Substitute for Wine in Cooking

If you’re looking for a substitute for wine in cooking, then there are many suggestions out there, but some of them can make you feel nervous that the recipe will just fail if you try those – never fear, wine stock pots are really a thing!

There are many times when a recipe wants you to use wine, but if you’re not a habitual drinker of wine, or are making food for children or people who can’t have alcohol for medical or religious reasons, then what is a good substitute for wine in cooking? This is the best wine substitute for cooking.

Red Wine Stock Pots

Certainly in the UK Oxo Red Wine Stock Pots are readily available. Sold in packs of four stock pots, costing from just £1 for four, each pot makes up to 250ml of wine substitute, that’s 1/3rd of a bottle. You can simply add the stock pot, whole, into your dish, or you can make it up as per the instructions to add the red wine stock pot to 250ml of boiling water. Any amount of boiling water is also fine!

The packs tell you that each pot is the equivalent of half a glass of wine.

Can I use a Red Wine Stock Pot Instead of Red Wine?

That is precisely what they have been made for – and most people won’t notice any difference in taste whatsoever. Red Wine Stock Pots are made to be a direct substitute for using red wine in cooking.

Cheaper than Using Cheap Wine or Cooking Wine

Financially, if you can source the Oxo Red Wine stock pots at £1 for four, then they are costing you just 25p per half glass that your recipe requires – that’s cheaper than buying a bottle of wine.

Measurements are very hard to nail down as to how large a glass is and to directly compare!. A full bottle of wine is 75cl (750ml), the cheapest bottle might cost you £3-4. One bottle of wine would give you a glass of wine for about £1. Two stock pots would be the full glass equivalent and costs from just 50p (two 25p pots). This makes the wine stock pots half the cost of wine, with zero waste.

If you’re buying wine that you don’t want or need, just for a recipe, you’re then going to have to wonder what to do with the remainder. Drink it? Pour it down the sink? Freeze it/forget you got it?

Wine stock pots are a cupboard stored item – they will simply sit in your cupboard, without needing any attention, until you want to use the next one!

Is There Any Alcohol in a Red Wine Stock Pot?

There is no alcohol in wine stock pots – it has been de-alcoholised. The red wine stock is made from concentrated red wine extract, from a blend of red wines and is made in Italy.

What Recipes Can I Use Wine Stock Pots In?

• Any recipe that has wine listed can use the stock pots as a direct swap. Or you can simply make up a stock pot with boiling water for a nice wine sauce/gravy.
• Add to shepherd’s pie, spaghetti bolognese, beef pies…. there isn’t anywhere you can’t use a wine stock pot! Use a wine stock pot as gravy/sauce in any red meat recipe that needs a lift.
• Use a wine stock pot as a simple pouring sauce, a gravy, to pour over your cooked meat, vegetarian bake, or pie.

Vegetarian & Gluten Free: The Oxo stock pots are vegetarian and gluten free.

Where Can I Buy Wine Stock Pots?

The Oxo brand is currently found at Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons and through Ocado, from £1/four (4x20g), although prices do vary and there are often deals with the higher priced Ocado. At the time of writing, Asda and Sainsburys are cheapest, both costing just £1/four, but prices do change regularly at all shops, so it might be worth checking if you’re going to be shopping in 2-3 shops this month.

Tesco wine stock pots, their own Tesco brand, are available in white wine and red wine, for £1.30 for four (4x28g) – the instructions for these is that one pot makes 500ml of wine stock; I do wonder if this is correct as it’s double the main brand, but the pots contain nearly half as much product. I’d just use these the same as the Oxo ones and use one for each 250ml of liquid my recipe wanted, then see how that looked.

As a substitute for wine in cooking these stock pots are readily available from many supermarkets and food retailers, but if you’re an avid user of Amazon, then you can easily add them to your basket: Oxo Wine Stock Pots.