Port Wine

[kennedy]

I know there is at least one port drinker here. I don't drink it, but like to cook with it. Any suggestions on a good port for cooking,and where to buy it?

[RabC]

You don't say where you are? You can get some cheap and in my opinion nasty stuff from Aus called I believe Emu. The real stuff from Oporto starts at about 800 but I normally spend in excess of 1100 for what I like to drink. The brand of good port seems to vary, I guess whatever the importer can buy at the time. In Pattaya I tend to buy it at Friendship but would imagine Foodland and/or Villa will also stock it.

[JoePai]

You don't say where you are? You can get some cheap and in my opinion nasty stuff from Aus called I believe Emu. The real stuff from Oporto starts at about 800 but I normally spend in excess of 1100 for what I like to drink. The brand of good port seems to vary, I guess whatever the importer can buy at the time. In Pattaya I tend to buy it at Friendship but would imagine Foodland and/or Villa will also stock it.

May I suggest Best next to the Naklua roundabout ?

[xylophone]

Certainly wouldn't use the Portuguese variety for cooking, and as already said a cheaper Aussie one would suffice.

[RabC]

Certainly wouldn't use the Portuguese variety for cooking, and as already said a cheaper Aussie one would suffice.

There are some who believe if you wouldn't drink it you shouldn't cook with it. I for one wouldn't allow Emu near my kitchen and use Warres to make my gout (Port and Stilton) sauce

I also add that the sauce at no time reaches a point to boil off the alcohol so I want a good flavoured port.

Edited March 19, 2013 by RabC

[xylophone]

Certainly wouldn't use the Portuguese variety for cooking, and as already said a cheaper Aussie one would suffice.

There are some who believe if you wouldn't drink it you shouldn't cook with it. I for one wouldn't allow Emu near my kitchen and use Warres to make my gout (Port and Stilton) sauce

I also add that the sauce at no time reaches a point to boil off the alcohol so I want a good flavoured port.

A good point and a lot of folk do drink the "other" ports, indeed in OZ many everyday folk have no idea about Portuguese port, thinking the stuff they produce is "it".

A recipe for lamb shanks which involved red wine and port was a favourite of mine, so I tried a Taylors LBV and then experimented with an Aussie variety and one couldn't taste the difference. BUT as you said, in a sauce to die for (Port & Stilton......sorry about the pun) where you will really get the Port taste coming through, you need the real thing. Wouldn't put my last bottle of Dows 1963 in it, but would certainly use it to round the meal off!!

[Thailaw]

Certainly wouldn't use the Portuguese variety for cooking, and as already said a cheaper Aussie one would suffice.

There are some who believe if you wouldn't drink it you shouldn't cook with it. I for one wouldn't allow Emu near my kitchen and use Warres to make my gout (Port and Stilton) sauce

I also add that the sauce at no time reaches a point to boil off the alcohol so I want a good flavoured port.

As a general rule, you are just wasting money, and perhaps making an inferior sauce. See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/dining/21cook.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 -- "It Boils Down to This: Cheap Wine Works Fine".

"....Then, out of the darkness, came a voice.

Said Julia Child: “If you do not have a good wine to use, it is far better to omit it, for a poor one can spoil a simple dish and utterly debase a noble one.”

And so we came to a new gospel: Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink....

Two weeks ago I set out to cook with some particularly unappealing wines and promised to taste the results with an open mind. Then I went to the other extreme, cooking with wines that I love (and that are not necessarily cheap) to see how they would hold up in the saucepan....

Although the wines themselves were unpleasant, all the finished sauces tasted just the way they should have: of butter and shallots, with a gentle rasp of acidity from the wine to emphasize the richness....

The final test was a three-way blind tasting of risotto al Barolo, the Piedmontese specialty in which rice is simmered until creamy and tender in Barolo and stock, then whipped with butter and parmigiano....

I made the dish three times in one morning: first with a 2000 Barolo ($69.95), next with a 2005 dolcetto d’Alba ($22.95), and finally with a jack-of-all-wines, a Charles Shaw cabernet sauvignon affectionately known to Trader Joe’s shoppers as Two-Buck Chuck. (Introduced at $1.99, the price is up to $2.99 at the Manhattan store.)

Although the Barolo was rich and complex to drink, of the seven members of the Dining section staff who tasted the risottos, no one liked the Barolo-infused version best. “Least flavorful,” “sharp edges” and “sour,” they said.

The winner, by a vote of 4-to-3, was the Charles Shaw wine, which was the youngest and grapiest in the glass: the tasters said the wine’s fruit “stood up well to the cheese” and made the dish rounder. “It’s the best of both worlds,” one taster said, citing the astringency of the Barolo version and the overripe alcoholic perfume of the dolcetto. The young, fruity upstart beat the Old World classic by a mile.

“I’m not surprised,” said Molly Stevens, a cooking teacher in Vermont whose book “All About Braising” (W. W. Norton, 2005) called for wine in almost every recipe.,,

Are there any other hard rules for choosing wine for cooking? One: don’t be afraid of cheap wine. In 1961, when Mrs. Child handed down her edict in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” decent wines at the very low end of the price scale were almost impossible to find in the United States.

Now, inexpensive wines flow from all over the world: a $6 bottle is often a pleasant surprise (though sometimes, still, unredeemable plonk)."

I have no idea about Emu (I have never heard of it), but in a country where wine is very expensive and could cost more than the other ingredients in the dish combined, using a cheap wine (including port) for cooking that might not be your choice for drinking makes sense, and will likely give you a finished dish as good or better than if you had used a more expensive "drinkable" wine. I drink excellent wines; I cook with "plonk". Your money, your choice.

[sunholidaysun1]

I have just finished eating my Stilton , compliments of a mate who brought some good stuff back from the UK for me , I also have a really nice glass of Dow,s Renown Port (porto ) of course , it is delicious . I am tempted at times to make a nice port sauce to accompany whatever I maybe cooking BUT , better to use a red wine I think and savour the Port , especially as its quite expensive here . A decent port will cost up or 1000 bht but in Mae Sai (North Thailand ), cross into Myanmar and use the duty free shops , you can get some Australian Port for about 600 bht a bottle , to me , it tastes like Sherry , hahaha , some may like like it . Dows Renown is 19% Vol just incase anyone wants to know .

Edited March 19, 2013 by sunholidaysun1

[RabC]

Just as a matter of pint the Australian stuff is NOT Port, the law was passed protecting Port to the stuff made in that one particular area of Portugal, just like Champagne is a protected name. Guess the aussies dont care for the rules.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_wine

In a sauce that is going to be a long time cooking/boiling then I wouldn't be worried what port was used but wouldn't use red wine instead. For my port and stilton sauce where the Port Flavour is very important I do use a better quality product. Each to their own.

[sunholidaysun1]

Thats why Ozzie Port tastes like Sherry , hahahahaha, they got their regions mixed up

Edited March 20, 2013 by sunholidaysun1

[xylophone]

Just as a matter of pint the Australian stuff is NOT Port, the law was passed protecting Port to the stuff made in that one particular area of Portugal, just like Champagne is a protected name. Guess the aussies dont care for the rules.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_wine

In a sauce that is going to be a long time cooking/boiling then I wouldn't be worried what port was used but wouldn't use red wine instead. For my port and stilton sauce where the Port Flavour is very important I do use a better quality product. Each to their own.

Old habits die hard, as a sweet, caramelly dark, high alcohol drink was called port for decades in Oz & NZ. Even tasted a 1952 Mazurans (NZ) "vintage port" in the mid 80s and it was truly disgusting............good for staining the fence though!