On 3/21/2010 9:20 AM, Damaeus wrote:
> In news:rec.food.cooking, "J. > posted on
> Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:53:05 -0400 the following:
>
>> On 3/20/2010 4:16 AM, Damaeus wrote:
>>
>>> Does that mean my taste in food is not refined? Or that I just like fresh
>>> food that tastes fresh? I don't need wine in my taco meat to enjoy it.
>>> Why put it in my chicken gravy?
>>
>> I think that what it means is that you started with the wrong dish and
>> didn't have it prepared by somebody who knows what he's doing. Marsala
>> is something of an acquired taste--most wine does _not_ taste like
>> that--and poorly prepared chicken Marsala can be pretty putrid.
>
> Everything that had an acquired taste when I was growing up was something
> that tasted like shit: black coffee, beer, cabbage rolls, and wine.
> Basically drink it until you can keep a straight face so you can pretend
> you like what used to nearly induce vomiting.

What wines have you tried (and don't say "all of them"). If they all
taste like shit to you then you haven't been exposed to the right wines.

Look for "Sauternes" (make sure it's French--there is some really bad
crap produced under that name in other countries), "Beerenauslese",
"Eiswine", "Ice Wine", or "Tokaji Aszu", "Cream Sherry", or "Port" (but
make sure it's from Portugal--same deal as Sauternes). You may get a
real surprise. Or it may all taste like shit to you.

I used to think the same thing you do. A glass of Sauternes was a real
eye opener.

> Well anyway, I don't see how you can mess up chicken marsala just because
> it has wine in it.

It's not "just because it has wine in it", it's because it has _marsala_
in it. If someone told gave you a sample of something that tasted
marvelous then told you that it was made with goat ****, would you
assume that you could just pour some goat **** in a pan and replicate
the recipe? Well that's pretty much what you're doing with chicken
Marsala--you're taking something that is pretty vile and trying to make
something very nice out of it. It's doable, but it's not something
you're going to hit on the first try.

> If all the ingredients and amounts are the same, who
> cooks it isn't going to alter the way it tastes all that much.

You'd think that, wouldn't you. Needs to cook for the right amount of
time at the right temperature--you need to boil off some volatiles but
you don't want to boil off _all_ the volatiles. And there's a sequence
involved. And "the right time at the right temperature" is going to
depend to some extent on which particular bottle of marsala you were
using. This is more critical with marsala than it is with, for example,
sherry. Need to keep sampling until it hits the spot. There's probably
some other chemistry going on as well.

In honesty, I can't make it. But I've had it a few times in good
Italian restaurants and it's been quite nice. And in other places where
it was pretty much chicken boiled in goat ****.