How to Pair Food and Wine

Lets start with a simple poll to see how you pair up your favorite foods with wine. You can choose more than one answer:

Even the most experienced cook can feel a little inadequate when faced with pairing food with wine.  It used to be red with meat, white with fish or chicken and I’m sure many of you still look at it that way but which red wine with red meat? – Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Barbarossa, Shiraz?

The same goes for white wine. There are hundreds of white grape varieties including the more well know Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon plus all those you probably never heard of like Azal, Inzolia, Juhfark. So which grape goes best with what you are serving?

With some wines going for literally thousands of dollars a bottle and flowery reviews that seem to be written in another language (nose? finish? terroir?), it’s no wonder that many of us just close our eyes and grab a bottle.  Either that, or we serve whatever our guests have brought over and hope for the best.

I think with a little guidance and a few rules for pairing, anyone can choose a bottle of wine to go with a specific dish.  So, take a deep breath and let’s look at food and wine pairing, knowing that at the heart of it all, it’s really no more difficult than “Drink what you like.”

Drum Roll Please – A Little History

First up, people have been making and enjoying wine with food for thousands of years.  I doubt that that Roman centurion ever complained that the red wine he was served didn’t go with his salt cod and he’d rather have a white, thank-you-very-much.  Please don’t go fact checking - I have no idea whether the Romans ate salt cod, but my point is simple:  people have been drinking wine with their food for eons, and if we try to over-think that relationship, we might miss out.

There is no doubt that food and wine go together.  Before global or even intra-continental shipping, wines were made and drunk locally, and that old adage “What grows together goes together” certainly held true.  Now, when we are able to get great wines made literally all over the world, the basic rule still applies:  Grapes grow.  Vegetables grow.  Meat grows.  Fish grows.

It’s All About Terroir

You may have noticed that I mentioned “terroir.”  Terroir is a French term that really doesn’t have a one-word translation into English.  Terroir is the character a wine gets from the place it was grown - soil composition, amount of sunlight, what is growing near the grapes, microclimate—every environmental factor you can think of plays a role in shaping the final terroir of a particular wine.

I think that this is where Old World (European) wines differ from New World wines - most Old World winemakers showcase terroir while many New World wineries play down terroir in favor of a more consistent, mass market appeal.  Regardless, wines of northern Italy go well with the food of northern Italy just like the wines of Alsace go well with Alsatian foods.  It’s all about the terroir.

The great thing about pairing wine and food is that not only does the wine enhance the food, but the food enhances the wine.  Wine and food are a happy example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.  For example, I often find that if I have a wine that’s a bit tannic - one that makes my mouth feel really dry and like it’s turning inside out - serving it with meat really balances it out nicely.

Like I said earlier, up until fairly recently, the rule of thumb for pairing wine and food was “Red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat and fish.”  This isn’t necessarily a bad rule to follow, but I think it has more to do with matching body and complexity than it has to do with matching colors.

For example, if I stew or braise a chicken in wine and stock, it will have a pretty complex and deep flavor that I might prefer to pair with a complex wine.  If I poach a chicken breast, I’ll most likely end up with a more simply-flavored, much lighter dish that I might want to pair with a light wine.

While I find that, in general, red wines are more complex than white wines, the rule doesn’t always hold.  Often, it is a subjective comparison, and you have to decide for yourself what you think works best.  And this brings us back to “Drink what you like.”

Go Taste Wines

If you don’t know what you like, I suggest going to a wine tasting.  In most states, many local wine shops offer free tastings on weekend afternoons, and if you live near a Trader Joe’s, I know that they offer wine tastings as well.  Check with your local stores.

Not true in Pennsylvania where I now live, but some “big box” wine stores, such as Total Wine, BevMo or even your local ABC Store have tasting and their own experts you can talk to and ask questions.  If you tell them that you think you might prefer a light, fruity wine to a warm, spicy wine, they can suggest wines for you to try so you’ll know if you are right!

How Sweet It Is

Sweetness is a big consideration when pairing foods and wine.  Wines range in sweetness from very dry (not sweet at all) to syrupy dessert sweetness.  The general rule is NOT to have your wine be any sweeter than what you are serving.  Therefore, you’ll want to serve a very savory meal with a very dry wine.

Many dishes that have been seared either in the final cooking or as a step along the way (braises and stews) and those that contain sweeter vegetables, such as carrots and parsnips, can be paired with a sweeter wine.  Again, make sure the wine isn’t sweeter than the dish.

Sweet desserts go very nicely with a dessert wine.  An exception to this rule, as there are exceptions to every rule, is with sparkling wine.  There is something about the bubbles that sets these wines apart from others, making them appropriate to serve with almost any course.  This is a nice thing, because while many people think of Champagne and other sparkling wines strictly for toasting, they are lovely paired with “regular food,” too.  Give it a try sometime.

There is one rule of wine pairing doesn’t have any exceptions, in my opinion.  And that rule is that wine just doesn’t go well with vinaigrette.  The acid in a vinaigrette somehow deadens the palate and makes the wine taste almost metallic and just all around unpleasant.

If you want to serve wine with a salad course, use a creamy dressing, such as creamy blue cheese or even Green Goddess.  This brings me to another wine pairing point - just as you can sour milk by adding some vinegar to it, you can also sour a cream sauce by serving an acidic wine with it.  A buttery wine, such as an oaked Chardonnay, will pair much more effectively with cream sauce than will a lemony/acidic wine.

Of course, if you have in mind the flavor profile of the wine you are going to serve before you start cooking, you can add to the dish to enhance the food and wine pairing.  For example, if the back of your bottle or the wine tasting notes indicate that the wine has a lot of herbal components, you might consider adding fresh herbs to your dish to complement the wine.

If the wine contains notes of apple, think about making a pork dish, since apple and pork is such a nice pairing.  Knowing what your wine tastes like gives you a better chance of cooking something that is complementary.  That’s why it’s okay to accept a bottle of wine as host/hostess gift and then put it away for later.  The wine they brought you as a thoughtful gift might not go with what you’ve cooked, so it’s best to serve a “known” wine with your meal.

Conclusions

With everything I just said, I have probably touched on 1% of what there is to know about pairing food and wine. There are books written on this subject and web sites and blogs devoted to talking about wine and which ones should be served with what foods. I’ll try to talk more about this subject in upcoming posts and even get a few experts to help with the discussion.

It still comes down to serving what you enjoy and can afford with your meals. Just because a big, earthy Cabernet may go well with a juicy Porterhouse steak - if you don’t like Cabernet Sauvignon, don’t serve it.

As always, I would love to hear what you have to say about some of your favorite food and wine pairings. We can all learn from sharing ideas especially with a topic like this one.

Related Topics

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The kids enjoyed a snow day last week so I asked my 11 year old daughter to write a post about one of her favorite breakfast treats - crepes or as we call them around here, Danish pancakes. These Danish pancakes, pandekager, should not be confused with another Danish pancake called aebleskiver which are round doughy balls.

Pandekager Danish pancakes are flat and extremely thin compared to classic American pancakes. To me, they look and taste just like crepes. I remember as a kid, my mor mor (mother’s mother) would make these pancakes for us and we would roll them up with strawberry jam and sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

After doing some research on the Internet, I have not been able to find anything showing a difference between crepes and pandekager although I did find recipes for both crepes and pandekager that include eggs and some do not.

I’ll also post some tips I figured out when making these on Saturday at the end of my daughter’s post, but for now please enjoy her recipe and story.

Danish Pancakes
By Maddie in 5th Grade (The Reluctant Gourmet’s younger daughter)

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/8-teaspoon salt
• 1 cups flour
• 1 and 1/8-cup milk
• ¼ stick melted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Yield 10 – 12 crepes

Cooking Utensils:

• A Whisk or a Fork
• Small bowl
• Spatula
• A Small non-stick Pan
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons

What do think about Crepes? How about that they came from Denmark? Make for your kids? Well this is my little fun story about them.

One day, when it was a snow day from school, I asked the Reluctant Gourmet to make Danish Pancakes, or as the Danish call them, pandekager, but we probably know them as crepes. I learned about them from the Reluctant Gourmet when he would talk about how he ate them as a kid (some kind of fruit or jam inside it and sugar sprinkled on top).

So I thought, why wouldn’t I want that? But sadly he didn’t have his mom’s famous recipe, so I did a little research to find a recipe. I asked my dad if this recipe was like the crepes he had when he was little. We changed it a bit for things we had around the house and started to make them.

First I helped my Dad collect all the ingredients because he said I was his sous chef. Then it is time to crack the 2 eggs into the small bowl, which he taught me how to do about 2 months ago.

Now, for a little taste in the eggs you add a pinch of salt or 1/8 teaspoon of salt with the measuring spoon. Then I mixed, with a whisk, the salt and the eggs to make it fully yellow.

Next, my favorite part is to add the flour but it you add too much it tastes not good at all. So to put the exact amount of flour in all you do is just get a regular scoop of flour. Then you get a dinner knife, turn it over so instead of the sharp part being down it is up and you just move it a cross the measuring cup to even out the flour.

Next, I added a bit of flour, then mixed it in with the egg and salt. Then do it again and again until there is no more flour. It will be pretty lumpy at first but it is fine.

Now it is time to get rid of the lumps, so that is where the milk comes in. You do the same thing you did with the flour, you start with a little bit of milk and mix it in, then you add some more and mix it in, and more over and over again until the milk is gone.It should be pretty smooth, without any bumps.

If you don’t have time to make the batter in the morning, make some the night before then put some saran wrap over the bowl and refrigerate it. You can also make the actual crepes but they taste a lot better fresh.

Now get the small 8-inch pan and put it on the stove and put the stove on medium heat (all stoves have low, medium, and high).  Now to tell that the pan is ready, flick a tiny bit of water and if it evaporates right away it is ready.

Put only enough batter to fill the pan because too much batter makes them thick and it doesn’t work, but too little makes it rip. So just enough. The batter will start turning golden brown really quickly so don’t walk away! The first time you flip it, it will tear or fold over and it will be a mess but keep trying and it will get a lot better.

Keep it in the pan for another 10 - 20 seconds then put it on a plate, put some jam or fruit inside, roll it up, put sugar on top and eat it. Yum!  My favorite is strawberries with chocolate sauce. Make another and serve to someone and see how they like it and keep making them again and again! By the way this recipe can be doubled or tripled and it would work!

This is how you make Pandekager or Danish Pancakes.

The Reluctant Gourmet’s Observations

1. If you double up the batch, it is easier to use an electric mixer than a whisk.
2. Use a non-stick pan. No need to add butter or oil if the heat is correct.
3. After you add the batter, swirl the pan around to cover the bottom evenly.
4. Don’t add too much batter - you want thin pancakes. After the first one or two, you’ll get a feel for how much batter to add.
5. Start at medium and adjust higher or lower depending how the pancakes are cooking.
6. I found it best to wait until you can free up the pancakes by shaking the pan before turning them over.
7. Follow the 75/25 rule - that is cook the pancakes on one side for 75% of the time, flip and cook the remaining 25% of the time.
8. This recipe makes enough pancakes for two hungry kids with maybe a couple leftover for the cook but if you want enough for four people, double up the batch.
9. This is a great dish to make WITH your kids. Not only will they have a blast making them with you, it’s a great way to introduce them to cooking and they’ll love eating them.
10. GREAT JOB Maddie, thanks for the contribution!

Filling ideas:

• fresh fruit - cut up strawberry’s, bananas, blueberries, raspberries, etc
• jam or jelly
• sour cream or cottage cheese
• whipped cream
• chocolate sauce

What’s Your Favorite Filling?

La Tur, Prima Donna & Chebris Cheese

A few weekends ago my youngest daughter invited some friends over for dinner and a sleepover but also invited their parents for dinner. We served Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Herb Goat Cheese that were easy to prepare and were delicious. There are a lot of steps you can do ahead so you can spend more time with your guests.

My wife asked me to pick up some fresh goat cheese from my buddy Cheeseman Jack who unfortunately is closing his cheese stand at the Farmer’s Market in Ardmore I go to every Saturday morning. Good news is he is keeping his cheese store at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia open so I guess that means more trips into the city for me. Jack is one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to cheese. He can be a little opinionated when it comes to cheese and life in general, but his encyclopedia knowledge of cheese makes up for it.

I asked Jack for 3 different cheeses to serve before dinner while we were standing around getting to know each other a little better. Here are the three cheeses he selected and each was fantastic in its own way. I’ll try to write more about each cheese in the coming weeks, but for today I just wanted to share these wonderful examples of fine cheeses with you.

Be sure to get to know your local cheese expert so they can give you great suggestions as did my friend Cheeseman Jack. And also be sure to read my Cheese Primer on how to buy cheese.

You can see the three different cheeses, what they cost (I think per pound in this case) and the type of milk used to make it.

If you can’t decide on a cow’s milk, goat’s milk or sheep’s milk cheese, why not have all three. That’s what is used to make this buttery Italian cheese from the Piedmont area call La Tur. You can read more about it at  Le Tur Cheese.

Chabris is a hard cheese from the Basque Region and is made from a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk.  Not sure if you are going to find this very easily but if you have a good cheese shop near you, be sure to ask if they can order some. It is a wonderful find.

Of the three, this Prima Donna is both my wife’s and my favorite. Prima Donna is an aged Gouda from the Netherlands. It is not as aged as some of the 4 to 6 year old Gouda that I write about at Aged Gouda Cheese (and where you can see a photo of Cheeseman Jack too), but it is lot different that the Laughing Cow Babybel cheese you picture in your head when you think of Gouda cheese. This is a cow’s milk cheese that is hard with a sweet - nutty flavor and hints of caramel on the finish.

Try New Cheeses

I know we often get into a rut and buy the same three or four cheeses whenever we have a party or just for having around the house, but I urge you to go out and try something new. There are so many great cheeses being made around the world that you owe it to yourself to give them a try. And remember, let these cheeses come to room temperature before serving.

And please let me know some of your own favorite cheeses so I can give them a try.