Pantry
White wine
Also called dry white wine, cooking wine
Wine from white grapes used as a cooking liquid — the leftover-bottle splash for risotto, bifana, moules and the odd dessert such as suspiro. This is the general pantry wine, not the bone-dry bottle you reduce for a steak jus (that is dry white wine). Off-dry leftovers can pass in a mussel pot; they fight a peppery meat sauce.
Origin
Wherever grapes ferment. Wine in the pan is older than salted 'cooking wine' from the vinegar aisle, which is not worth buying.
Flavour
Acid and fruit, sometimes a little sweetness. Oaky chardonnay can taste of planks in a fish pot. A corked bottle prints that fault on the food.
How it is made
White grapes are pressed and fermented, usually off the skins. For the pan you want a drinkable table wine, not wine plus salt.
How to use it
A splash to deglaze risotto or a bifana pan; a glass to steam mussels. Boil off the raw alcohol until it smells of grape, not solvent. Suspiro can take a white that is not bone-dry — residual sugar sits under the meringue. Use a sweetish leftover here, not on steak. Sparkling water and lemon stand in for steam, not for a reduced sauce.
Storage
Fridge after opening, a few days. Freeze leftover cubes for the next deglaze. Cooking will not redeem a brown, vinegary bottle.
Recipes using it
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