Score One for Plonk
julia moskin new york times two-buck chuck
In an intriguing article in The New York Times, Julia Moskin puts to the test that often-repeated kitchen admonition "only cook with wine you’d drink"—and thoroughly debunks it.In the most startling passage, she describes how she made three versions of the classic Italian dish risotto al Barolo: one with a 2000 Barolo ($69.95), one with a 2005 dolcetto d’ Alba ($22.95), and one with a Charles Shaw cabernet sauvignon—yep, Two-Buck Chuck. You may have guessed where I’m headed with this. Indeed, the seven-person Times tasting panel deemed the Two-Buck Chuck version the best, noting that the wine’s fruit "‘stood up well to the cheese’ and made the dish rounder." Their comments on the Barolo version included "least flavorful," "sharp edges," and "sour."
But I think I’ll stick with the sort of wine I’ve always cooked with—the inexpensive ($10 range) but still decent, bottle. Why? Because at our house, what doesn’t make it into the pot goes directly into our glasses.
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I agree, I always get a low-range but decent tasting wine for cooking just because I know that if it doesn't get used up we'll be drinking it.
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Hi Lisa--yeah, totally. I think drinking a glass while cooking is part of the fun!
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Haha, nice. What a waste as well. I find more expensive wines don't do well with me anyway (the "better" someone says a wine is, the more it tastes like "the dirt the grapes grew in" apparently... which to me, means just tasting like dirt.). I've also always found it odd that I don't like cooking with wine 90% of the time but like cooking with beer when I don't drink beer, like ever. Weird. Great article
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Hi Yvonne--welcome back! Looking forward to reading about your trip. Beer's great for cooking, too! So I wonder if they'll find Milwaukee's Best is better for cooking than microbrews . . .
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a $10 bottle is about right for me. Heck, I'd probably be happy with a $3 bottle too.
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Hey Vanessa! Yep, there are so many choices out there for well under $10 . . . and some of them are pretty decent, too.
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