Cooking with wine is an excellent way to elevate your dishes with acidity and complex flavours. The concept of cooking with wine has been around for centuries, since the dawn of winemaking itself, which can be traced back to the ancient winemakers of Armenia in around 4100 BCE. Today, wine is considered a staple ingredient, with culinary uses that transcend casual drinking.
While many cooking enthusiasts are familiar with adding a healthy glug of Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir to sauces, marinades, stews and glazes as a rich, flavourful ingredient, white wine can achieve surprisingly different results. White wine is much less tannic than red, making it ideal for adding a light, bright and crisp acidity to any dish. Read on to find out the best methods of cooking with white wine.
In cooking, deglazing is the act of adding liquid to a hot pan that has previously been used to sauté meat, fish or vegetables - this loosens and dissolves the caramelised food particles stuck to the bottom of the pan, releasing a flavour base for soups, stews, sauces and gravies. While you can use any cooking liquid for deglazing, such as broth or stock, white wine adds a bright, acidic depth of flavour, ideal for tangy sauces with lemon, capers and herbs. Light-bodied, dry white wines are the go-to varieties for deglazing due to their higher acidity levels.
White wine sauce is an excellent addition to poultry, fish and vegetable dishes, typically consisting of cream, parsley and dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio. The beauty of this sauce is its versatility. With the addition of a few carefully selected ingredients, you can make this sauce suitable for a wide range of dishes. For instance, you could add parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes for a light, velvety pasta sauce ideal for linguine or fettuccine. Alternatively, you could flavour it with Dijon mustard and freshly chopped dill as an excellent accompaniment to pork medallions.
White wine is one of risotto’s signature ingredients. If you can master the techniques needed to cook a classic Risotto alla Milanese, you can start experimenting with different flavour combinations. For instance, you could make a delicious seafood risotto with langoustines or king prawns or keep it veggie with a selection of earthy wild mushrooms. Either way, ensure you choose a good quality crisp, dry white wine, the bright acidity of which is crucial for balancing the inherent richness of this traditional Italian dish.
White wine and seafood go hand in hand. Much like seafood’s other best friend - lemon, the acidity of dry white wine cuts through the rich, buttery texture of seafood perfectly. You could either combine a good-quality white wine with butter, garlic and cream and drizzle it on baked sea bass fillets or whip up a mouthwatering Moules marinière with fresh mussels from your local fish market. Opt for wine varieties such as Pinot Grigio and Muscadet, renowned for their citrusy notes of lemon and lime, making them ideal for seafood.
Sweeter white wine such as Gewürztraminer, Riesling and Sauternes is often avoided for cooking purposes. However, specific recipes - even savoury ones - specifically call for sweet white wine; for example, this recipe for chicken with sweet white wine and garlic. You can also use sweet wine as an ingredient in dessert recipes, as a way to add moisture and sweetness to cakes, trifles, souffles and more.
As a general rule, when pairing wine with food, matching flavour profiles and intensity levels is an almost guaranteed method for success. You can also pair wines with dishes to balance flavours and textures; for example, bitter wines that are notably high in tannins generally pair well with fatty meals and rich, creamy sauces. In terms of white wine, light, summery dishes, including salads, shellfish, poultry and fish, pair tremendously well with a chilled bottle of Chardonnay from the Piedmont region in Italy. The acidity of white wine also makes it an excellent accompaniment for mild, soft, surface-ripened cheeses such as Creamy Camembert or Brie. More pungent and robust cheeses are better paired with red wines, although this is predominantly a matter of taste and preference.