We’ve all been there: It’s a crucial step in a high-pressure recipe and you need to add a cup of wine to the pan, pronto. But you look in the fridge and there’s no wine to be found. (And you’re not about to open any cherished bottles from your cellar to waste on the Tuesday night risotto.) Should you just scrap the whole recipe? Or is there a way to work around this major ingredient oversight? VinePair tapped Ron Yan, the chef-partner behind New York City’s Tolo, to provide some insights.
First, Yan suggests you should consider how important the wine might be to the recipe. “If it’s something where wine is the primary ingredient, like a red-wine sauce for duck leg confit, you might want to go in a different recipe direction,” he says. So if wine is absolutely integral to the dish — and you realize you’re out before you start the recipe — then maybe it’s best to switch up the plan, or run out to the store to grab a bottle of Pinot Noir.
But if you’re committed to the recipe, or wine is only playing a minor role, there are some good substitutes that most folks will have on hand in a pinch. Stock should be a go-to in these situations: “If you just need to deglaze a pan with wine or add it to a poaching liquid, you can typically replace the volume with seasoned water or stock,” Yan says. Another option for deglazing a pan is using some soy sauce mixed with water. Using stock or soy sauce instead of plain water can help maintain richness and flavor in the dish, without diluting it down.
If a recipe calls for wine in a marinade, Yan notes that you can consider using citrus juice, or even beer, as a replacement. These options provide the right amount of acidity and flavor. If you happen to have non-alcoholic wine on hand, that could work, too, but Yan urges chefs to always have the final flavor profile of the dish in mind.
“When cooking with wine, I like to try to use something that I would drink on its own,” he says. “I’m not often drinking NA wine, but when it comes to cooking, the same guideline is still relevant; try to go for a selection that features flavors you would consume by itself and not just as an accent in a sauce.”
