6 types of cooking wines

Cooking wine is a widely used type of wine that may not be particularly pleasing to drink but it sure does help to accentuate the taste and flavor of the dish to which it is added. Read on to know more about this variety of wine.

Do not be fooled by the fact that the cooking wines are low in quality and it may not be as supreme to taste as the other variety of wines. This wine is used specifically in cooking only because of this very fact as otherwise, the bold flavor of finer wine would counter against the other strong flavors of the dish. However, the subtle flavor of cooking wine does not overwhelm the other flavors of the dish.

Here are the 6 types of cooking wine you may use.

Dry red and dry white wine. This category of cooking wine can be used in any kind of flavorful food preparation that requires wine to add an element of acidity to any cream based dish.

Dry, oxidized and nutty wine. These best compliment any rich artichoke and sea food preparation, where wine flavors are required to complement the fat content of the dish.

Sweet oxidized or nutty wine. As the name suggests, this category of cooking wine works best for baked preparations or desserts that contain nuts.

Sweet fortified red wine. This category of wine, such as port wine, can be paired perfectly with any rich and decadent chocolate dessert.

Sweet white wine. This category of wine has a very versatile usage in cooking as it can be added to any sauce preparation that is used to dress light meats, such as flaky fish or some of the poultry preparations, and in some of the desserts.

Rice wine. This wine is the most popularly used cooking wine in Asian cuisine as it enriches the flavor of any dish by adding a lovely umami touch to the preparation.

There is another category of cooking wine known as sherry cooking wine that is different from sherry vinegar, as it contains added salt to it that acts as a preservative. Sherry vinegar is different from sherry cooking wine as it is made from sherry wine and a few varieties of sherry grape. It will be inappropriate to substitute either of them in any of the food preparation, or as such, as these two are distinctly flavored as one of them is rather sweet and the other one is quite acidic. A better substitute for sherry cooking wine would be a dry red or white wine.