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Wine Alternative?

Thread Starter: Sophie 23    Started: Tue 21 Nov 2006    Replies: 7

Confused So many recipes have Wine or some sort of Acoholic drink in them, until now (as I dont drink due to religious preference) I have been substituting Red with red grape juice and white with white juice etc... Obviously not knowing the correct amount to substitute. Can I use just as much in stocks etc? Does this do the job or am I making a mess of the end product? I've never tasted recipes with added spirits etc so I dont know what im looking to achieve. Please advise me!




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Thu 23 Nov 2006, 7.35PM

Rosti

Harvey Nicks stock it. Big Grin

Thu 23 Nov 2006, 4.49PM

Sophie 23

Sounds like i'll have to hunt the stuff down.... let the serach begin!

Thu 23 Nov 2006, 2.56PM

TerryDox

Hi Sophie 23, verjuice is a wonderful addition to recipes, it can be thought of as a substitute for wine but it is much more than that. It adds something completely different, it is a very subtle mixture of very slight acidity and a subtle sweetness, vinegar without the tartness and lemon juice without the sharpness.

I found one bottle gathering dust (not kidding) on a sainsbury shelf way back in 2004. It was £3.99 for 37.5 cl (half a wine bottle)

my comments at the time were "...smell - a (bit) like that slightly musky sweet smell of honey. Taste, a sweet but sharp lemon and lime. Very distinctive."

If only it were more easy to get a hold of. I have only had one bottle which was bought at Sainsburys. I gave up looking for it on supermarket shelves a long time ago.

Thu 23 Nov 2006, 12.05PM

rday

I think you would just substitute the wine for the verjuice, but having never used it I'm not too sure. Try either searching for it on the net or on this site, the info you nedd must be out there somewhere!

Wed 22 Nov 2006, 5.41PM

Sophie 23

Hey rday, I understand that the alcohol is burnt off... but I just dont feel comfortable buying any alcoholic drinks in the first place And if i can find an alternative then it wont put me out to use it instead (plus I dont want to have my mother chasing me around my house if she ever found a bottle Big Grin). I've never heard of Verjuice, thanks for that i'll defintiely try some in something. Do you know if I could use that as an overall substitute or only for say Red wine ingredient? and luckily my throwing in the odd grape juice has never spoilt anything, thankfully food always tasted great.

Wed 22 Nov 2006, 11.49AM

Porridge

Hi Sophie, I would say it depends on the recipe to a large extent, for example if you were making a coq au vin, that really needs wine, as does a beef bourginon or crepes suzettes, if it is just a casserole of some sort I think you will be fine to just use stock and see what it tastes like.

Wed 22 Nov 2006, 11.16AM

rday

Forgive me if I am being silly but if the alcohol is burnt off during cooking, would that make it acceptable? I think there is an alcohol alternative called verjuice, have not used it myself but have heard that it is a good substitute.

On the other hand I have a recipe in which you can use a mixture of stock and wine or stock and lemon juice, although the wine does add a unique flavour, the lemon adds the acidity that would be lost if the wine or juice had not been added.

I would say though, that if the recipes you have been cooking taste nice with the substitutes you have been making, then I wouldn't worry about it!

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