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Sherry in cooking

post #1 of 12
9/16/09 at 12:14pm
Thread Starter 
Hey everybody!

I am right now trying to make a sauce with sherry...and it's not working out at all. It tastes TERRIBLE. I'm thinking it's the wrong sherry. I bought a dry one by Domeq.:cry:

Help! It tastes like vinegar once reduced....shallot with sherry, then add butter and chives...any ideas?
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post #2 of 12
9/16/09 at 1:32pm
Are you sure wine has not turned? Did u taste it first ? What kind of sauce ? and at what point did you add sherry?:chef:
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post #3 of 12
9/16/09 at 2:54pm
Domeq is an entirely respectable sherry. If your bottle hasn't gone bad... you're doing something wrong. :(

Mike
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post #4 of 12
9/16/09 at 3:16pm
Domecq (with a "c") is a good maker. I've actually visited their bodega, La Mesquita in Jerez.

In general, some sherries are more suitable than others for the sort of sauce you're making. Domecq's two driest are La Ina and Carta Blanca, both of which are probably too dry for the direction you want to take. Still, neither should result in a vinegary sauce. Sherry keeps for a very long time -- even a partial bottle. Still, based only on your description, it's likely your wine has "turned" as a result of improper storage. Test it by pouring a little in a glass with some ice and tasting it. It should taste more nutty than anything else, and should certainly be more dry than sour.

The next time you try a sherry reduction use an Amontillado (it's what's called an "off dry) or an Oloroso (medium -- right between dry and sweet). Just to help keep things straight, an Amontillado will be a bit dryer than Oloroso.

Last note: Once you start getting into Palo Cortados and Bristol Creams, you've got a pretty sweet wine on your hands. Probably sweeter than you want.

BDL
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post #5 of 12
9/16/09 at 4:50pm
Thread Starter 

sherry...

The sherry is La Ina, and unfortunately I don't know what a sherry is supposed to taste like. This one doesn't taste nutty. I don't like it...but I don't know if it's gone bad. I usually have a good sense of taste.

Perhaps it was just the wrong kind/house, maybe too dry. A question I'll address to the chef next Sat. The recipe calls for Tio Pepe, but I didn't find that one.

Chicken was too dry lacking the sauce, but well there are worse things in life.

The sauce (translated from Spanish) is emulsified (?), reducing the sherry with shallot, and then adding butter to it, not boiling it.

don't know if it's the cook or the sherry!!;)
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post #6 of 12
9/16/09 at 9:00pm
A dry Tio Pepe an La Ina should be more or less interchangeable.

Next time you pick up a bottle of dry sherry -- which you should, if you want to try tastes -- start by chilling it very, very cold. Then get some decent cured, unsmoked ham, like a good prosciutto or jamon serrano. Get a stick of Spanish chorizo. Get a chunk of something like Manchego cheese. Finally, get some good olives and a loaf of very crusty bread along the lines of baguette. The spread should easily serve you and a very dear friend. Drink the sherry with these things, and see what you think. I bet you'll change your mind about whether you like it or not. You may also figure out whether the sherry you had this time was off.

Note that it is unusual for sherry to go off: it is a fortified wine, and thus a good deal more stable than regular wines.

Note also that sherry is a LOT stronger than regular wine. If you split a whole bottle with your dear friend, be prepared for whatever occurs when the two of you get a little tipsy. ;)
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post #7 of 12
9/16/09 at 9:13pm
Thread Starter 
ok, Chris! Well, with that kind of spread...I might not notice the taste of the sherry that much! But I'm not trusting my taste on this one....I'll have to bring someone along who knows Sherry! :blush:

I'll have to ask the chef what happened.
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post #8 of 12
9/17/09 at 12:14am
Hmmm...dry sherry is used a bit for oriental recipes for when you can't access rice wine, in other words its used as a substitue. But pretty much always its vinegary quality is balanced by the addition of a sweet element, like honey, sugar etc. Maybe a gradual addition of some sugar to balance it up till where it doesn't taste sour could help.

Just a thought..
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post #9 of 12
9/20/09 at 10:44am
Thread Starter 

La ina? Manzanilla? Camomille?

Talked to the chef, wrong sherry, as you suggested. Tio pepe or tres coronas, better.

He did say something that I thought was strange...that la Ina was made from Manzanilla? Camomille.. and sure enough that's what the bottle says.

Jerez then can come from grapes and other products...?
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post #10 of 12
9/20/09 at 1:42pm
"Manzanilla" is an ultra dry type sherry varietal made in the San Lucar de Barremeda region of Jerez from (mostly or entirely) palomino grapes. What makes manzanilla different from other sherries made from identical grapes or mixtures of grapes is the yeast typical of San Lucar -- NOT any herbs or flavorings.

BDL

PS. ON EDIT: My bad. Goes to show what I know. See the following two posts. :crazy:
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post #11 of 12
9/20/09 at 1:46pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for clearing that up. :suprise: I'm ignorant about a lot of things!
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post #12 of 12
9/20/09 at 1:50pm
Darn your quick.

I did a little online research after posting -- instead of doing it before like I should have :blush: -- and found that chamomille IS sometimes used to flavor manzanilla.

I would have deleted, but your response beat me to it.

Oh well, not my first mistake.
BDL
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