Cooking With Alcohol

Although I don’t like to drink any alcoholic beverages, I certainly cook with them quite a bit. Wine, rum, liqueurs, etc. add so much depth and flavor to different dishes, both in savory and baked goods too. I believe one of the secrets of incredible flavors is using wine in your food, or adding different liquors to baking, frostings, etc. They elevate food from ordinary to SHEZAM – AMAZING!

One of the top questions that I get asked in the comments section of the blog or by e-mail is: What kind of wine do I use?

I know how overwhelming it can feel when you’re standing in an aisle stretching with hundreds of different bottles or even worse if you’re in a liquor store and don’t even know where to start looking.

Cooking With Alcohol-1-2I thought I would share my personal favorites and share tidbits of information on this very vast subject, although I’m not an expert by any means.

When you’re looking at the pictures, don’t pay attention to the name brands, because I certainly don’t and don’t always buy the same brands. Just look at the name of the wine or liquor. I also realize there are so many more choices out there, but I’m keeping it simple with just a few basics.

Before I get into more details, let’s get one thing out of the way that is another common question:

Can I omit the wine/rum/anything alcoholic in a recipe or use something else instead?

By all means, YES. You’re cooking for yourself and your family, not me, so use your own judgement. I don’t want you to go against your religious or personal convictions on something as trivial as a recipe. If, on the other hand, you just aren’t familiar with it, I would highly recommend giving it a try. You might be surprised by how delicious your food will taste with just a splash of wine and a spoonful of liqueur.

For omitting/substituting alcohol in a recipe:

Example Recipe: 1 cup chicken broth, 1/2 cup white wine. Use 1 1/2 cups chicken broth.

You may be wondering if all the alcohol cooks off during cooking. Most of it does, but not all of it. It will definitely not be enough to make you drunk, have no fear:). It’s there to flavor the dish and that’s the function that it serves.

White wine:

#1 My all time favorite wine and the one I use most often in cooking:

Sauvignon Blanc – this is a dry white wine and perfect for deglazing the skillet, adding to sauces, poaching seafood, poultry, etc. It’s crisp, bright, and very flavorful, while at the same time tastes vey clean and doesn’t overpower the rest of the dish but complements it well.

Cooking With Alcohol-1-13If I had to cook with only 1 alcoholic beverage, this is the one I would choose.

Some other white wines that I recommend:

Pino Grigio, Riesling, Chardonnay.

Red Wine:

The one I usually buy is Pinot Noir.

Cooking With Alcohol-1-15Other red wines great for cooking: Cotes du Rhone, Chianti, Burgundy.

I can’t forget Marsala wine. It is a sweeter wine and is phenomenal in desserts and the all-time famous Chicken Marsala. I buy it specifically for this dish, since it happens to me my husband’s and my Dad’s favorites:). IMG_9983 (550x367)

I would not recommend using “Cooking Wines”. They are made from a mixture of cheap wines, that is thin and weak and they have salt and food coloring added to them. Nah. You can do better than that. 

Next, I’ll talk about distilled alcoholic beverages, that I use in sauces or add to cakes, cupcakes, pastries and especially frostings.

Bourbon/Cognac/Brandy:

All of these beverages are spirits produced by distilling wines. I often add a splash to Homemade Barbecue Sauce. They add a bit of sweetness to the sauce and a really great taste.

Cooking With Alcohol-1-10Whiskey:

Whiskey is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash.

Fun fact: During the Prohibition, staunch Christian women would secretly add a bit of the “evil liquid” to frostings! It was their secret ingredient but they made sure it wasn’t written down in the family recipe book, just whispered it to the daughter that they were passing the recipe on to.

Cooking With Alcohol-1-7Vodka:

Cooking With Alcohol-1-6Vodka has a very clean flavor. One of the most well loved sauces is the Vodka Cream Sauce. In fact, Rachel Ray calls this sauce “You Won’t Be Single For Long” vodka cream sauce. It’s so delicious. I think it tastes very mild, but definitely enhances the flavor of the tomatoes.

Vodka also has another great function – in baking. In some recipes, like pie dough, or cakes, where you wanted tender and flaky results, the most important step is not to add too much water. However, that is difficult to do, because when there isn’t a lot of liquid, the dough is hard to work with. By adding vodka, you are adding more liquid, but vodka doesn’t create gluten, and as it bakes, some of the alcohol will evaporate and you will have the perfect texture – tender and flaky. Also, since vodka is very flavorless, it will not make your baked goods taste funny at all.

Rum:

Cooking With Alcohol-1-9One of my favorite easy desserts is to make Bananas Foster and serve it with a bowl of vanilla ice cream. It takes 5 minutes to make and is absolutely delicious. Another favorite recipe is the Rum Glazed Pork Tenderloin.

Liqueurs:

There are SO many different liqueurs. If you think of any kind of flavor, there is probably a liqueur with that flavor. I love adding them to cakes and frostings, since they will give so much flavor and accentuate the flavor that you want to achieve.

Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Chocolate Liqueur: This stuff is incredible. I love it. I love it. I love it. I add it to almost anything chocolate that I make. Cooking With Alcohol-1-8
  • Hazelnut/Coffee Liqueur:Cooking With Alcohol-1-11
  • Limoncello: Can I just say that limoncello smells SO good! I would wear it like perfume, if I could. It gives such a delightful lemony flavor and aroma to anything that it’s added to.Cooking With Alcohol-1-12
  • Strawberry, Peach Orange, etc.

As you can see in the pictures below, I often brush a syrup made with water, sugar and some kind of liqueur on each cake layer to give it additional flavor.

IMG_6576 (500x334)

Vanilla:

Cooking With Alcohol-1-14Many of you might be surprised by this one, but vanilla is actually alcoholic based, unless you buy the imitation vanilla. Otherwise, real vanilla extract is made by soaking vanilla seeds and vanilla beans in alcohol, usually vodka. Vanilla extract contains at least 35% alcohol. I always think it’s funny when someone asks if they can substitute vanilla for rum, cognac or liqueur, etc. because they don’t want to use alcohol:).

Where to Buy:

That depends on where you live.

In Florida, I can buy wine in all grocery stores. The rest, I buy at a liquor store. They usually have really great prices at the liquor store, usually even better than at the grocery stores, so I stock up on wine there as well.

When I lived in NY, we had to buy all alcoholic beverages in liquor stores, since they weren’t sold in regular grocery stores.

Do you use alcohol in cooking? What kind of wines and other liquors do you use?

I hope this post was helpful to you and clarified some things about cooking with alcohol. I encourage you to give it a try:).

 

19 Comments

  • Julia @Vikalinka

    I absolutely do. I use everything you mentioned. I also use port and sherry. Port adds beautiful depth of flavour and just a bit of sweetness to gravies, I discovered it by accident when I was out of red wine so I went for a splash of port. Yum! Cream Sherry (it’s clear in colour) is amazing for soaking Russian biskvit. Great post. 🙂

  • oksana

    I started using wine few years ago too. My husband loves to marinate meats for shishkabobs in wines. The chocolate liquor is amazing, found it to make your yummy chocolate cake. I have the limoncello also. One question though, I don’t know how to store wine once it’s open. I keep the chocolate one in fridge, others at room temperature. How long do they last once opened? Since they’re so expensive, I’m hoping they last a while, so I keep using it even if 6 months might have passed after opening a bottle

    • olgak7

      I add wine to kebabs when marinating too:).
      I’m glad you enjoy the chocolate liqueur; I certainly do. That flavor is amazing!
      In regards to storing the liqueur – you can store it sealed, in a cool, dry place like a pantry or the refrigerator. They do last for a long time, although I’m not sure how long exactly. You can check it to make sure it hasn’t changed color or doesn’t smell funny. Mine has never spoiled so far and I use them all the time.

  • Estera

    I’ve been using Cooking Wine and could not figure out why the taste wasn’t as good as I thought it should be. I’m not a wine expert and I figured cooking wine will do…lol

    Thanks for posting this and helping me better understand what works best when it comes to cooking. 🙂

  • Tanya

    Very helpful post, especially the second part of it about liquor, rum, whiskey and different ways to bake with alcohol. It’s amazing what little alcohol does to the flavor of a cake. I like to have sweet vine with my dinner. It makes the dish taste so much better.
    I remember one of the chefs answer a question on cooking wine “If you wouldn’t drink it – DO NOT put it in your food”. So I tried a sip of cooking Marsala vine…. Yuk! It doesn’t even compare to a vine.

  • margarita

    Im on the right track!!! 🙂 i have the chardonnay- love it in my pastas, Godiva , kahlua (who woudnt love?) , orange liquor and ofcourse the cognac!!! Now i have to get me some red wine for the dark meats! thanks for posting!

  • Natasha

    I add 1-2 tsp of Bacardi rum to blinchiki batter, it makes blinchiki taste even more amazing! Especially when I fill them with farmers cheese and bake in heavy whipping cream!

  • Dana

    I use most of the above in cooking. I also make my own coffee, chocolate, cranberry and almond liqueurs. And my own limoncello and Baileys Irish Cream. Super, super easy.

  • Linda Corsetti

    What a helpful post!
    I am familiar with the wines and alcohols you wrote about and I thought you were 100% spot on.

  • Tania

    I love using white wine when making Chicken French. It really adds a nice flavor to the lemon butter sauce.
    Thanks for this excellent post!

  • Anna

    Thank you for this post!!! It really helps in picking the right wine when you don’t know much about alcohol 🙂

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