Who would dare question a cooking commandment passed down from Julia Child? Hooray to Julia Moskin in the New York Times for making one pretty promising case for something we were all too embarassed to fess up to doing: cooking with cheap wine. Cream of the crap wine. “Two-buck Chuck” wine, as referenced in the story. Or my personal fallback, too-tired-to-care Yellow Tail.
In the story, she gives taste tests of several dishes cooked with prestigious, expensive wines versus cheap stuff, and the results were indiscernable in most cases, with the cheap stuff winning tasters’ favor in others. The only rule of thumb about cooking with wines in general, she warns, is to watch out for tannins. (I once cooked with a wine that was very tannic, as I recall, and my coq au vin turned out thick and somewhat sticky.) Other than that, it’s a new playing field.
My only regret, now, is that bad wines don’t keep any longer than good ones. What are you supposed to do with the rest of the bottle not used — drink it? My problem already is that I’ll buy a nice drinkable bottle of wine, drink a glass one night. Have another glass the next night. And by the third night, the wine is not at all what it’s supposed to be. That’s when I cook with it — very much aware that old wine isn’t good, and now it isn’t even as good as cooking with bad, but fresh, wine. (They should make more wines in smaller bottles.) But at least, for the time being, I’ll rejoice in one smashing point for the earnest, cost-conscious cooker. Rest in peace, Mr. Ernest Gallo — can we say “business boom”?
14 Responses
iang
does that mean you have a nice bottle of wine vinegar left on your hands afterwards? 😉
zoë jessica
Although bad cooking wine does rather diminish the joy of the traditional cook’s perk, i.e. one glass for the risotto and one for me! As Keith Floyd put it, wine isn’t meant to be kept, it’s meant to be drunk… oh well…
cathy
iang: Exactly…
mike
I’ve heard that “wine in a box” will stay good for months in the fridge. The wine is stored in a plastic bag and when you dispense some the bag contracts and no air enters the wine. Seems like a good things for those who only use a small amount of wine infrequently.
Yvo
I must be a much bigger lush than you apparently 🙂
Hoyt Pollard
My mom always used vermouth instead of white wine because it kept forever. Anybody tried this?
Deborah Dowd
I thought the rule was not to cook with wine you wouldn’t drink, and I would (and have) drink 2 buck chuck- it is my “house wine”. Bless me Julia for I have sinned…
sassy
Actually, now all of Austrialia and New Zealand are bottel-capping their wine – turns out it keeps better that way, and lucky for me as a single gal — I can have a glass a night and still share it without shame on the third night!
Turns out corkless is better for the environment — the whole world is heading that way but the Americans are the ones holding it back – they still are too snobby about associating poor wines with corkless bottles.
To a glass (or two or three) tonight…
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