Is there a difference between "cooking wine" and using regular Chardonnay in your cooking?

Question

The reason I ask is because I am in the unfortunate situation where I live in a dry county and all the stores sell is cooking wine. I just wondered if there was a difference.

Answer 1

Yes, cooking wine is unrefined and has a much lower alcohol content (cooked off).  Plus cooking wine is a lot cheaper.  

Answer 2

Never cook with wine that you would not drink. Use you left over wine in recipes. Cooking wine is awful.

Answer 3

cooking wine has alot of salt in it.  you should only use wine in cooking that you would drink.

Answer 4

Cooking wine usually has salt added to it, and you would never pour it in a glass and drink it.  I wouldn't even cook with it, actually.   But if it's all you can get for cooking, it's OK.   Just remember to adjust the salt in your recipe if necessary.

Answer 5

I tasted cooking wine once. It has no relation to regular wine, and is obviously made for cooking rather than drinking. The flavor it adds to food is much better than the flavor it has straight out of the bottle. I won't try that one again, I can still imagine the aftertaste after all these years.

Answer 6

The better the flavour of your wine the better your dish will taste, if you wouldn't drink it, why cook with it. Ditch the cooking wine and use something tasty, you won't be sorry! x

Answer 7

Yep there is. The best is the real thing, they,the chefs, say only cook with wine you would drink as the flavor is going to concentrate. I don't know what your cooking but sometimes fruit juice or flavored soda can be substituted. Good luck. lmason

PS. I know this sounds stupid, but does a dry county mean you can't buy liquor there or you can't even bring it in from another town?  

Answer 8

There is a difference.  You really shouldn't add any wine unless it's suitable to drink.  However, if the amount is small- say 1/4 cup - then don't worry about it and just use the cooking wine.  Also depends on how long the wine will cook-  if the recipe has-  add wine, stir pan and cook for 2-3 minutes- you want to use regular wine.

Answer 9

I use both, I like regular wine, it's a bit stronger to me...but cooking wine does the trick.  

Answer 10

Cooking wine has salt added and tends to be a very low quality wine. It's not very good so I would try to get the real stuff somehow. Yuck!