But Can Ingredients Be TOO Good For A Successful Dish?

[Naftal]

Hello- An Encyclopedia of Chinese Food and Cooking states on page 502: "If the ordinary yellow (shaosing) wine is not readily obtainable for cooking, Japanese sake  may be used, or regular dry sherry, the kind that can be served at the table (and never cream sherry or cooking sherry, which are not good for Chinese cooking)."

 

 

Comments?

Edited October 2, 2014 by Naftal (log)

[dcarch]

dcarch and Shel_B- I confess that I am not an expert on this matter. I was curious to see if there is any sort of consensus on this issue. How do you feel about the use of "cooking wine"?

 

There is one, only one expert on this topic regarding cooking with wine, and that one expert is you. If you can make it come out tasty, I don't care what other so called expert say, "Do this. Don't do that. Red goes with this, white goes with that."

 

dcarch

[Naftal]

There is one, only one expert on this topic regarding cooking with wine, and that one expert is you. If you can make it come out tasty, I don't care what other so called expert say, "Do this. Don't do that. Red goes with this, white goes with that."

 

dcarch

Thank you so much!!!!

[janeer]

My friend makes the best dinner rolls I have ever had and she insists you have to use Crisco, not butter, or they will be ruined.

[IndyRob]

Hello- Does anyone here use "cooking wine", wine that comes with salt already in it. I have heard that it should never be used, that one should use a wine that one could drink if they so chose. This does not mean the would, it just means it was marketed for that use. This is the rule I use.

 

Cooking wine is a wine rendered undrinkable by the addition of salt.  Here in Indiana, it's the only type of wine you can buy on Sundays.  It has acquired a very bad name for two reasons.  The first is the same reason that high sodium broths or stocks (or bouillon cubes) are discouraged.  It takes a lot of seasoning (salting) decisions out of your hands.

 

The second reason is the probably valid assumption that any winemaker willing to pour copious amounts of salt into their wine so that they can sell it, is probably not a very good winemaker.

 

That said, there's no reason you couldn't (generally) adjust for the added salt.  You could also make a huge mistake by using an expensive Riesling when a dry white wine was what was intended.  Whether expensive or cheap, ingredients are not universally interchangeable.

[Shel_B]

My friend makes the best dinner rolls I have ever had and she insists you have to use Crisco, not butter, or they will be ruined.

 

I can easily ruin a batch of dinner rolls whether I use Crisco or the finest quality butter.

[pufin3]

IMO there are some 'stand-alone' foods that are best enjoyed pretty much by themselves.

For me that would be most seafood. Especially very fresh straight from the ocean steamed Dungeness crab/mussels/rock cod/small lingcod/small halibut.

Scrambled eggs.

Steamed rice.

Ribeye/strip loin steaks.

Over time I've put different Escoffier inspired sauces on the above and every time I'm thinking "Why didn't I just serve the steamed Dungeness crabs with fresh baguettes and a little fresh lemon juice and clarified butter?". On a big plastic tablecloth and hot hand towels.