Help News Politics Entertainment music , movies , art , TV , restaurants Business Travel Marketplace jobs , homes , cars , rentals , classifieds Sports Commentary Shopping Chef Thomas Keller and co-writer Michael Ruhlman write an exclusive monthly column for The Times Food section dedicated to teaching restaurant techniques to home cooks.
Any home cook can make wine reduction.
The only thing that's nearly as pleasurable as drinking good wine is cooking it. Unlike most classical sauces used by professional chefs, which rely on rich veal stock, fish fumets or other time-consuming procedures or expensive ingredients, a sauce made from a wine reduction is equally well suited to the home cook. As with all techniques, there are elements of finesse that make the difference between good and great results. The most important is to reduce slowly, without rapid boiling. Think of the process not as reduction, but rather as accelerated evaporation.