White Wine

Once opened, recork and refrigerate. Cooking wine degrades faster than drinking wine. For longer storage of leftover wine, freeze in ice cube trays for single-use portions.

Alcohol content typically 10-13% by volume. Most alcohol evaporates during cooking but not completely.

Use wine you'd drink—cooking concentrates flavors, so poor quality wine makes poor-tasting food

Add wine early in cooking to allow alcohol to cook off and flavors to mellow

Let wine reduce by half when deglazing to concentrate flavor and remove harsh alcohol notes

Dry wines are more versatile than sweet; avoid 'cooking wine' with added salt

Fish and seafood dishes

Chicken and turkey

Cream-based sauces and risotto

Mushrooms and vegetables

Pan deglazing for any light meat or vegetable sauté

Using sweet wine when recipe calls for dry, resulting in overly sweet dishes

Adding wine at the end of cooking, leaving harsh, boozy flavors

Buying special 'cooking wine' with added salt and preservatives instead of regular wine

Using oxidized or spoiled wine—off flavors will carry through to the dish