Vermouth: The Bar Cart Staple Every Cook Needs in the Kitchen

One of the biggest revelations I had as a chef came after I switched from working in the kitchen to writing about alcohol. It was only as an avid martini drinker and not a classically trained professional chef that I realized that vermouth is one of the least used and underestimated ingredients in every chef’s arsenal.

The first serious restaurant I worked in focused on traditional French bistro fare, tweaked for the modern palate by an old school Bordeaux chef. Alcohol was no stranger to his recipes. We would include port wine, red wine, brandy and Madeira in the red onion reduction for our duck liver parfait. The stewed liqueur for the chef’s typical bunny à la Royale contained enough red wine to sink a ship. Even the porkball mix got a healthy sheen of dry white before being rolled into marble-sized balls, cooked, and served with snails, garlic butter, and a wild mushroom soufflé. There was hardly a dash of wormwood to be seen among all the sauces, stews, reductions and pickling liquids.

I would like to point out that this was not due to my chef’s preference or oversight. At the culinary college I trained at – England’s oldest and co-founded by Auguste Escoffier – we familiarized ourselves with classic sauces that are now more out of date than the vermouth bottles on most people’s bar carts. We may have used a shot of Noilly Prat to learn how to master beurre blanc for fish dishes and we may have used it in making the only Sole Veronique I’ve ever cooked, but vermouth was just the same in its absence in training remarkable attitude as I would find later in professional roles.

Or rather, his absence was not at all noteworthy. Because while sweet and dry vermouth is processed every month in restaurant bars, the ingredient simply remains a foreign body in most commercial kitchens. I believe this is a missed opportunity and vermouth – and its culinary potential – should be something more home cooks should be aware of.

There’s a reason bartenders mix sweet vermouth in Manhattan’s and dry vermouth in martinis instead of red and white wine, respectively. In addition to the 10 to 20 additional proof points that they offer – which hardly makes a difference when stirring with more than 80 proof of rye whiskey or gin – the liqueur wines also contain a pharmacy with infused plant substances. With herbs, flowers, seeds and bark, these ingredients give the liqueur wines additional layers of flavor and complexity. Vermouth, on the other hand, can do exactly the same thing in cooking if you know how and when to use it.

Before doing the how, let’s first consider the additional practical benefits. Most recipes that involve wine will call for a cup of red here or half a cup of white there, unless they are specific wine-based stews like Coq au Vin or Boeuf Bourguignon. If you have an open bottle of wine in your fridge for these occasions, it has probably long been better. And call myself selfish, but when I open a bottle in the evening I would rather not sacrifice a glass or two to my Le Creuset. I definitely don’t want to drink cooking wine – especially not if I can instead turn to the perfectly preserved vermouth bottle in my fridge, which is available as the only fillet on both Friday evening martinis and Saturday evening.

The late Julia Child is one of the few notable proponents of wormwood cooking, though this seems to have as much to do with the quality of wine in its heyday as it does with her love of flavored wine.

“White wines should be dry and full-bodied, such as a Sauvignon, but because many of the white wines are too acidic [sic]I prefer a dry white French vermouth, ”she notes in“ Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom ”. “In addition to its strength and quality, it holds up well.”

(By the way, Child’s favorite cocktail was the Upside-Down Martini, a riff of the classic where vermouth takes on the role of the majority shareholder and gin makes up the minority.)

Far be it from us all to consult the great chef, but while Child uses vermouth and white wine almost interchangeably in their recipes, I would suggest a considered approach with some guiding principles that apply to both sweet and dry vermouth.

Some of the botanicals that give wormwood its characteristic complexity (cinchona bark and wormwood) also give it a challenging bitter streak. For this reason, I avoid using wormwood as a stand-alone stew liquid, as this flavor only increases over long cooking times.

Instead, wormwood is best used for deglazing pans or for lifting the sugar that’s built up while frying vegetables, fish, or meat. Any liquid can do the job, but the use of sweet or dry wormwood adds both to the taste of the wine and its earthy herbal notes. As a simple rule of thumb, use dry vermouth instead of white wine (for vegetables, fish, and white meat) and sweet vermouth instead of red wine.

The British chef Simon Hopkinson uses exactly this technique in the recipe for his “Perfect Roast Chicken Dinner”. As the author of the wonderful cookbook Roast Chicken and Other Stories, we can bet he knows a thing or two about cooking poultry.

I avoid large amounts of vermouth for stewing, but never from the table (or from the pan). For example, if you’re browning vegetables and meat for Boeuf Bourguignon, use sweet vermouth to deglaze and add half a cup to the red wine, which serves as both the cooking liquid and the base sauce for the dish. This is just the right amount to add extra layers of flavor without running the risk of becoming overly bitter.

For those who like a transition between cooking and cocktail projects, consider incorporating dry vermouth in pickling liquids. Nowhere does this make more sense than homemade pickled onions for a gibson, with this cocktail ultimately being a subtle (and delicious) twist on a martini.

While sweet vermouth can be enjoyed as a standalone dessert, consider it for simple poached pears to round off a meal. Brands like Vermouth Routin and Vermut Lustau are ideal for fall, offering rich vanilla, dried fruit, and caramelized nutty notes. Feel free to add more sugar or extra baking seasoning as you cook, but with their already decadent profiles, this is an option rather than a necessity.

Although it sounds clichéd, it all boils down to experimentation. Just make sure you aren’t short for a cocktail hour.

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