Top Chef Seattle

[Glenn E.]

We watched this week's episode of Top Chef tonight, and I noticed that one of the chefs used a Port in her dish. We paused the DVD and I was able to figure out that it was a Kopke tawny with an indication of age, but we couldn't see which one. Probably a 10 or 20, though, as cooking with a 30 or 40 would be a waste.

[Andy Velebil]

Probably a 10 or 20, though, as cooking with a 30 or 40 would be a waste.

Cooking with any aged tawny is a waste. That's what the basic stuff is for

[Daniel R.]

Probably a 10 or 20, though, as cooking with a 30 or 40 would be a waste.

Cooking with any aged tawny is a waste. That's what the basic stuff is for

Depends. If you are using Port to feed your Christmas Cake (instead of brandy), the better the port you use, the better the cake! This year I used Vieira de Sousa 10 year tawny

[John M.]

I would mostly agree on using less expensive wines--However, this Christmas my wife wanted 2-3 tablespoons of port to flavor the gravy/sauce for the beef tenderloin. I had a 2007 Q. do Crasto VP open and she used that. The port just added a nice touch.

[Moses Botbol]

1966 Grahams makes a lovely sauce when reduced by 2/3rds

[Roy Hersh]

I agree that sometimes, you want to use a nice 10 year old or LBV to provide some extra flavor to a special dish/sauce. But in general, you can save the good bottles for something more appropriate to drink. For a reduction though, I see no reason to "waste" top end Port. It really matters on the specific use and no rule in either direction will fit all purposes.

[Al B.]

Or you can use a corked bottle of vintage port. Heating port seems to destroy the chemicals that cause the horrible mushroomy / cardboard taste.

[Moses Botbol]

Or you can use a corked bottle of vintage port. Heating port seems to destroy the chemicals that cause the horrible mushroomy / cardboard taste.

Does not get rid of TCA though. Learned that one the hard way finding a way to use a Cockburn 1983; ruined my dinner with TCA flavored gravy....

[Al B.]

Or you can use a corked bottle of vintage port. Heating port seems to destroy the chemicals that cause the horrible mushroomy / cardboard taste.

Does not get rid of TCA though. Learned that one the hard way finding a way to use a Cockburn 1983; ruined my dinner with TCA flavored gravy....

That's odd. I've done this a few times and found that boiling the port and making a reduction completely removes the TCA flavour. Did you boil the Ck83 or just heat it until the cornflour thickened in the gravy?

[Moses Botbol]

Or you can use a corked bottle of vintage port. Heating port seems to destroy the chemicals that cause the horrible mushroomy / cardboard taste.

Does not get rid of TCA though. Learned that one the hard way finding a way to use a Cockburn 1983; ruined my dinner with TCA flavored gravy....

That's odd. I've done this a few times and found that boiling the port and making a reduction completely removes the TCA flavour. Did you boil the Ck83 or just heat it until the cornflour thickened in the gravy?

I must've reduced it by 2/3's and it was awful, I actually laughed when tasting it... Makes sense to me, why would it leave if it only gets worse? I have not tried the seranwrap thing yet.

[David Spriggs]

I have tried the SaranWrap thing and it worked surprisingly well! Left over night in a decanter with a horrible, undrinkably corked wine it was only very slightly corked the next day. I need to try the experiment on a more normal corked wine to see if it salvages it. Some of my 1977 and 1983 Dow's sound like good candidates!