The Flavours of Substitution

Be game: Try brush turkey over quail

“Sherry and marsala… if used in place of port or Madeira… tend to give an un-French flavour to most French recipes.”

                                                     -  Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Fortunately, this culinary rule of thumb doesn’t apply to switching between dry sherry and Chinese rice wine.  You see, though sherry was first potently concocted in the Spanish town, Jerez, it doesn’t do the same damage to New Asian cuisine. In fact, it intensifies the flavour of vermicelli drenched with slivers of beautifully grass-fed beef and asparagus, as charmingly green as a fresh harvest.

This holds true too when you switch between white vinegar and balsamic vinegar: even though there is an obvious change in colour, the test is in the taste. And that it passes with flying colours. When Thai chilli sauce has been carefully drenched with balsamic instead, you would still want it prepared in no order way, as it becomes the perfect foil to generously dip the delightfully coriander-crumbed ginger shrimps in. This New Asian tapas becomes a definite serve during a cocktail party.

Now, in case you begin to think that the above cooking tip doesn’t apply to more traditional cuisines, go ahead and try substituting white wine vinegar with white wine and balsamic vinegar when you serve dinner guests with Shawarma. The Lebanese spiced baked steaks absolutely sing in this new drenching. Accompanied by a glass of cabernet merlot, the evening turns into a loving serenade.

So the trick in avoiding the faux pas mentioned by dearest Julia Child is this: know the taste of the original ingredient well enough to successfully choose a substitute sharing similar flavours. Then you’ll have little worries about being in harmony with the traditional essence of a dish.


And you don't ever have to stock both sherry AND rice wine in your pantry!