In cooking, what's a good substitute for red wine?

Is cooking sherry something you don’t want in the house as well?

Tart red grape juice may work, depending on the recipe.

@Skaggfacemutt I am okay having cooking sherry in the house. But does it replace red wine?

@crisw I am thinking of stews in particular, and also a reduction sauce I was taught in a class.

@Skaggfacemutt The alcohol is still in cooking sherry just has added salt.
@zenvelo Try some red wine vinegar or fruit juice with no added sugar. Also Balsamic vinegar.

So why can’t you buy a bottle of cheap red wine and call it “cooking wine”?

I have used cooking sherry instead of red wine, and it lends a great flavor, in my opinion.

@Lightlyseared (what a perfect name for a cooking question) I am a recovering alcoholic and do not want any wine in the house. (my former “expertise” in red wine was a particularly difficult issue).

a local store has varietal grape juice. will that work or is it too sweet?

Looks like this conversation had some good suggestions.

@zenvelo well in that case red grape juice with diluted red wine vinegar (the vinegar must be diluted or all you’ll taste is vinegar). Other alternatives are tomato juice or the liquid you get in a can of tinned mushrooms.

@crisw Thanks! didn’t see that, it will help.

You can just substitute chicken or vegetable stock for the wine.

They make non-alcoholic red wine which you can see on this site and I’ve also seen it at Whole Foods.

And here is a site that lists all sorts of different substitutions for wine in recipes. But note that the flavor will be different (not bad, just different).

Another part of the same site has an alcohol burn-off chart so if you still want to use regular alcohol you can see that most of it is burned off in the cooking process.

Here’s a great list of substitutions for all sorts of alcohol in cooking.

Quite often I use cranberry juice. It is particularly delicious with lamb.

I would try mixing red wine vinegar with red grape juice. It might take some experimenting to work out the perfect balance though. Or you could just get alcohol-free wine.

There are a lot of good answers here. I just use apple juice.

thanks everyone! lots of stuff for me to try!