Substituting red wine in cassaroles

shellie72, Sep 8, 10:18pm
Help please! I want to make a basic beef cassarole (never made one before) and the recipes I found often have red wine in them. I dont have any red wine. I have balsamic vinegar - is that similar! Can I just skip the wine all together! Or, does anyone have a kid friendly recipe they would like to share! Thanks!

dbab, Sep 8, 10:20pm
If you make a lot of casseroles, it might be worth buying a cask of red wine. The purists will tell you it's no good, but I've found it to be fine in casseroles.

carlosjackal, Sep 8, 10:34pm
It really will be worth buying a bottle of Red wine - even if only a fairly cheap one. Port is also nice in a casserole too. I assume you have bought some nice meat so it'd be a shame not to do the meat justice in a casserole.Believe me.you'll be very glad you added Red wine (or Port) .you'll never look back. Also, cook your casserole very slowly. I cook mine at around 125'C for 3 - 31/2 hours and the meat just melts in your mouth.

shellie72, Sep 8, 10:41pm
ok, thanks for the tips! Ive never made a casserole before, and Im just using the last of last years homekill stewing steak, so I wanted something long and slow. If it turns out ok, I might buy some port or something :)

geldof, Sep 9, 12:05am
Shellie72, your casserole will still turn out fine without the red wine.
It does add another dimension though.
Wine used in cooking is also "kid safe", as the alcohol evaporates and just leaves the flavour.

If adding balsalmic just add about a tablespoon, not a direct substitution for the red wine.

Casseroles are very forgiving and you don't have to follow a set recipe.
Just cook long and slow.

rainrain1, Sep 9, 4:40am
Plum sauce

chatsmom, Sep 9, 7:41am
If you don't want to buy wine, Prenzel has a substitute called Vincon.