Cooking with Wine - non-drinker

Hi! Canada-Ottawa-resident here.  I love to cook and to try out new recipies, and I just hate wasting, or buying things just to use it "once" (*growl at recipies with 1/2 cup of sour cream*).

My problem: wine. I have to buy a "full" bottle just to use a tiny scrap of it in cooking, and then I will probably not touch it until it is "bad". How can I prevent this? I am talking minimal usage (I get drunk way too easily and I don't want empty calories from drinking it)

Are there any "small" bottles of red/white wine for sale anywhere in the LCBO? Or is there another solution? What can I substitute?

there are smaller bottles of wine available, but i'm not really sure how readily available they are at shops or if they are any good....i tend to buy wine by the case :-D

however, a lot of recipes you can usually replace the wine with either stock, water, vinegar or perhaps even a juice.  it depends on the recipe.  the wine just adds flavor and liquid. 

I don't think there's much that would really replace the wine flavor exactly, but you can still flavor the dish with something else.

My Solution: freeze the rest in ice cube trays :) I dont drink much, but i love using wine in cooking and you can freeze the spare and then add the frozen winecubes in dishes when you need them :)

If you have the freezer space of course!

I do love wine but I buy cheap varieties if I'm cooking. I buy mini bottles of Gallo wines (seen here), which have 187 mL. You should find them near the cash register, near the mini liquor bottles, for about $4. They have screwtops instead of corks so just keep them in the fridge and they'll be good for a while.

Or you could just substitute water, veggie or chicken broth instead of using wine.

EDIT: I live in Calgary so I just assume LCBO would also carry mini bottles. And for your sour cream problem, just use plain yogurt, which you can buy in smaller containers, and strain it so it gets thicker.

I would take the remainder of the bottle and cook it out in the crockpot with a chicken or a roast.  If you take the cooked-out liquid, cooled and skimmed, and boil to reduce it to 1/4 of the volume it makes a good gravy for whatever you potted. 

I hate that too! I drink but not much wine - I have the problem that if I decide to drink wine, it's hard to drink exactly one bottle. Once I've finished a bottle, I want to keep drinking and mixing liquor afterward doesn't really work too well for me...I get obnoxious drunk haha.

I recently bought a small bottle of "cooking wine" at the grocery store, it was over by the vinegars. I don't know about canada (i'm in the us) though. I didn't get id'ed for it even though it does have alcohol content. Our grocery stores only sell beer, no liquor or wine.

The liquor stores here also sell little 4 packs of some wines. I guess you're supposed to drink them like a bottle of beer (they're smaller than that though). If you could find those, you could waste less.

you can get single-serving bottles of wine. it might be more than you'll use in a recipe, but not by much. i do not recommend using cheap wine (or even cooking wine) for cooking. do you choose any other ingredients by lowest price tag? the only thing that bad wine has in common with good wine is the alcohol, and that evaporates during cooking, leaving you only with the flavour. so - do you want good flavour or not?

As a non-drinker and as a person who loves to cook those meals that call for wines I have found that you can substitute.

When cooking Chicken CocaVine we use red grape juice instead of Red Wine.

When White wine is called for I use white grape juice.

And when a dish calls for brandy or cognac we use apricot jam or juice - gives the same flavour.

I always say experiment.

hope this helps

Original Post by hschwulst:

When cooking Chicken CocaVine we use red grape juice instead of Red Wine.

When White wine is called for I use white grape juice.

 Doesn't that make the dish really sweet??

Original Post by pgeorgian:

you can get single-serving bottles of wine. it might be more than you'll use in a recipe, but not by much. i do not recommend using cheap wine (or even cooking wine) for cooking. do you choose any other ingredients by lowest price tag? the only thing that bad wine has in common with good wine is the alcohol, and that evaporates during cooking, leaving you only with the flavour. so - do you want good flavour or not?

 Would someone who doesn't drink wine really know the different between "good" and "bad" wine though? I had to try a lot of wine before I could recognize what I liked, tastewise. Also, cheap wine doesn't necessarily = bad wine.

Original Post by cellophane_star:

 Would someone who doesn't drink wine really know the different between "good" and "bad" wine though? I had to try a lot of wine before I could recognize what I liked, tastewise. Also, cheap wine doesn't necessarily = bad wine.

there are reviews, recommendations, and helpful liquor store employees to guide someone who doesn't drink wine. and this isn't really about wine; it's about food. see your response to "CocaVine." 

I haven't tried it yet but you could experiment with non alcoholic wines.  They are just like real wine but with  the alcohol removed. Iknow here in the states they are readily available in most large grocery stores and some larger health food stores.  It would probably give the same flavor and afterwards you could drink it with out getting toasted