Recommendations for Cooking Wines

I always try to keep on hand 5-10 bottles of wine to cook with. While I would never cook with a wine I would not drink; I hesitate to overspend on a wine for cooking.

Currently I have a few bottles of Barkan Classic Merlot and Cab I have been cooking with. I have also used Recanati Cab and Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay;

Does anyone have recommendations for Israeli wines (kosher) that they often cook with.

i dont know if marsala wine is made in a kosher format...

but i love using marsala, especially for veal scallopini, and even for your standard israeli pan cooked schnitzel, a thimble full of marsala makes all the difference.

Doug, Hi....

Like our friend Bach, I too always keep a body of Marsala wine at hand for both drinking and cooking, especially in preparing a great many Italian and what I think of as nouveau-Japanese dishes. With that exception though, I have only rarely purchased wines entirely for cooking as there are (whether one is a critic or not) invariably enough left-over wines that can be used for that purpose.

Being a believer in the fact that few wines should be held responsible for their condition on the following day for drinking but that many will hold their charms for cooking for a week or more if well stored, my tradition has been to transfer left overs to small plastic bottles that held mineral water, to reseal them and to refrigerate. With sauces I do not hesitate to "blend" some leftovers (e.g. Cabernet, Merlot, Petite Sirah based wines) in the same plastic bottle (call that my saucier's solera system if you like); but very distinctive wines such as Barolo, Brunello or Chateauneuf remain each in its own plastic bottle. Same with whites and with sweet wines. The moment that the wines start to go off, they are tossed, bottle and all, into the trash basket.

If I were to purchase wines entirely for cooking (and keeping in mind your need for kashrut), those would probably be from high quality/good value producers such as Tabor, Galil Mountain and some of the Herzog wines. If not concerned with kashrut the wines I would purchase largely for cooking would probably include those as well as Beaujolais Villages, Chianti and many of the wines of Pays d'Oc.

Best
Rogov

i dont know if marsala wine is made in a kosher format...

Unfortunately it's not; nor is there a kosher Madeira to speak of...

Though I am wondering whether there would be any kashrut leniency for Madeira made with the estufa system, whereby the wine is heated and held at a high temperature for a few months.

I have bought and used many bottles of Marsala from Kedem for cooking. It actually cooks very well.

Fair enough but I believe that Kedem's "Marsala" is produced in New York State.

Best
Rogov

Fair enough but I believe that Kedem's "Marsala" is produced in New York State.

Best
Rogov

yea but lots of sicilians live in new york state.

especially in the cement business.

Fair enough but I believe that Kedem's "Marsala" is produced in New York State.

Best
Rogov

yea but lots of sicilians live in new york state.

especially in the cement business.

And I happen to know a few, funny how their names end in "I", "O" and occasionally, "A"
Come to think of it, none of them end in consonants?

They also run a very efficient carting business, although oddly they drive the wrong way on two way streets to pick up commercial refuse after hours, never seen em get a ticket.

I'm back, see?

Eddie, Hi....

It does my Brooklynese soul good to see you back and in such fine fettle. Warms the cockles of the heart.

Best
Rogov

I tend to cook with whatever I happen to have open or otherwise handy.