Cooking Wine

So what is cooking wine? Why is it different? Why can I but it for cheap in a grocery store? What are the different types? These are all questions I've asked myself, but now I've done a little research and would like to answer them for you int turn. And away we go . . .

- As simple as it sounds, cooking wine is really just a cheap grape wine that is intended for use as an ingredient, rather than straight consumption. Generally, cooking wine in America also contains food coloring and uses salt as a preservant. Leaving a bottle of wine open to oxygenate allows a bottle of wine to continue fermenting and will eventually turn it into wine vinegar. By adding salt to cooking wine, it keeps this process at bay, so you don't have to use an entire bottle in a few days.

- Really, the only difference between cooking wine and a bottle you'd buy in a wine shop is the quality and the salt.

- They sell it in grocery stores because it's considered an ingredient rather than an alcoholic beverage.

- The most common cooking wine in America is white cooking wine. Other common varieties include red cooking wine, sherry cooking wine, and champaigne cooking wine.