Alternative usages of your wine

Besides for drinking, the wine can be used as seasoning in many different contexts. The reason to why wine is not more often used in cooking is surely the price. The possibilities are numerous and here I would like to suggest a few ways it can be used in, to give imagination a start.

White wine is perfectly suitable for boiling fish, and when other seasonings are used in the same time, a very delicious result can be obtained. Seasonings which are especially suitable for fish are bay leaves, marjoram, estragon and sage. The fish is boiled in wine only and the seasonings are added. The wine in which the fish has been boiled, is then used for making sauce.

One can get wonderful vinegar for salad dressing of the following:

1/2 liter of white wine and 1/2 liter of regular vinegar, 5 grams of lemon-peel – 3 grams of garlic – 10 grams of onion – 50 grams of celery – 20 grams of estragon: the spices are to be drawn in 8-14 days and are then strained off.

Or:

1/4 liter of vinegar and 3/4 liter white wine, 60 grams of capers – 15 grams of orange-peel: let it soak for 14 days, thereafter the spices are strained off.

Red wine has a stronger taste than white wine and is especially suitable for meat and poultry – in sauces and when frying. Rub the meat with rosemary powder and garlic salt and let it fry in butter and red wine, regularly pouring the meat during the frying. This gives a delicious piece of meat, even to people that normally don’t care for spices.

On many occasions when vinegar is used in the house-hold, red wine mixed with vinegar is a good idea – imagine yourself red cabbage boiled in a red wine vinegar-mixture.

And here is the recipe of vinegar made on red wine:

1/2 liter of red wine and 1/2 liter of vinegar – 25 grams of pepper mint leaves – 25 grams of rosemary – 15 grams of sage – 5 grams of Angelica root – 5 grams of clove: let it draw for 8-10 days before the spices are strained off.

A dash fortified wine in sauces enhances the flavor and when frying meat, using wine instead of water gives a wonderful flavor.

Wine jelly

A delicious dessert, wine jelly, can be made the following way: 1/4 kg sugar is dissolved, when slowly heated, in 750 ml dessert wine and than 12 leaves of gelatin dissolved in some water are added. This mixture is then poured into a dish, moistened and covered in sugar. Now the time for the exiting part: fruits that go well together, nuts and almonds are gently put in; e.g. grapes, plums and almonds is a great combination. There is a lot to chose from: peaches, pineapples, oranges etc. The jelly is then chilled until it has solidified. Served with crème sauce or custard.

Recipes

The recipes on the following pages are split in two sections. Number 1-126 are given in 10-liter portions. This is to make mixing of fruit easier. An example is 25 liter port 1 x no. 92 and 1 1/2 x no. 94. There are many options.

The recipes numbered 127-162 are mixture recipes of 25 liter, put together after the fruit of the season, and those are only to follow.

Water

Gives the calculated total amount of water which is going to be used, including fruit pulp fermentation. If one has taken off the water to the fruit, one can possibly use some of the juice to melt the sugar in. The juice does not have to boil. If it by the end of the process turns out that the water doesn’t fill the right volume (e.g. due to that the fruit this season contained less juice than normally) than one just adds the water that is missing before the wine is completely fermented.

Additional fermentation nutrients (yeast nutrients)

In the 25-liters batches 10 grams of yeast nutrients is used and not 12.5 grams. There are also ready-made sachets of yeast nutrients available, containing vitamins for 25 liter wine. These salts are stronger and especially suitable for fortified wines that can have trouble to fully ferment.

Citric – or tartaric acid

Addition of acid should occur when the juice has been measured and the fermenting vessel filled with the whole portion. It is possible that less than stated should be added, it depends on the quality of the fruit.

Addition of sugar

The sugar is calculated in 3 sugar adding, though in some recipes only one or two. The total amount of sugar should be added before one draws off for the first time. The sugar which is used in fruit pulp fermentation is part of the sugar in the first sugar adding. If more is added than given in the recipe, that is 250 g + the sugar adding, 1,25% more alcohol is obtained and a little more sweetness. If a osmotic pressure tolerant dry yeast is used, that can stand the tick sugar solution stress, all sugar can be added from start.