How cheap of a wine can I use for cooking?

I need one cup of red wine for a recipe (Braised Short Ribs with Mustard Sauce). But due to a wine logistical situation*, I was wondering how cheap can I go without sacrificing the braised short ribs? Can I get one of those small Inglenook bottles (gasp!) and hope for the best? At one cup, I can't see that much of an issue, but then again....

Thanks - Dave


* I bought a bottle of Mumm sparkling wine and coincidentally, a few days later I received a Wine Spectator newsletter that listed the Mumm as Wine of the week and included the Braised Short Ribs recipe as a good food paring with the Mumm. So on Sunday, I'm making the ribs and enjoying the Mumm (I like saying "Mumm"). So, to get the red wine for the recipe, I could open a bottle on Sunday but I won't be able to drink the rest until Tuesday night (Sunday and Monday are Mumm nights). if I open a bottle of red tonight, I can drink some but won't get to the rest until Tuesday since I'm going out to eat on Saturday - four days is way to long and I'm also wondering if the wine will be "stale" by Sunday.

OK, not sure I follow all of your timetable, so some of this is possibly not appropriate, but I generally think:

1) in recipes where the wine is not central (i.e. not a reduction sauce, or something like coq au vin or beef in barolo) as long as the wine is clean it's probably fine.

2) that said, rather than buy something like the Almaden, why not open something tonight you'd like to drink. Refrigeration, and especially reduction of oxygen (rebottling in smaller format, adding marbles, etc) can prolong life. Certainly fine for cooking Sunday, and I'd bet ok for drinking Tues.

3) if you do buy the Almaden, save the little 187 bottle, they can come in handy (see #2). But that's slightly less than a cup.

4) You can also freeze wine for cooking. Open tonight, freeze a cup for Sunday, and freeze any remainder for future needs.

if you buy the Inglenook you can be sure it'll already be stale, so it won't matter how many nights pass before you finish it!

There are some good wines in the 187s for cooking. We usually keep four packs in the pantry for the very reason. Having said that for most cooking when wine is not a major ingredient we keep a bottle of Tawny Port handy.

what I don't understand is a braised short rib recipe that only calls for one cup of wine. I usually use a whole bottle. In the same vein as what Dale said, I would consider how much of the total braise liquid is wine and what you plan to do with it afterwards. If the wine is only a fraction and/or you are not going to use it as a sauce than as Dale notes any clean wine should be fine. However, if the liquid is predominately wine and you are going to use it I would look towards something a little better. I try to avoid wines with obvious tannin or excessive oakiness as I never know how they will react. I won't use anything that I would not drink. I have used Castle Rock PN with great results and is my go to wine for short ribs but the 2005 Vale Do Bomfim has worked very well also at half the cost of the Castle Rock. The Cameron Hughes tannat that I opened earlier this week would have been great also and was priced at $10.

If you don't desire Something Wonderful on Sunday, open a bottle of your favorite $10 - $15 red and put the leftover in the refrigerator. (One may hope that there will be a cup left - it might be best to put the cup aside before dinner. ) It'll be fine with the short ribs and garlic and onion and bay leaf and mustard and pepper and whatever else is in the recipe.

John, who usually uses Coffaro Zin in such situations

Thanks for the information. I have a bottle of Concannon Merlot that I bought awhile back for cooking (I think I paid under $10). I haven't heard of the freezing trick but I'll give it a try! And what is the marble technique?!

Here is the recipe: http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/44120

…….. marble technique?!

A technique used to reduce the “head-space”.

Salute

Many people say that if you would not drink the wine then it is not good enough for cooking with. Would you put the Inglenook in your glass to drink?

Many people say that if you would not drink the wine then it is not good enough for cooking with. Would you put the Inglenook in your glass to drink?

I have heard this before. As mentioned above, I made the ribs with the Concannon Merlot. I also ended up drinking the Merlot with the short-ribs and will save the Mumm for later. I couldn't get past short-ribs with sparking wine - seemed like an odd paring. The ribs turns out great! But the Cancannon was just average.

Dave

Next time try the sparkler!
A meal that I remember well was in a village near Reims, where the group I was with had a main course of venison cutlets, served with a vintage Champagne.

John

I take two approaches. 1) I always have some bottles of Chas Shaw around for cooking and used to use Yellow Tail until it got more expensive. IMO Chas Shaw wines are better than Yellow Tail. I think these big fruit driven wines work much better than the more expensive wines we may drink during dinner. 2) We freeze red wines and if only needing a cup or so this is always available.

I would not use an poor undrinkable wine but do not subscribe to the idea that you should only use the wines you would drink when cooking. I think bigger wines better suit cooking and that is not the type of wines we drink with dinner.

Walt