The benefit of cooking wine isn’t the flavour. If the recipe calls for a splash of white wine for instance, it’s about a touch of acidity and the alcohol dissolving flavour compounds. Chicken stock isn’t a substitute for that.
Dang mans has the facts im going to have to try both ways now! 😂
Fruit juice works fine.
Tomato sauces will call specifically for cooking wine because it's between a sweet red wine sauce and a tangy red wine vinegar sauce. The salt also helps when adding spices because now you don't need to add nearly as much of your own.
Vinegar works fine
Would fresh squeezed lemon juice work just as well ? Or white vinegar?
Brian Lagerstrom said in a video he usually uses cheap Bota Minis for wine in recipes. About as cheap as cooking wine in small enough quantities to finish before it turns.
Also heard some people use sweet vermouth for cooking since they buy it for cocktails but it turns before they get a chance to use it all, so if you got it anyways you might as well use it.
I've tried sweet vermouth before, wouldn't recommend. However dry vermouth as a replacement for white wine can often be great if you want something more herbaceous.
I don't know why but you're giving Luigi and it greatly enhances my satisfaction from these videos.
It's giving the polite version of "Cooking wine? Wow you know what flavor enhancer we haven't tried? Therapy."
Cantonese chef here, we often use mirin or shaoxing wine when its called for.
Shaoxing wine is a type of chinese cooking wine popular in many east and southeast asian cuisines, and mirin is a type of sweetened Japanese sake that is good for nullifying strong scents.
mirin is a top shelf ingredient, so useful
The intention is different though. Red wine is used for the purpose of adding flavor, acidity, and moisture to many dishes, including marinades, sauces, and glazes. The acidity in wine helps tenderize meat and keep delicate ingredients moist. The alcohol in wine helps release flavor molecules and dissolve fats, allowing ingredients to reveal their unique flavors. As wine cooks, its flavor becomes more concentrated, adding savoriness or sweetness to a dish.
Shaoxing wine is most often used as a meat marinade that refines and enhances flavors in the dish. It tenderizes the meat and balances the flavor to dispel any fishy, ducky, or gamey taste.
Wow thanks for all the knowledge
This has quickly become one of my favorite channels on RUclips.
Love the no bs honesty!
If I'm cooking I typically use Franzia. It's not super delicious wine but it's not undrinkable either. Not to mention it keeps indefinitely on the shelf.
Idk man, I usually keep the open wine for several months in the fridge and it tastes and looks absolutely fine
Yea i was wondering too, i mean they're usually like 10% alc content so that should make it last a while
You're right, might not be amazing for drinking anymore but doesn't really matter for cooking.
I literally leave it on the counter lol
Wow, this guy constantly give tips and explanation that I actually didn't know. Straight to the point too
Omg the frozen wine-cubes is such a brilliant idea for saving money, but just brilliant idea in general.
Most denatured compounds are altered through chemical change, alcohol in the other hand is denatured by adding something to it like salt or methanol to discourage drinking
It's not so much "denatured" as "too salty and disgusting for even an alcoholic to bother drinking"
@@Gamerkat10 Exactly, but it's labeled on some products like mouthwash as "denatured alcohol/ethanol"
@@handsomelarsandhisfabulousjars When you buy denatured alcohol for cleaning/nonlab purposes, usually they add methanol to make it poisonous lol
"You put wine into food for the taste, any cheap wine goes" that's a confusing statement.
Cheap wine is miles better than cooking wine
It's kinda accurate tho. You want the general flavor of wine, which cheap wine usually delivers. Cheap wine sucks in the nuances, which is why you don't buy it for drinking - but if you're boiling it with something like tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper, those nuances just don't matter at all. The good nuances of expensive wine would be mostly wasted, the bad nuances of cheap wine don't interfere.
Thank you, because I thought I was just doing something wrong or crazy whenever I used cooking wine and the recipe just didn't taste right.
It's not even that much more expensive to buy the sampler bottles of bottom shelf wines to keep on hand and it doesn't go to waste, I don't love drinking it but "one for the pot, one for the chef" is an important step in cooking.
Vermouth is a great shelf stable alternative to small amounts of white wine in cooking. Its also never a terrible thing to have a versatile cocktail component kicking around either :)
1min, your vids clarify so much!
Cheap white wine costs like $3 a bottle, no reason to buy this garbage.
Even the smallest cheapest bottle of wine at my local supermarket is like $7
@@devanbrowne8706 haha
@@devanbrowne8706Oak Leaf at Walmart is like $2-$5 depending on size. You don’t wanna drink it, but it works wonderfully in food.
You don’t f around with dumb music or flash edits
This earn my subscription
this man is actually giving us pro tips for free. Freezing little wine cubes for convenience portions that are preserved is genius, this only comes about from experience and realizing "hold on..."
FREEZING WINE FOR COOKING? THAT'S GENIUS AND I'M UPSET I'VE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE!
I love cooking with wine! Sometimes I even put it in the food!
The ice cube idea is brilliant. I'm definitely gonna use that. 👍🏼👍🏼
Possibly the most helpful cooking tip I’ve heard in a long time!
I can confirm this tip is a life saver. As a child, wine cubes were my favorite midday treat. My mom even left toothpicks in them to create winesicles for me and dad to enjoy while she was out with her boyfriend.
I had to read that like 5 times to fully process that
All the chefs are laughing right now - using the splash of wine, then drinking the rest straight from the bottle. 😂
That revolting stuff in your hand ruined a dish I made in the infancy of my cooking career. Down the grinder it all went!
I love your posts. They are so informative and helpful!!!
Worked with a guy who had been in the wine business 50 years. He said the better the wine you use the better the flavor you get. You can also just buy a split of a good brand of wine so it doesnt cost as much and theres just enough for cooking
Quand je cuisine avec de vin il me faut un vrai vin , pas de la piquette :-)
Is wine perishable, because there's been a bottle in my fridge for like a year.
If the bottle is open, it's probably gone bad by now. If not, it should be fine, but taste it once you open it.
It's perishable but it takes months. Taste it if you're unsure. It may taste bad but it won't get you sick(...er than any other wine). Cheap wine doesn't go as bad because it already isn't something you'd want to drink - you cook with wine to add fruitiness, florality, mild acid and alcohol (which functions different chemically than water or oil), so as long as it has those qualities you can probably use it. FYI, my wine palate is terrible.
@@hugopringle9159 I purchased a 4 pack of Pinot Grigio for cooking. Not refrigerated. Never opened one bottle. When I finally used it. I opened it. Tasted it. It was bad. That was surprising.
It's gonna be gross. Even if it's not spoiled (which it most likely is) it will have picked up the flavors of everything you've stored in that fridge. It will taste like all of your leftovers for the last year.
If it's special or something like that, dump the wine and put the bottle on a shelf.
So it just turns to vinegar. Where I'm from, they sell wine vinegar, but really that's just wine that's been left out too long. Some recipes call for it though so you can keep it, just not use it as wine anymore.
"Don't cook with wine you wouldn't drink"
-Babish
This is the kind of content the Internet promised.
“The problem is its disgusting” is the best line
So is it the same thing as red wine vinegar then?
The acidity will be lower and the salinity will be higher.
@@stevenjacobs2750 Thanks, not sure I've ever heard of "cooking" wine. Guess it's worth looking into more myself then.
@@user-Aaron- one of the most common ones (if you're into cooking Chinese cuisine at least) is shaoshing rice cooking wine. You can buy the actual wine (I'm sure it's better) but it most commonly comes with 1.5% salt and most recipes afaict assume you're using the salted version. I have looked and haven't been able to find the unsalted higher quality wine.
@@stevenjacobs2750 Huh, you're right. I've actually been looking for some shaoxing wine but didn't realize it was a "cooking" wine. Guess I'll have to look into that more too!
Blud forgot ab box wine
Genuis!!! New sub! Where has this man been all my adult life?
Finally, honesty....thank you sir! ❤
DON'T COOK WITH A WINE YOU WOULDN'T DRINK
I cook with the cheapest white wine that isn't cooking wine. The food tastes great, the wine itself is inedible.
I wouldn't drink any wine. I still cook with them. It's fine.
Pretentious bullshirt.
@@jdb101585 Definitely. Sucks that it sounds so reasonable. Question: if someone really could taste the difference, can you imagine them not choosing to upgrade of their own accord, without an expression telling them they have to?
@@etymonlegomenon931 It's "status" reinforcing garbage, like the majority of organic labelling.
This is just plainly good advice. Thanks!
I'm definitely going to start freezing the leftover wine from now on. I always only need a small amount, so I'll get the small cartons, but most of it still gets dumped down the drain because it goes bad. Thank you for the tip!
I cooked at a Rehab as a private chef for a while, I found that grape juice mixed with red wine vinegar is a decent substitute if you can't have alcohol in the house.
I buy packs of tiny bottles (187.5 ml, think hotel minibar) for my cooking. After opening I refrigerate it for up to a week as they also have convenient screw caps. It’s never a fancy brand, smth like Woodbridge or Sutterhome but still miles better than cooking wine. Comes out to less than $2 a bottle and throughout the week I usually use it a couple times
wine cubes for deglazing is an AMAZING idea. actually mind blown 🤯
Great points. Box wine with a bladder is also excellent for cooking, since the remainder doesn’t get exposed to the atmosphere. The old adage, “Only cook with wine you would drink,” has been debunked.
freeze... wine...
I don't drink but I cook with wine, and you've just changed my life.
Don’t know this guy, don’t really even care but damnit he’s a man of his craft. Respect
These shorts are genius
The ice cube hack is genius
A splash of wine for the dish, and a bottle for the belly. Sounds like a good dinner.
..... Always thought that "cooking wine" means "not very tasty cheap wine", "not good enough for drinking but still nice in a dish".
I learn something every day.
In the UK you can buy mini bottles of wine (like 200ml) for a few pounds that are perfectly for cooking/deglazing
Ive never heard such a scathing review of cooking wine. Awesome.
That "even tap water" hit hard. Cooking wine in shambles rn after that
The wine moms: WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN
Thank you😮!!! Seriously!!! I love to know how to prepare dishes! I actually bought cooking wine and have not used it once!!!!
I was so scared he was about to tell me Better than Bullion was bad 😂😂😂😂😂 I was like nooooooo ! My heart was pounding
Love it. If you have a smart speaker, like Alexa, ask it for alternatives for ingredients you don’t have. Like, if you need buttermilk and don’t have it. Saved my butt a trip for a single item at the groceries.
I live in a state where they don't sell alcohol at the grocery store and don't always want to make a separate trip to the liquor store! Ive never used that "cooking wine" though. Blech. The freezing trick is a great tip!
Thank you for the advice! I always thought cooking wine never made the dish taste as good as with regular wine. Even if using regular wine may be more expensive, I say it's worth it if actually makes your dish taste wonderful. And an excuse to drink a little lol. Just remember to keep it out of reach from little hands
that's why I love being childless. I don't have to worry about putting everything out of reach. If there's "little hands" in my kitchen, that means either a raccoon got in or there's a little Victorian ghost child taking up residence in my kitchen. in which case I'd think they'd technically be old enough to drink
The wine really makes a difference. One time I went to a charity dinner and they were serving some type of sheep dish (don't remember what it was exactly). It was the first time I ate something cooked with wine and it was amazing, the wine added a lot of dimension to the flavor.
This series is amazing😊
Damnit, your ideas are always so simple, but I’m always left feeling foolish because why tf didn’t I think to FREEZE THE WINE 😅?! Love your common sense shorts, you out here saving lives lol
That's such a good tip! Thanks so much, cuz I like cooking with wine but can't tolerate actually drinking it
It is also a teachable moment for a curious child
you could also just use some vinegar... which is basically spoiled wine.
_I feed an Apple Cider mother in separate containers with different feeds like Red Wine vs. White. Spray bottles for basting, seasoning, etc._
That was a turning point in the plot
I'm really enjoying this series! American food is so strange!
These are really good tips! Thank you!
Or! Buy the normal wine, and whatever is left turn it into wine jelly! We had to do that one year after a holiday where a memo got missed and four people brought enough wine for everyone. We used what we could day of, but had so much left over. Rather than throw it out, we made it into jelly (the alcohol cooked out), and gave the jelly as after-holiday gifts! It tasted really nice.
This dude knows what's up 🙏👊
Why do I imagine a 40k space marine looking at the bottle and saying: ABOMINATION
Love ur videos and the sick ‘stache, keep em up brother
Every American needs to subscribe to this channel
Good to know! Both my wife and I hate the taste of wine so we’ve always bought “cooking wine” for dishes like chicken Marsala.