Query: good way to use up good but past-prime Chard.

I have some good Oregon Chard. that is not vinegar, but past its peak. (2000/01) On top of that, I'm just not that big a Chard. fan to begin with, outside of actual Burgundy.
My thought was to make some garlic/herb/wine concentrate---basically reduce it way down on the stove, then store (freeze?) it for use in jazzing up soup/fricasee/sauce etc. as the occasion arises.
Will this work? Will the concentrate keep and maintain its flavor? I've never done it and am just wondering if it's a sound idea.
Anyone have any experience doing such a thing?

I can't say whether this is the best application for old wine that you aren't excited about drinking. But I have frozen wine reduction successfully. Once you reduce it, just freeze as you would stock. Since you don't use much wine reduction in a single dish, it is a good candidate for freezing in an ice cube tray, so you have nice single-serving pieces.

(A wine reduction is probably best with a younger, fruitier wine. But you aren't asking what the best wine to use for a reduction.)

mrbarolo wrote:I have some good Oregon Chard. that is not vinegar, but past its peak. (2000/01) On top of that, I'm just not that big a Chard. fan to begin with, outside of actual Burgundy.
My thought was to make some garlic/herb/wine concentrate---basically reduce it way down on the stove, then store (freeze?) it for use in jazzing up soup/fricasee/sauce etc. as the occasion arises.
Will this work? Will the concentrate keep and maintain its flavor? I've never done it and am just wondering if it's a sound idea.
Anyone have any experience doing such a thing?

You fooled me! I thought you were interested in using up some wilting greens, not some old-ish wine. I must say that if you're not fond of the wine, you won't be fond of it concentrated and you definitely won't be fond of concentrated wine you don't like in other foods. You have the right idea, reducing and freezing it, but why bother when you just didn't like it?

MincyBits wrote:You fooled me! I thought you were interested in using up some wilting greens, not some old-ish wine. I must say that if you're not fond of the wine, you won't be fond of it concentrated and you definitely won't be fond of concentrated wine you don't like in other foods. You have the right idea, reducing and freezing it, but why bother when you just didn't like it?

In general, I agree with this: you won't make a bad wine taste good. But reducing it with other things can mask some of the flavors you don't like. I've never made a white wine reduction. But a red wine reduction that includes aromatic vegetables and perhaps even some stock can make a sauce that you might want to use. Seeing that you don't want to drink the wine, why not use it as an experiment?

I also thought you meant Swiss Chard at first!

That's very funny about "chard." Never crossed my mind.

I should clarify: it's not bad wine and I don't actively dislike it. It's just that drinking chardonnay isn't my first choice among all the white wines in the world. And this one is probably passed it's peak freshness, without having actually turned.
My working hypothesis was that it might work very nicely as a reduction with garlic/parsely/sage...whatever, to flavor a dish/sauce even if it wouldn't make my ideal glass for sipping.

Is it an oaky, buttery-ish chard? or an unoaked, maybe mineral-y version? or whatever? Its original style would make a difference in what you reduced it *with*, and how it might turn out.

Most of the Oregon chards I've tasted were pretty lean...

Geo

Confused me, too. Here I was, all ready to suggest my recipe for Indian-style chard with potatoes.. Maybe the vegetable people should just hijack this thread!

Hi,

The elements contributing to flavor dissolve in water, fat and alcohol. If you make a reduction, you will have evaporated away the alcohol. If you are inclined to freeze your reduction to add a shot to a dish. I would instead freeze the wine in ice cube portions (about a tablespoon) to add to preparations as needed. Even a small quantity will dissolved some, if not all, the flavor compoents that dissolve in alcohol thus maximizing flavor.

Regards,

You know you're an LTHer when ... you wake up in the morning thinking about mrbarolo's problem with his past-prime chardonnay.

Count me among those who think if you're not inclined to drink it now, you won't much care for it in a concentrated reduction.

But my thoughts upon waking this morning ran along the same lines as Cathy's -- some flavor elements dissolve in water, some in oil, some in alcohol. I frequently make sure to have some oil, some water, and some alcohol in whatever sauce or stew or soup I'm making, just to make sure I get the flavors that each one is capable of maximizing.

So to use an alcohol that you're not particularly keen to drink straight, I'd suggest adding some of it to a fairly strongly flavored soup or stew or sauce -- e.g., bolognese sauce, or coq au vin sauce -- something where you'll get the benefit of the alcohol bringing some additional flavor out without the chardonnay's flavor itself being noticeable.

Just a thought.

A wine reduction generally serves a different purpose than what I think Cathy2 and Katie are getting at. A wine reduction is meant to be a finishing sauce. It has the consistency of a syrup.

A wine reduction isn't meant to be a vehicle to bring out alcohol soluble flavors - for that, you want to use "fresh" wine, spirits, etc. (I wouldn't bother freezing wine in small quantities for this purpose, though.) I should also note that there is considerable disagreement about whether alcohol actually brings out any new flavors. See this for a clear statement of the idea that alcohol doesn't release flavor compounds. McGee seems to take the opposite view. In any case, the point I'm making is that a reduction is a sauce meant to be added at the end of a dish, not something that is meant to be added during cooking. It isn't supposed to retain alcohol that can release additional flavors.

Also, much of the flavor profile of a wine changes when it is reduced with other ingredients. It very well could be the case that the OP wouldn't like the raw wine and wouldn't like a reduction made from it. But the process of combining the wine with other flavors and reducing it means that one could actually enjoy the sauce even if the raw wine isn't to one's taste. The point is that you aren't getting the raw wine back ... but more so. You are getting a different, but related, product.

The one thing I've learned (following a suggestion from Cook's) is that you do the reduction s l o w l y —I mean, take all afternoon to just barely waft the water out of the wine. Recently I reduced an entire bottle of sauvignon blanc to about an eighth of a cup. As D72 notes, this process results in a viscous highly flavored syrup, quite unlike the wine you started with. One reason for this is that all the acid in the original wine (typically .7g/liter) is there in the reduction, which gives it *quite* a pop.

Red wines should be reduced even more slowly than whites, in order to avoid some rubbery-tasting sulfur mercaptans developing.

Geo

Darren72 wrote:A wine reduction generally serves a different purpose than what I think Cathy2 and Katie are getting at. A wine reduction is meant to be a finishing sauce. It has the consistency of a syrup.

A wine reduction isn't meant to be a vehicle to bring out alcohol soluble flavors - for that, you want to use "fresh" wine, spirits, etc. (I wouldn't bother freezing wine in small quantities for this purpose, though.)

I think you misunderstood me, Darren72. I wasn't advocating making a reduction from the wine. I was advocating using it straight in a soup, stew, or sauce.