TIL that deglazing with white wine instead of stock does weird things to a pan sauce

I was making a quick chicken piccata last Tuesday and realized I was out of chicken stock right when the pan was hot. So I grabbed a random bottle of sauvignon blanc from the fridge and poured in maybe half a cup. The sauce came together fine at first but then it turned this strange grayish color and had a sharp, almost metallic taste that completely killed the lemon and caper balance. I let it reduce down trying to fix it, but it just got worse. Ended up tossing the whole thing and starting over with butter and a splash of vermouth, which saved the meal. Now I keep a little jar of Better Than Bouillon on the counter just in case. Anyone else ever had a wine ruin a pan sauce like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_mason5516d agoMost Upvoted

I've totally been there with the grayish sauce thing. The issue is that cheap white wine (and even some decent ones) has a ton of tannin and acid that reacts badly when you reduce it too much without any stock to balance it out. You gotta use a wine that's actually good for cooking, not just whatever's open in the fridge. Next time, try a dry vermouth or a pinot grigio if you're subbing for stock, and cut the heat way back before you add it to the pan so it doesn't scorch and turn that nasty color. The metallic taste is usually from the wine's sulfites going wild under high heat, so keeping a lighter hand with the wine and adding a tiny pinch of sugar can help round it out.

dianawilson16d ago

Huh, I always thought the sulfite thing was a myth, but @kim_mason55 explaining it like that actually makes a ton of sense. Now I'm wondering how many of my past sauce disasters were just me cooking the wine too hot. The sugar tip is a good one too, never would've thought of that.

miaprice16d ago

Did your friend's wine say "contains sulfites" on the label? Because my buddy Rob had the exact same gray sauce horror story and it turned out he was using a cheap wine that had way too many preservatives in it. He switched to a boxed pinot grigio and never had the problem again.