What dishes can red wine be used for

People usually drink red wine mainly to adjust the mood and create a romantic and elegant atmosphere. But in fact, in addition to being a drink, red wine can also be used in cooking. Cooking with red wine can adjust the taste of the dishes, making them taste more fragrant and the flavor very unique, but you should pay attention to the amount of red wine used in this process, otherwise the dishes will be astringent. So, what dishes can be cooked with red wine?

Generally speaking, the main components of wine are water, sugar, acid, alcohol, tannin, pigments and various polyphenols. Different wines contain different contents of various ingredients. For example, dry wine contains less sugar or even no sugar; the tannin and pigment content in white wine is lower than that in red wine.

When we use wine to cook, these components will change when the wine is heated, and finally turn into a viscous juice. Since alcohol has a low boiling point, the first thing to evaporate in the wine is the alcohol, and the remaining juice mainly consists of water, sugar (if it is a sweet wine), acid and various flavor substances in the wine.

Simply put, in this process, the alcohol is removed from the wine, while the acidity and aroma are retained. In this way, if you pour a lot of wine into the dish like I did, without adding an appropriate amount of sugar to neutralize the acidity, then the dish may smell delicious but taste very sour. And if the quality of the wine used is not that good, the taste of the dishes may not be satisfactory.

Every failure makes you wiser. The editor also learned that in cooking, wine is generally used to marinate meat or make sauces. Marinating chicken or steak in wine can make it more flavorful and give it a winey aroma. When using wine to make sauces, it is better to use sweet fortified wine or wine with lower tannins and acidity. The amount of wine added should also be strictly controlled. It is not advisable to pour half a bottle of red wine just for the sake of the wine aroma, as I did.