On Sep 20, 6:33?am, ChattyCathy > wrote:
> Sheldon wrote:
>
> > Wouldn't ostrich go best with eggnog, BIG eggnog!
>
> LOL! I dislike eggnog with a passion
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> > I don't drink wine with meals, I'm a 2ni with dinner person. I don't
> > really care for wines with food, any wines... I'm the hard stuff type
> > with a formal dinner, sipping a 2ni is the best palate cleanser. With
> > less than formal I much prefer a very standard mixed drink, like a gin
> > and tonic, a screw driver, a rum and coke, a bloody mary (for
> > seafood), or beer, and sometimes sangria made with inexpensive box
> > wine. I truly abhor all the snootiness associated with wine, so much
> > so that I avoid restaurants noted for their "fine" wine list, they
> > specialize in wines that mean nothing to me, but their food typically
> > sucks and the primary reason I go out to eat is to eat... and they
> > charge for mediocre food like it was "rare" wine (whatever rare wine
> > is). No bottle of wine on the planet is worth more than $5... it's
> > just fermented/rotted grape juice, it's stealing to charge even $5 a
> > bottle... as far as I'm concerned ounce for ounce no grape wine is
> > worth more than grape jelly. I honestly don't see any reason to drink
> > alcoholic beverages except for the buzz (by the third drink no one can
> > taste what they're drinking anyway), and enough wine to get me tipsy
> > always produces a miserable hang over. I rarely cook with wine, nine
> > times out of ten insteed of wine I'l pour in a beer. Actually my
> > favorite beverage with meals is diet black cherry soda... I'd rather a
> > grape Nehi than any wine.
>
> I only started appreciating wine when I got into my late 30's - and I
> usually prefer white. However, not everybody likes it - we all have our
> different tastes, I know.... In fact, I don't see what all the whisk(e)y
> fuss is about - I think any whiskey is awful - blech. DH says I "have no
> taste" <LOL>
>
> I cook with red wine quite often. Red wine is good in marinades for
> ostrich steak - helps to make it more tender, IMHO. I generally use a
> "drinkable" red for cooking/marinades, but we are "spoiled rotten" here
> in RSA as far as wine goes; even the "el cheapo" stuff is not too bad...
> Never tried cooking much with beer myself though.

I sometimes add wine to marinades but don't miss it if I omit it...
the other marinade ingredients totally mask any wine; garlic alone
blankets any wine, but I will add fruit juice like orange, lemon,
lime, and pineapple, and then with soy sauce, sesame oil, ketchup,
vinegar, ground pepper, assorted herbs, molasses, honey, etc., etc.,
etc. No way wine will be noticed or not... and if costly wine it's
really just a total waste of money. You can actually marinate meats
in plain beer with nothing added... I've reduced beer to a syrup
(added nothing) and used it for marinating ribs that turned out
wonderful.

If you haven't used beer in cooking then you're really missing out. I
think beer is better than wine in stews, any stews/braises, even
soups. Next time you bake a loaf of whole grain bread use all beer
for the liquid... beer is also a wonderful liquid for quick breads,
beer bran muffins are fabulously rich flavored, as is date nut loaf.
I think beer is better than wine in any dish... adding wine is nothing
more than french hyperbole... pushing wine in cookery is tantamount to
spam. In fact a beer-brown sugar glaze is far better on ham, even
adds a whole new and high class dimension to baked Spam. Beer is a
far, FAR more meaningful culinary ingredient than wine... and beers
encompass just as large a family of varients as wines, even larger...
or is that lager. Offhand I can think of at least fifty different
foods that benefit greatly from beer batter, from beer laced flapjacks
with breakfast links to beer battered corn dogs... can't think of one
that benefits from adding wine to batter. As far as I'm concerned no
wine on the planet, no matter it's price or how fancy the label,
exhibits any more class than what the typical street wino slugs from a
bottle in a plain brown paper bag. Wine is the beverage of mindless
peasants... whenever I see folks ordering expensive wine I immediately
think more dollars than brain cells pinhead thinking to elevate their
status, NOT! The french drink wine out of necessity, they don't have
decent potable water, dagos the same.

And if I'm gonna drink I want a real drink, a 2ni... wine is a sissy
drink... at least a couple ice cold beers is a great thirst quencher
on a hot sweaty day, but no one reaches for a glass of dago red after
they be mixing c-ment. If you drink wine no mistake about it, you are
a wino... how much you pay makes not a whit of difference, your're
still a wino... only thing drinking high priced wine signifies is low
IQ... the high the cost the lower the IQ


Sheldon Cervesa