Most cooks say to add wine to a gravy in the last minutes of cooking the gravy, and?

Question

a minority of cooks say that they add wine to the pot as the initial ingredients to cook off the alcohol.

Who is right?
And the alcohol is used to deglaze the pot. Does that mean that it loosens the dripping bits from the pot to add it to the gravy? I assume yes.

Answer 1

wine in cooking and wine in gravy are two different things. yes, wine in cooking is added early so that the good flavor is in the dish and the alchol burns off. and you are right about the deglaze, it loosens the drippings for the gravy. on thanksgiving, i had some leg of lamb with a gravy made of the drippings and red wine-- YUM was really tasty!

Answer 2

I'm going to start with the second question first.
Yes, deglazing is when you add a liquid to loosen all the dripping bits from the bottom of the pan to make a wonderful sauce.

As for the second question, it kind of depends on the recipe. If you are making a wine sauce, like port wine gravy or sauce, then you start with the deglazed bits and add a lot of port wine and maybe some broth. Then you simmer it until some of the water evaporates off (along with the alcohol) thickening the sauce and concentrating the flavor of the wine.
If you are just adding a little bit of wine (under, say 1/4 cup) , then you usually add that at the end. But either way you should let the gravy/sauce simmer for a few minutes to evaporate off the alcohol and get rid of the alcohol taste so that you are just left with the taste of the wine.
By the way, the so called cooking wines are wines with salt added to them. They can make your sauce/gravy very salty tasting which is why I never use them. They are also pretty expensive if you figure out the cost per ounce. I think the best wine to use is whatever you like that tastes good to you. I usually use the wine we are having with the meal for the sauce/gravy.

Answer 3

If you don't want the alcohol then you need to add it first. If you don't mind having a little buzz in your gravy and like the taste to be more prevalent then add it later. It is up to you.