Can I use spoiled wine as vinegar?

June 1, 2008 12:50 AM

Can I use spoiled wine as vinegar? Cooking wine?

I managed to open some fairly good pinot noir, only to drink two glasses of it, and forget the rest in the fridge for a month or so.

Since vinegar is basically spoiled wine, can I at least use this wine as fancy vinegar (for salads, etc), or cooking wine (for sauces, etc). Or is it somehow harmful (it tastes good, so my only worry is on the health side).

Also, if I'm to do that, is there anything I should do to make it more adequate? Like leaving it completely open (I originally stored it with the cork on), out of the fridge, or something like that?

posted by qvantamon to food & drink (12 comments total)

Yes, but I would use it as cooking wine, not vinegar. It's still alcoholic, and may not have the same acid quality of vinegar. I do this all the time.
posted by jb at 12:56 AM on June 1, 2008

Cooking wine is not vinegar... it's wine with salt added to it.
posted by Jahaza at 1:04 AM on June 1, 2008

Don't cook with anything you would't drink.
posted by pompomtom at 1:06 AM on June 1, 2008

Of course you can, but will you like the taste?
posted by fiTs at 1:41 AM on June 1, 2008

At a stretch, for deglazing. Otherwise, what pompomtom said.

If you really want to make vinegar with it, you'll need a mother.
posted by holgate at 2:10 AM on June 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Move the wine out of the fridge, into a glass jar (half a gallon or so), cover the opening with cheesecloth, or paper, and store in a dark (but not cold) place.
To promote the formation of a mother (which will form anyway, eventually) you can drop, for instance, a handful of broken spaghetti in the jar, and/or half a glass of organic, non pasteurized wine vinegar. Wait two to four weeks, and voila! (Spoiled) pinot noir vinegar. (keep in mind that the "garbage in, garbage out" rule applies to vinegar, too). Empty the remains of good bottles into the jar every now and then, and draw vinegar (as it is ready) with, for instance, a chicken baster/syringe.
Next step, a vinegar tank (picture).
posted by _dario at 2:45 AM on June 1, 2008 [8 favorites has favorites]

Yes, but I would use it as cooking wine, not vinegar.

I would never use spoiled wine for cooking. Cooking will cause the water in the wine to evaporate and the flavor thus concentrates. Concentrated spoiled wine = yuck.
posted by HotPatatta at 8:57 AM on June 1, 2008

I use slightly soured wine in pasta sauce all the time. Not usually more than a week or two after I have opened it though.
posted by mzurer at 9:19 AM on June 1, 2008

Don't cook with anything you would't drink.

Agree strongly. Don't buy so-called "cooking wine".
posted by neuron at 2:14 PM on June 1, 2008

Why are you putting pinot noir in the fridge?
posted by electroboy at 3:18 PM on June 1, 2008

So the wine wasn't bad, it's just been open too long, and has been in the fridge the whole time to boot? Sure, use it in tomato sauce.
posted by desuetude at 8:37 PM on June 1, 2008

Seriously, it will be fine cooking wine. Maybe not if you are such a gourmet that you would buy fancy wine to cook with (because it does make a difference), but for the rest of us who cook with Sainsbury's Basics wine (UK grocery store brand, famously cheap and sometimes nasty) because we are a) not rich and b) have an ordinary palate, it will taste just dandy. I've cooked with corked Sainsbury's Basics, and still had the food taste fine.

You can cook with wine you would not drink, because it is not the sole flavour in your dish. I have never cooked with anything BUT open or not good wine I wouldn't drink - because I wouldn't waste good wine on cooking.

That said, Sainsbury's Basics Wine is surprisingly good. Not great, by any means, but at £2.10/bottle (last fall, may be higher now), it's as good as most £4 wines, and still as good as some £8 wines.
posted by jb at 11:46 AM on June 3, 2008