How-To: Use Bad Wine, Cooking with Wine

Over the summer, we bought a few bottles of wine on discount. We opened the first bottle, and decided we didn’t like it, and the remainder have sat in our wine rack since. They weren’t horrible, or corked, but with all of the good wines out there, we couldn’t be bothered to finish them off. But we couldn’t just throw them away. So they have sat there, gathering dust, waiting on a time where they might come in handy. And with the holidays, they we finally came up with a use: cooking wine.

They say you shouldn’t cook with any wine you wouldn’t drink. That means that if you can skip using Cooking Wine from the grocery store, you probably should. But who wants to waste a good bottle of wine in cooking? The Riesling we had on hand was drinkable, but was always at the bottom of the list, so it made sense to use it for some holiday cooking, for dishes that needed a bit of added liquid and that could stand a bit of acidity. I did a bit of research, and came up with a couple of recipes: Chicken and Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce, and for Thanksgiving, I made Wine Butt Turkey.

Chicken and Mushrooms in White Wine Sauce:
1 whole chicken
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 lb Mushrooms
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 large Leek, chopped
1 cup dry wine

Chop the chicken into parts, pat dry with a paper towel, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a large pot, heat the oil, then add the chicken pieces and cook until brown. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside. Add the garlic and leek and cook them until translucent. Add the mushrooms and wine, and cook until mushrooms are tender. Add the chicken back to the pot, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Wine Butt Turkey:
1 whole turkey
8 tbsp Butter, melted
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1 cup dry wine
1 tbsp Celery Salt
1 tbsp Thyme

In a clean, empty metal can (12oz soup can or similar) mix the wine, celery salt, and thyme. Stand upright in a turkey roasting pan. Set the turkey on the can, inserting the can in the cavity, making sure the turkey stands upright. Brush the exterior of the turkey with half the butter, and sprinkle with butter and salt. Place the turkey in a 350 degree oven and cook for half an hour, basting with butter as needed until the skin is beginning to brown. Place an aluminum foil tent over the turkey, and cook as directed, removing the tent and basting with butter for the last half an hour to brown the skin. Remove from the oven, and carefully pull the turkey from off the can, using the drippings in the roasting pan and can for gravy as desired.