White Wine Makes These 27 Recipes Shine (2025)

FAQs

What does white wine add to a recipe? ›

Using wine in place of some or all of the vinegar in classic beurre blanc and Béarnaise sauces will make them less acidic and more complex. Wine also adds depth to and cuts the richness of cream-based sauces. You might even want to try whisking a little white wine into your scrambled eggs or omelet before cooking.

There are a myriad of great choices but we tend to favor pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc. These lighter-style wines will bring out the flavor of your dish without overwhelming it. Avoid robust and oaky white wines like chardonnay. Once the food is cooked, the oak-influence may cause your dish to taste bitter.

Wine's acidity also helps more delicate ingredients stay tender and moist in quicker-cooking recipes, such as poached vegetables or steamed fish. As wine cooks, its flavor becomes concentrated, so it also lends savoriness or sweetness to a dish. Generally, dry red and white wines are recommended for savory dishes.

If you're looking to boost heart strength, a glass of white wine may be able to do just that. The antioxidants in white wine can help protect your heart and lungs, maintain blood sugar, prevent aging, fight off colds and improve brain function.

Bright, dry, and buttery white wines are an ideal match for plenty of dishes, but cooking with white wine can be even better. Delicious pastas, seafood dishes, and plenty of chicken recipes are made even more flavorful when you add white wine.

White sauce with wine for pasta

Pasta with cream sauce begs for white wine. If you are making a cream sauce or a dish with poultry, seafood, pork, or veal, and you want to play it safe, try a crisp, dry white wine such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris (Pinot Grigio), Pinot Blanc, or Sémillon.

My three favorite grape varietals for cooking are Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and unoaked Chardonnay. Pinot Grigio is the most neutral of the three, which makes it the most versatile. Sauvignon Blanc provides racy acidity, which is particularly delicious in seafood dishes or with sauces utilizing heavy cream.

A good substitute for a cup of white wine is a cup of broth or vegetable stock, with a splash of vinegar or lemon juice for acidity. The general rule is to add one tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of broth used. For recipes requiring ¼ cup of white wine or less, it's generally safe to omit the wine altogether.

Another good option, white wine vinegar is good as a replacement for dry white wine. It is much more acidic than white wine though so it should be diluted with water or stock. Use a ratio of 50% white wine vinegar to 50% water or stock. You will get flavour from stock but it lacks the acidity of white wine.

Can you use old white wine for cooking? ›

The truth is that you can use old wine for cooking a variety of dishes. Whether you use red or white wine doesn't matter. You can cook with wine for up to two months or longer after the bottle has been opened. Even if the wine you use for cooking is unfit for drinking.

Drinking wine every night can lead to weight gain, decreased immune function, and mental health issues [1]. Additionally, having more than a few drinks daily can affect liver health, resulting in liver damage or liver disease [2].

If you can't live without white wine, consider a Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, or Viognier, as they are among the healthiest white wines with just under two grams of sugar per liter.

In a 2020 study of 916 women in Britain who consumed two or fewer drinks per day, for example, researchers found that those who drank red wine — or to a lesser extent, white wine — had greater gut microbial diversity than those who did not. No such link was found with beer or liquor.

Let's start at the beginning, wine is used in cooking for flavour. But its big advantage is natural acidity which tenderizes foods and keeps them moist. Not to get all science-y about it, but essentially the alcohol in wine, which eventually cooks off, helps the flavour molecules of the other ingredients open up.

Like all alcohol, white wine dissolves fats in the meat, releasing flavors that other cooking aids—water, broth, olive oil and even butter—simply cannot match. Even as the actual boozy part of the alcohol is burned off, the underlying flavors of the wine attach to the meat and accentuate the taste.