What is the best type of red wine and white wine to use in cooking ?

Recipes usually just say red or white wine without specifying type. You can specify labels if you wish. I am thinking mainly of stews and similar.


Please dont tell me to use " cooking " wine !|||from the point of "red" or "white" it becomes largely a point of opinion. Never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink. It also can vary depending on the type of dish you are using it in. For many dishes with beef, the fuller bodied wines go well. cabernet or bordeaux, that kind of thing. with something like a pork or turkey dish, a full bodied white, like chardonnay, goes pretty well. for chicken or fish, especially with a rich sauce, it may be good to go with a lighter bodied wine to keep the flavor simple.


you would need to take into account the sweetness of the wine and how that would fit into your dish as well. If you are cooking a spicy dish and don't want to detract from the heat of the spices, a dry wine may work better, whereas if you don't mind loosing a bit of the heat while rounding out the flavor, a sweeter wine will do you well.


Your best bet really is to go by what directives you are given in the recipe (like you said, usually "red" or "white"), then use your own sense about where to go from there, and do a bit of experimenting with any recipes you like a great deal, so you can figure out exactly the best one for your taste. if I have more than one wine on hand to use, i have before used a method of tasting the food I am planning to add the wine to, and take in the bouquet of the wine while the food is in my mouth- it gives you a bit of an idea how the flavors will blend. I usually find that I much prefer one over the other and that is the one I use.


If you have favorite wines, those are the ones I'd start with.


Hope these few suggestions help!


Good luck.|||Always use a wine you would choose to drink.|||Any wine that you would drink is suitable for cooking.....cooking wine has and is loaded with too much salt....Any brand is ok for cooking.|||You're right... Cooking wines should never be used. For top-end wine dinners I always match the wine I cook with to the wine the food it's served with. I use whatever is cheapest and/or leftover. Chardonnay works the best with chicken, as it's not too overpowering. Stay away from sour or sweet wines like young pinot grigios or rieslings or gewurztraminers. I use a $5 chardonnay for cooking at home. Cooking entirely changes the characteristic of the wine, and with a WHITE wine there is such subtle flavor I don't think anyone could guess the vintage from the flavor in your dish. It's a little different when making a port reduction or beef burgonione with specific red wines.|||I usually use wine with less characters when I cook. I use red wine with low acidity and tannin. I use dry white wine. The reason is because I can always add acidity or sweetness with vinegar and onion (or paprika, sugar, honey whatever suitable). Avoid anything with heavy oak bouquet. Spanish reserva, for instance. Too much vanilla flavor, they have. Nice to drink, but not for cooking.





Since you are cooking, you do not want to spend a lot on wine. I recommend you to use cheap zinfandel (NOT white zin) for red and sauvignon blanc for white. Zinfandel has body which you usually want when you use red wine, and sauvignon blanc is very dry and crispy.





Some recipes traditionally call for particular wine. For example, boeuf bourguignon calls for pinot noir from Bourgogne. But I usually do not bother. I rather use cheap zinfandel and drink nice pinot noir with the dish. (Good) Pinot noir is expensive, you see. Using zinfandel for bourf Bourguignon is ok; in fact, it may be better.|||REd wine go with a good merlot....white I like Chardonay





Personal chef 2 years