I bought 8 gallons of cooking wine for the Retirement Home kitchen.
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of wine but you would be surprised at how much I use while cooking for my seniors.
To keep a cooking wine from falling into the wrong hands, it is laced with some salt and pepper to discourage drinking. The wine itself is a generic burgundy (red) and a generic sauterne (white).
I was hesitant to use it as the new chef because I had not heard of the previous cooks using any alcohol in cooking. I didn’t know if the residents were abstainers and would be offended if I used alcohol in the food. I checked with a few of the other managers at the home and learned that wine in the cooking would probably be fine.
So, I added the burgundy to the beef stew and my residents loved it.
Now I wanted to use the white cooking wine. My budget could handle this generic foodservice wine. The taste in the food was acceptable and so I wanted to experiment with a more sensitive recipe.
I tried a white wine, butter, lemon and garlic sauce for chicken. It was nice.
In the dining room, the white wine sauce was a success! We know the food tastes good when the dining room stays quiet. People are putting food into their mouths and not talking about the food. That is a good sign in our dining room.
So simple, wine added to stews and sauces is a great boost in our kitchen. I will go through the 8 gallons like it is water.
Cheers!
feedingseniors 