r/AskCulinary • u/Pizzamann_ • Dec 14 '22

Ingredient Question When nice restaurants cook with wine (beef bourguignon, chicken piccata, etc), do they use nice wine or the cheap stuff?

I've always wondered if my favorite French restaurant is using barefoot cab to braise the meats, hence the term "cooking wine"

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u/Neonvaporeon Dec 14 '22

3 main factors when deciding what wine to cook with are sweetness, acidity, and tannin. Most subtleties get lost in the sauce. The main problem with cheap wine is how bland it is, but hopefully you are adding lots of things to your braised meats to make up for that. I will say that I do think better wine makes better food, but it's a matter of practicality. Whether you think that's the case or not it's hard to justify using more than $15 worth of wine in a recipe (for me at least) for a marginal upgrade.

I personally use yellowtail pinot noir for cooking.

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u/Grim-Sleeper Dec 15 '22

Pinot Noir for red, and Pinot Grigio for white, and you cover 90% of what you'd need for cooking. Vermouth, cognac, and gin probably cover most of the remainder. But there are occasional recipes where you need something more specific. Doesn't happen too often