Hello,

Does anyone know why when cooking with wine my sauce comes out bitter. Is it because I didn't cook long enough?

David

First, wine contains natural acids and salts that can replace added salt. Adding too much salt to food can be a problem. As we age, our taste buds begin to wear out and there is a tendency to add more salt to food.

Second, after sautéing chicken breasts or strips of beef, it is easy to pick up the entire flavour in the bottom of the pan by deglazing the pan with a little wine and turning it into a simple sauce. This is done by browning any type of meat in a sauté pan and then removing the meat and adding a dry red or white wine to the hot pan. With a wooden spoon, scrape up the bits stuck to the pan. This is the base to all kinds of sauces.

Last, wine can help slightly tenderize meat. By soaking a tough cut of meat in wine or a marinade containing wine for a few hours (the larger the cut the longer the marinating), the meat fibers will break down slightly making the meat a little more tender. Most of the alcohol dissipates as the dish simmers. This is because alcohol disappears at around 175 F. A boiling liquid would be at 212 F, but the flavour of the wine remains.

Cooking with wine and 'cooking wine' is completely different. Cooking wine from the supermarket tastes quite bad and is loaded with salt and other additives. This is done to avoid paying certain taxes that are levied on wine.

There are so many inexpensive wines that are perfect for cooking. If you enjoy drinking a particular wine, you will enjoy it in wine-cooked dishes. If you have a family member that is unable to have food with the flavour and aroma of wine, it is possible to use the following recipes with grape juice and a shot of good quality wine vinegar.

It could be a number of things as you can see.