Sweet Marsala vs. Dry - Can I use either?

[Anna N]

I would like to make this recipe but I have dry Marsala not sweet. Will it matter much? Can I compensate with some honey? A google search shows many savory recipes using Marsala and some use sweet and some dry. Thanks for any help.

[rosebud]

I always use dry marsala for cooking anything other than a dessert. The exception was a Cook's Illustrated recipe where they INSISTED that the sweet variety worked better than the dry in a "Chicken Marsala" recipe. THEY WERE WRONG!

That recipe looks very good and wouldn't hesitate to use what you have.

[Anna N]

I always use dry marsala for cooking anything other than a dessert.  The exception was a Cook's Illustrated recipe where they INSISTED that the sweet variety worked better than the dry in a "Chicken Marsala" recipe.  THEY WERE WRONG!

That recipe looks very good and wouldn't hesitate to use what you have.

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Many thanks. My instinct told me to go ahead but with a resource like eGullet at my fingertips I knew I would soon have a response from a more experienced cook!

[Kevin72]

Yeah, I always use dry, too.

[Kim Shook]

Anna, thanks for bringing that recipe to our attention. I copied and will be making that one!

[Anna N]

Anna, thanks for bringing that recipe to our attention.  I copied and will be making that one!

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The recipe was OK. I changed it a bit though. I don't like goat cheese so used cream cheese and I am not big on thickening with cornstarch so I reduced the sauce to a few tablespoons and added a glub-glub of heavy cream. The sauce was heavenly. I doubt that sweet Marsala is really appropriate in this recipe which already calls for really sweet black Mission figs. It will go into my repertoire of very repeatable recipes. On a muggy, thundery day with the temperature really up there, this was great with a side salad and a fresh dinner roll.