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How to Thicken Wine Sauce
Wine sauce adds a tangy topping to many dishes, including pasta, poultry, meat and even some desserts. Incorporate any type of wine into a sauce, but pick your wine so it pairs nicely with the food it accompanies, just like you do when serving wine alongside a meal. Measure carefully when adding wine to your sauce or the resulting mixture will be too thin. Thickening a sauce helps it adhere to your food. Thicken a weak wine sauce by reducing the sauce or incorporating starch-based ingredients with thickening properties, such as arrowroot and cornstarch. Add this to my Recipe Box.
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Instructions
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Reduction
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Place the wine sauce in a large pan and cook it over high heat to thicken it by reduction. The heat evaporates the alcohol and excess water from the wine and intensifies the sauce's flavor.
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Bring the sauce to a full boil. Stir frequently with a spoon to prevent the sauce from burning.
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3
Dip the spoon in the wine sauce; hold it over the pan, allowing the sauce to drip off the back of the spoon. If the sauce coats the back of the spoon and does not run off, it is ready to serve. If the sauce runs freely off the spoon, continue cooking until it reaches a thicker consistency.
Starches
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Use 1 tbsp. of arrowroot for every 1 cup of wine sauce you are thickening. Mix arrowroot with enough cold water to form a slurry. Place the arrowroot and water into a glass jar and tightly seal the lid; shake the jar vigorously to combine the ingredients.
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Bring the wine sauce almost to a boil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the arrowroot slurry to your wine sauce and whisk to combine. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 minute.
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Follow the same procedure to use cornstarch as a thickening agent. Use 2 tbsp. of cornstarch for each 1 cup of sauce you are thickening.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not overcook sauces thickened with starch or the mixture will become thin again.
Never add arrowroot or cornstarch directly to a sauce or it will create lumps.
Do not thicken a wine sauce with a mixture of flour and butter; it will result in a cloudy sauce.
References
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