I'm not big into wine, but I need some for cooking purposes

Cheap wine is fine for cooking, go to the sale rack of the liquor store. Stay away from those fucking "cooking wines" at the supermarket. Julia Child, or someone, said you should cook with a wine you want to drink. Good advice.

god damn you fuckers are so stupid how is it you function at all ???

YOU DO NOT use wine you would drink for cooking ...
YOU DO USE the cheapest OR ACTUAL cooking wine...
this imparts the flavor ..cooking wine in the bottom barrel ..meaning when you cook with it YOU bring out what flavor there is in it because you are heating it ..this is the reason it is called COOKING WINE....
and drinking wine is for DRINKING ,,,

YOU dumb fuckers need to be euthanized . do some god damned research before you open your stupid pie holes.

i'm getting mixed messages here

Cooking wine has added salt and preservatives. Just get a cheap box of franzia for $6.

here are couple of good reference pages

theydiffer.com/difference-between-cooking-wine-and-regular-wine/

winefolly.com/review/choose-cooking-wine/

seriouseats.com/2015/02/how-to-choose-red-white-wine-for-cooking.html

agree'd
cheap may also be an inappropriate term I think inexpensive is a better term ...

boxed also come with a resealable top, which is good if you don't actually drink wine but only use it for cooking

Some of the really cheap wines in the US are adulterated. I don't remember whether or not Franzia is one of them. But basically cheap stuff that's actually wine will work for cooking. If it's "wine with natural flavors" or some kind of "wine product" stay the fuck away from it.

bait

This.

Veeky Forums Pass user since November 2013.

All the anons that advised you to not cook with a wine you wouldn't drink are absolutely correct. The reason for this is because it one normally serves the either the same wine or same variety with the meal. However, since you don't drink wine, that doesn't really answer your question. So here's your answer: for red wine use Zinfandel or Bordeaux, for white wine use Sauvignon Blanc. The exception to the rule is you can substitute dry vermouth for white wine. Don't use the cheapest you can find. As the alcohol cooks off the flavors of the wine are concentrated, if tastes like shit, your meal will taste like shit. If you live in the States, shoot for the $9 - $14 range.

>Don't use the cheapest you can find. As the alcohol cooks off the flavors of the wine are concentrated, if tastes like shit, your meal will taste like shit

This right here. Any sort of nasty flavor that cheap wine might have will only be concentrated when you cook with it.

Also, beware of sweet white wines. Even if they don't taste "bad", they can easily end up being too sweet when reduced.

I got some spanish dry wine, hope that works for a marinara

This is pasta, right?

yeah, good choice on it be being dry tho. Rule of thumb (for whites at least) is that sweet wines make things a little funky.

I have a born and raised Italian cousin that told me he adds a glass of dry red wine when he's cooking his bolognese sauce and told me not to use cooking wine but regular red wine instead as long as it wasnt sweet.

I haven't tried it but I will this week probably, any suggestions? Cabernet sauvignon? Bordeaux? Merlot? I'm not really good with wines

bordeux is the region, cabernet sauvignon is the most common varietal produced there. for most intents and purposes, they mean the same thing

merlot doesn't have enough body for cooking, stick with cabernet sauvignon

>Using cooking wine

Honestly, kill yourselves.

Chefs prefer wine over cooking wine, because the wine they open don't go to waste. They either sell the wine seperately or they use it for multiple dishes or in popular dishes ...it eventually gets used up before it turns into vinegar.

If you cook for friends and family, you can use wine in the dish and serve the rest of the wine at the table ...otherwise, if you're only cooking for yourself & you dislike drinking wine then just use cooking wine.

This. Usine cooking 'wine' just marks you out as a gigapleb. No chef in their right mind, amateur or professional, would ever consider it. It's just bargain basement undrinkable shit with a boatload of preservatives.

The wine I drink is often too expensive for me to go chucking a third of the bottle into what I'm cooking. If the wine going off before you use it is an issue (though you can cook with slightly old wine anyway), then buy a drinkable, but cheap, boxed wine. A dry white and red will generally be all you need, and they'll keep for ages.

you're excluding a whole product line and limiting your cooking by that.

I also advice you to stop drinking cooking-wine, it's not ment for that purpose.

I normally use the wine I drink for cooking, as I drink so rarely I really don't care about the price. If there are other people around me, I will donate the wine to them.

If you took the alcohol out of your wine, only the flavor would remain. That is essentially what you are doing when you cook with wine. Every great cuisine across the world (Thai, Japanese, French) repeatedly tells you one thing: garbage in, garbage out. Get a wine you wouldn't mind drinking.