[Reducing Liquids For Sauce]

Two reasons to add wine first, I think: 1) So that it's concentrated and somewhat thickened, which eventually will help you achieve the proper sauce consistency with the smallest amount of thickeners; 2) Heat that is high enough to promote reduction also creates a lot of more complex flavoring compounds, adding depth and interest to the sauce. If you added the stock at the same time, you'd expend a lot more energy to get the same effect, and the wine would be no more concentrated than the stock. Since wine is essential to the dish, you want its flavor to stand out.

Thanks for all your replies, but I'm still not convinced that adding the wine first and reducing it by itself will make a difference.

Once you add stock to the reduced wine aren't you diluting its concentration? Unless you reduce the wine to the point where it carmelizes to a certain degree I don't think that there will be a difference.

The idea of "layering" flavors is a nice one, but let's not fool ourselves--we're creating a collage, or a stew--not a painting, or a terrine.

The suggestion that the acidity of the wine reacts in a specific way with the other ingredients is more of what I am looking for--a scientific analysis of what really happens in the pot.

[Reducing Liquids For Sauce]

I'm making Beef Burgundy.

I wonder if it really makes a difference if I reduce the wine before adding the stock and simmering. I assume the end result will be the same if I add my liquids at the same time.

Would this also apply to other sauces using a combination of alcohol and stock?

[I've Got Flax]

Can anyone please enlighten me as to the use of flax as food. I've recently fielded requests for flax seed and flax oil. I've no idea what these are used for.

Thanks

[TDG: The Billion-Dollar Myth: Soy]

There's more soy fun here:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/food/foo-ne...news-soy21.html