Cooking with Alcohol

Some say the better the wine, the better the dish, and many times that is true if the dish is wine-forward. But I say cheap wine is better than no wine at all for cooking—and in desperate drinking times too! If you are making a beef bourguignon or red wine–braised turnips, you will certainly want to use something finer than box wine. However, if you are giving a quick deglaze to a pan or need just a bit of acid, nearly any wine will do. For this reason, I like to keep a “nice” box of wine in my refrigerator at all times.