Cooking With Wine

It's time to sit down to a delicious meal with your loved one, and you really want to impress them with your knowledge of fine wine. Unfortunately, you're a little rusty on the finer points of choosing a wine to go with that meal you have just cooked or ordered. Here are a few tips to remember about wines.

When preparing food for an adult gathering, such as a dinner party or other special event, it is a good idea to think ahead to what sort of wine will really make your food taste great. Wine is the ideal beverage for a dinner party, as cocktails and other flavored drinks can overpower your food.

Start planning the type of wine you will serve with your meal from the first course - whether that is hors d' oeuvres, soup or salad. Often, this course will work well with a light white wine such as a chardonnay or a pinot grigio. Both of these wines can be served cold, and will be refreshing.

Choosing which wine to use in your recipe will largely depend on what you want the outcome of your recipe to be. If you are planning to cook off the alcohol in the dish, you might choose a different sort of wine than you would in a dessert, where the wine's alcohol content may not be altered.

For a main course, you will need to look at the type of food you are serving before you decide on which type of wine would be best for your meal. Heartier fare, such as a beef main course like steak or prime rib, would work well with a red wine such as a merlot or a shiraz, both of which are well liked.

If your main course is another red meat such as lamb or veal, red wine would also be an excellent choice. If you are serving chicken or fish, you may wish to stick with the white wine that you were serving with your first course or even turn to a different variety of white wine.

For desserts and hors d' oeuvres, other types of wines may come into play. Sparkling wines or champagnes may make an appearance at either end of the meal, as they compliment items such as the cheese plate or simple desserts like delicate pastries or cookies.

For dessert, wines that are sweeter are often the best choice. You may wish to go with a fortified wine to enhance your cake or other pastry, or a sweeter after dinner wine such as a sparkling wine like champagne can also be an option. Either of these will go well with an after dinner treat.

The correct pairing of wines with your foods can help to enhance the flavor not only of your dinner or other meal, but also of the wine you are serving. The melding of the two ingredients - wine and food - will make for a great dinner experience.

Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com

Azdak Alisimo writes about wineries and wine subjects for Wineriesforyou.com

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