Leftover wine? Now we are cooking | vintage

I I love cooking with wine – and sometimes I even put it in food! So the saying goes, whenever I see it on a birthday card, a driftwood wall hanging, or an alien ship, I can’t help but make a mental note that I agree.

However, I haven’t always seen the point in cooking with wine, especially cooking wine. Apparently, the general rule is to never cook with any wine you wouldn’t drink, so I’m told, because I used to treat wine as a descaler just for those delicious burnt bits at the bottom of the pan. No longer will I be pouring wine, I’ll soon be putting nail polish in casseroles and stews (another reason I’m not a home cook, I suppose).

What does wine add to a dish besides its practical use in clearing the glass? I’ve asked some food experts how best to use this substance in cooking, and it turns out it’s an excellent way to use up leftover wine that would otherwise turn into vinegar.

First, what you start with is crucial. The wine shouldn’t be faulty in any way, not least because while you can burn off the alcohol, you won’t be able to root out any other sins, unless you want the unmistakable scent of corked wine permeating your meal. Yes.

The basic principles of which wine to use mirror those of general food pairing: red wine with red meat and white with white meat and fish. Beaujolais for a beef dish, and Sauvignon for a chicken pot pie. But you can take things a step further and incorporate wine into the ingredients themselves. Jikoni chef patron and Guardian columnist Ravinder Bhogal uses it to make compound butter. “I never waste my dregs,” she says. “I like to reduce a large glass of leftover wine with chopped shallots by about two-thirds, then fold it in 250g of softened butter, which I then wrap in a piece of greaseproof paper and keep in the fridge.” Why stick to the whims of wine on the refrigerator door? You can also store it in the freezer: simply pour it into ice cube trays and use within a couple of months.

“I like to boil fruit with wine to use in desserts,” says Adrian Ramirez, the company’s head of pastry. Phoenix In North London. “It works best with delicate fruit, and the wine you use really matters. Red wine pairs well with figs, rosé with stone fruit, and white with pear. Poach it over low heat so you can reserve some of that wine in the dessert.”

This is definitely a cut above plain water and sugar. I especially like using the Pedro Ximenez for pear fishing. Sometimes I put it in food.

Four types of wine to put in your cooking

The Long Way Viognier £18.50 Tesco 13.5%. It adds roundness to the fruit to casseroles. Pour yourself a big cup while you cook.

Atlantic Bordeaux Rose Wine £8 from Sainsbury’s, 12%. Rosé is a lower-rated wine for cooking—try it with salmon or peaches.

Silk blend and red Portuguese spices £12 Waitrose, 13.5%. Pour into ragu to add spicy, luxurious depth.

Diatomologist Pedro Ximenez £19.50 Diatomist, 15%. Get poached pears in this coffee-scented sherry that will keep in the fridge for two weeks.