How to replace wine in a recipe?

The question in the title is one of the most common. If you drink wine regularly, you simply do not have such a problem – you either take the opened bottle out of the refrigerator, or open a new one, so that you can then serve the wine along with the dish you have prepared. But what if not? You can go to the store, but there is a dangerous pitfall here: if you are not very good at wine, it is tempting to take something simpler and not spend a lot of money. But with this approach, the risk of spoiling the whole dish with wine selected on the principle of cheapness is very high.

So let’s talk about how you can replace wine in almost any recipe. Fortunately, there is an answer to this question, and more than one.

Replacing wine – basic principles

The first and main principle is that we will hardly be able to find a completely equivalent replacement for wine: two identical dishes, one of which was prepared with wine, and the other with its substitute, will have different tastes. This difference will depend on several factors: First, how important the wine is in the recipe. For example, recipes like rooster in wine, where this drink serves as the foundation of the whole dish, is quite difficult to adapt, even if you do not strive to repeat the taste as close as possible to the original. On the other hand, take a recipe for risotto with pumpkin, where a glass of wine is important, but still not the main ingredient: it is much easier to replace wine here.

Secondly, what kind of wine you are trying to replace. Red wine is more difficult to replace than white wine: in addition to acting as a food coloring, it contains tannins – tannins that give wine tartness. It is even more difficult to replace fortified wines such as port, Marsala or Madeira due to their complex, complex aromas. … It is almost impossible to replace champagne where sparkling is a necessary ingredient in a dish. The easiest way is to replace dry white wine, so let’s talk about it first. Finally, the third factor is those flavoring and other aspects that we strive to add to the dish with the help of wine. The main such aspects are:

• Acidity… Sour tones are inherent in all dry wines, and when boiled, they appear more accentuated.
• Sweetness… Residual sugars are present even in dry wines, in addition, depending on the grape variety and style of wine, its sweetness can be more or less pronounced. As in the previous case, when the wine is boiled, the sugar concentration increases and the sweetness is stronger.
• Fruitiness… Fruity notes are an important part of the taste of wine, especially white wine, and, like other flavor nuances, they increase as the liquid evaporates.
• Body… Sometimes we need not so much aromas as the very fact of having a certain volume of liquid with a pronounced taste – for example, for sauces. In this case, changing the wine is relatively easy.

Contrary to popular belief, alcohol in wine, when used as a culinary ingredient, is not decisive, since it almost completely evaporates during cooking. The exception is recipes where the wine is not heat-treated – for example, some types of jellies, recipes for wine-based marinades, etc. How successful you can replace wine in a recipe depends on your understanding of the reasons why it was in it at all. Work through this question before you start cooking so that your improvisation is thoughtful and verified.

How to replace wine

Let’s go directly to the practical part of our article. Here I give examples of ingredients that can replace wine, but I emphasize: any substitution will be unequal. If you do not want to spoil the dish, the choice should be made not according to the principle of being in the house, but according to how successfully it is able to fulfill the function of wine in this particular recipe. If you do not understand how to evaluate it, re-read the previous chapter. Using any of these substitutions, you can add a small amount of: – wine vinegar, if the acidity of the substitution does not match the acidity of the wine;

– sugar to compensate for the sweetness of the wine and partly its fruitiness;

Cider

Apple or pear cider is one of the most obvious substitutes for wine in any recipe. With a similar flavor profile, cider can successfully fulfill most of the functions of a wine, as evidenced by the large number of cider recipes similar to “wine” recipes. An example of one such recipe is mussels, which can be cooked with equal success in both cider and white wine.

Fruit and berry wines

One of the reasons why grape wine has won fame much more than all other fruit and berry wines combined, is that only in it the taste of grapes as such is completely transformed, turning into the taste of wine. All other wines, to one degree or another, have a recognizable taste of the original fruit or berries. Nevertheless, in some recipes you can easily replace grape wines with fruit and berry wines, and, depending on the raw materials used, they can replace both white wine and red.

fruit juices

Moving on to non-alcoholic substitutions. Fruit juices – most notably white and red grape juices – are the most obvious of these substitutions. To balance out their excess sweetness, you can add a little wine vinegar or dilute them with water. It is a suitable substitute both for recipes where wine is used in small quantities, and, with some reservations, for individual recipes where it plays a major role.

Kombucha

Kombucha, which is a drink made from kombucha, can be a great substitute for wine. This unexpected truth I learned from Rene Redzepi’s book on fermentation, and had the pleasure of convincing himself of his correctness. A light kombucha made with green tea, white tea, or some herbal teas and aged to the optimum acidity / sweetness ratio can be just as good a substitute for wine as cider.

Broth

If in wine the body is most important to us – say, other ingredients are boiled or stewed in it, or a sauce is prepared on its basis – you can use broth instead. Vegetable and chicken broths are universal varieties – they can be used for any dishes, both vegetable and meat or even fish. In addition, for meat dishes you can cook white or red beef broth, for fish dishes – fish broth, for seafood dishes – broth from shrimp heads and shells. Do not forget about the acid-sugar balance by adding the right amount of vinegar and sugar.

Water

Water is not the best substitute for wine, which is used when broth is not available. By adding wine vinegar and sugar, you can at least replicate the flavor profile of the wine, and for a richer taste, you can quickly boil water with herbs and spices. Use water as a substitute for wine in cases where wine is present in the recipe, but does not play a decisive role in it. In conclusion, I will add that this list of possible substitutes for wine, of course, does not end there.

For example, you can deliberately use liquids that taste as different from wine as possible, such as coconut milk, to create dishes that differ from the original, but still retain its idea. Another example is water from tomatoes: by removing the seeds and chopping the pulp of several tomatoes for the sauce, you can collect a glass of such water that can be used instead of wine when making the sauce. However, I suggest you find replacements of this kind yourself, and if you already have have a good idea – share it in the comments!