What's the best thing to do with an opened bottle of cabernet that is not worth drinking?

Question

I do not like this wine well enough to drink it... it is way too vinegary tasting, but it is not absolutely terrible. I was wanting to make a marinade out of it or something like that - I would like suggestions on what would be the best cooking use for this wine.

Answer 1

Salutations,

sound like the perfect marinade for a killer pot roast to me save some for the gravy as well.Cheers

Answer 2

i would pour it down the sink

Answer 3

Generally if you don't like it, I'd just get rid of it. Not worth it.

However, if you are dead set on using it to cook, I'd make a beef stew, beef bourgenon, or something along those lines to use it up.

Answer 4

It would be great to make either of these dishes!

Parker’s Beef Stew

2½ lb. good quality chuck beef, cut into 1½” cubes

1 (750-ml bottle) good red wine (Cab sauv or other)

2 whole garlic cloves, smashed

3 bay leaves

2 cups all-purpose flour

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Good olive oil

2 yellow onions, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in 1 1/2-inch chunks

1/2 lb. white mushrooms, stems discarded and cut in 1/2

1 lb. small potatoes, halved or quartered

1 Tbsp. minced garlic (3 cloves)

2 cups or 1 (14 1/2-ounce can) chicken stock or broth

1 large (or 2 small) branch fresh rosemary

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

2 Tbsp.s Worcestershire sauce

1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas

Place the beef in a bowl with red wine, garlic, and bay leaves. Place in the refrigerator and marinate a few hours or overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 300º F.

Combine the flour, 1 Tbsp. salt, and 1 Tbsp. pepper. Lift the beef out of the marinade with a slotted spoon and discard the bay leaves and garlic, saving the marinade. In batches, dredge the cubes of beef in the flour mixture and then shake off the excess. Heat 2 Tbsp.s of olive oil in a large pot and brown half the beef over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Place the beef in a large oven-proof Dutch oven and continue to brown the remaining beef, adding oil as necessary. (If the beef is very lean, you'll need more oil.) Place all the beef in the Dutch oven.

Heat another 2 Tbsp.s of oil to the large pot and add the onions, carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes. Cook for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Place all the vegetables in the Dutch oven over the beef. Add 2 1/2 cups of the reserved marinade to the empty pot and cook over high heat to deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up all the brown bits with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken stock, rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp. salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables in the Dutch oven and bring to a simmer over medium heat on top of the stove. Cover the pot and place it in the oven to bake it for about 2 hours, until the meat and vegetables are all tender, stirring once during cooking. If the stew is boiling rather than simmering, lower the heat to 250 or 275º F.

Before serving, stir in the frozen peas, season to taste, and serve hot.

--Ina Garten

-----------------------------

Beef With Red Wine Sauce

Prep: 15 min., Cook: 6 hrs.

3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium onion, sliced

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 (1.61-ounce) package brown gravy mix

1 (10 1/2-ounce) can beef broth

1 cup red wine

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 bay leaf

Hot cooked egg noodles or rice

Garnish: chopped fresh parsley

Place first 3 ingredients in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Whisk together gravy mix and next 3 ingredients; pour evenly over beef and vegetables. Add bay leaf.

Cover and cook on HIGH 6 hours, or LOW for 9 hours. Remove and discard bay leaf. Serve over noodles. Garnish, if desired.

Yield: Makes 6 servings

--Southern Living, FEBRUARY 2006

Answer 5

Cook a pot roast with it

Answer 6

I would also pour it down the sink,  but i guess if you really wanted to use it,  you could use it as wine vinegar in recipes.  If you substitute this in for either red or white wine vinegar,  it would give your food a unique flavor and bring a good use the the wine.

Answer 7

Usually if you wouldn't drink a wine you shouldn't cook with it.  The reason for this is because the flavor concentrates and becomes STRONGER as you cook with it!  So, you would get more of the flavor as you cook with it.

If you marinade with it, whatever you're marinading will become soaking in the taste!  If you do NOT like the taste, you do NOT want to do this!

Honestly, you'll have to take the hit on this and just do what the previous poster mentioned and just dump it down the drain if it's that bad.  It stinks that you have to do that, but if you cook with it, you'll get that flavor more and more in the food and it's the same thing if you marinade anything with it, you will get that flavor more and more in the food.

You could pass it on to someone else and say you didn't like the wine, that it just wasn't for you, but if they want it, and like it, they are welcome to the bottle.  Who knows maybe someone else that you know will like the taste.  See if a friend or relative likes it, let them try it and if they do, let them have it, then it won't be a total loss.  Someone else will enjoy it!