What can I use instead of white wine for deglazing a pan and thinning the sauce?

Dry vermouth (1:1). Herbal and a shade sweeter. It keeps for months open, which is why restaurant kitchens use it. Pull back to 3/4 under delicate fish. Dry sherry (Half the volume, made up with water). Nutty and oxidised. It sits well with mushrooms and chicken and reads odd under white fish. Stock plus white wine vinegar (1 cup stock + 1 tbsp white wine vinegar). Lifts the fond just as well. The acid is flatter and one-note, so add it at the end rather than reducing it hard. Water plus lemon juice (1 cup water + 2 tsp lemon juice). Cleans the pan and adds nothing else, so the sauce leans entirely on the fond. Salt it harder than you would with wine.

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What to use instead of white wine

Q: What can I use instead of white wine for acid and liquid in a long braise?

Dry vermouth (1:1). The herbs concentrate over a long cook, so a two-hour braise tastes faintly of bay and wormwood. Use 3/4 and top up with stock. Dry cider (1:1). Apple sweetness that suits pork and chicken. Less acid than wine, so finish with a squeeze of lemon. Stock plus white wine vinegar (1 cup stock + 2 tbsp white wine vinegar per 1 cup wine). The braise is savoury from the first minute rather than fruity. Watch the salt, since stock concentrates as the pot reduces. White grape juice plus vinegar (1 cup unsweetened white grape juice + 2 tbsp white wine vinegar per 1 cup wine). Closest to the fruit of wine. Still sweeter, so pull any honey or sugar out of the recipe.

Q: What can I use instead of white wine for the body of a mulled or spiced drink?

Alcohol-free white wine (1:1). Right acid, thinner body, noticeably sweeter. Cut the recipe sugar by half and taste before adding any back. Strong black tea plus white grape juice (2 cups strong black tea + 2 cups white grape juice per 750 ml wine, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice). Tea tannin does the gripping the wine used to. The pot goes browner and the spices sit in it properly instead of floating on sugar. Cloudy apple cider, non-alcoholic (1:1, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice per cup). Rounder and apple-forward. It takes cinnamon and star anise well and makes clove taste stronger than it does in wine.

It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.

Deglazing a pan and thinning the sauce

Acid and water dissolve the browned bits stuck to the pan, and the alcohol carries aroma that water leaves behind. Both boil off and what stays is a sauce sharper than stock alone.

Dry vermouthRan out

1:1

Herbal and a shade sweeter. It keeps for months open, which is why restaurant kitchens use it. Pull back to 3/4 under delicate fish.

Dry sherryRan out

Half the volume, made up with water

Nutty and oxidised. It sits well with mushrooms and chicken and reads odd under white fish.

Stock plus white wine vinegarNo alcohol

1 cup stock + 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Lifts the fond just as well. The acid is flatter and one-note, so add it at the end rather than reducing it hard.

Where to buy it →

Water plus lemon juiceNo alcohol

1 cup water + 2 tsp lemon juice

Cleans the pan and adds nothing else, so the sauce leans entirely on the fond. Salt it harder than you would with wine.

Where to buy it →

What doesn't work: Sweet wine such as moscato or an off-dry riesling at 1:1. The sugar concentrates as the pan reduces and the sauce turns syrupy and candied over savoury meat.

Acid and liquid in a long braise

Over an hour the alcohol goes and the acid stays, which keeps a fatty braise from tasting heavy and gives the finished sauce a backbone once it has reduced.

Dry vermouthRan out

1:1

The herbs concentrate over a long cook, so a two-hour braise tastes faintly of bay and wormwood. Use 3/4 and top up with stock.

Dry ciderRan out

1:1

Apple sweetness that suits pork and chicken. Less acid than wine, so finish with a squeeze of lemon.

Stock plus white wine vinegarNo alcohol

1 cup stock + 2 tbsp white wine vinegar per 1 cup wine

The braise is savoury from the first minute rather than fruity. Watch the salt, since stock concentrates as the pot reduces.

Where to buy it →

White grape juice plus vinegarNo alcohol

1 cup unsweetened white grape juice + 2 tbsp white wine vinegar per 1 cup wine

Closest to the fruit of wine. Still sweeter, so pull any honey or sugar out of the recipe.

Where to buy it →

What doesn't work: Cooking wine from the vinegar aisle. It is salted to around 1.5 percent so it can be sold outside the liquor licence, and a cup of it in a braise that reduces by half puts the dish past saving.

The body of a mulled or spiced drink

Here the wine is the drink, so a swap has to bring tannin, acid and enough weight to stand under cinnamon, clove and citrus. Without grip the pot tastes like hot squash.

Alcohol-free white wineNo alcohol

1:1

Right acid, thinner body, noticeably sweeter. Cut the recipe sugar by half and taste before adding any back.

Strong black tea plus white grape juiceNo alcohol

2 cups strong black tea + 2 cups white grape juice per 750 ml wine, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice

Tea tannin does the gripping the wine used to. The pot goes browner and the spices sit in it properly instead of floating on sugar.

Where to buy it →

Cloudy apple cider, non-alcoholicNo alcohol

1:1, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice per cup

Rounder and apple-forward. It takes cinnamon and star anise well and makes clove taste stronger than it does in wine.

Where to buy it →

What doesn't work: White grape juice on its own. With no tannin and no acid it goes cloying after two mouthfuls hot, and the spices sit on top of it rather than in it.