How to get best results cooking with red wine

Last week, we introduced you to integrating wine into your cooking with a focus on using white wine to make sauces and salad dressings. This week, we will look at how to use red wine in the kitchen.

First, we want to reiterate some keys to successfully cooking with wine.

First, don’t cook with wine you would not drink. Like any ingredient, the better the wine is, the better your food will taste. Never consider using “bad wine” to cook with. That would be like using rotten apples to make a pie.

Second, serving the same wine you use as an ingredient is a great way to provide harmony at the table.

For this lesson, we turn to two of Washington’s most wine-centric chefs. Frank Magana owns a catering business in the Yakima Valley and John Sarich has worked for Chateau Ste. Michelle for more than 30 years as ambassador and culinary director.

Magana said that while he often uses white wines to make salad dressings, he typically doesn’t use red wines. Rather, he turns to reds for marinades, sauces and gravies.

For a marinade, Magana will first consider the cut of meat.

For a flank steak, for example, he might use a higher-acid wine such as lemberger, merlot or cabernet sauvignon. He’ll add two tablespoons of fresh herbs such as rosemary. Then he’ll coarsely chop three or four cloves of garlic.

Magana might also add a splash of olive oil, though he points out that since he will be cooking the steak on high heat, he will add just a little oil to avoid flare-ups.

Sarich also suggested adding Italian parsley, Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar or sea salt to a marinade.

The length to marinade depends on the cut of meat, both chefs said.

“I will marinade for a half-hour or so,” Sarich said. “Because of the high quality of cuts these days, you don’t need to use marinades to tenderize anymore.”

Sarich said the choice of wine depends on the meat you’ll be using.

For example, because of the higher protein content of beef, he will look for a richer, deeper, more structured wine such as cabernet sauvignon or merlot.

Magana’s favorite cuts for marinades are flank, hanger and flatiron steaks.

“We’ll most likely be pairing them with a cab or syrah,” he said.

Marinating any of them for up to four hours will add ample flavor, Magana said.

To mix things up a bit, one client asked him to use Syrah as a sauce for salmon.

“It worked pretty well,” he said. “And it added a bit of color to the dish.”

For a sauce, Magana likes to make a beurre rouge, which is a butter sauce using red wine.

“I could teach you how to make it in 30 seconds,” he said with a laugh.

He will pan sear a steak using butter, then add finely chopped onions and mushrooms with red wine and perhaps a bit of stock. He will deglaze the pan with the wine, then reduce the mixture to thicken. It is poured over the steak and served with the same wine.

Magana also will make soups and gravies with red wines. He will roast bones in the oven, then cook them on the stovetop with red wine. He’ll reduce the mixture as a base for gravy or beef soup.

Magana emphasized that he will not cook with a wine he won’t drink.

“If it’s past its prime, it’s past its prime,” he said.

Typically, he will use a young wine, though a mature wine can add a bit more elegance and complexity to a reduction sauce.

Adding wine as an ingredient to your cooking can be a fun and simple way to add elegance to your next meal.

Andy Perdue and Eric Degerman are longtime wine journalists. For more information, go to www.greatnorthwestwine.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.