Can anyone recommend a favorite brand of sherry?

C

cindy-k-mi

Well-known member
I've come across lots of recipes that call for sherry, but other than knowing not to buy cooking sherry, I'm not sure what to buy. I looked for it at the store today and found that there are two types, cream and dry. So before I buy it, I'll have to figure out what exactly I'm going to use it for. I'm just wondering if anyone has a favorite brand.

Thanks,

Cindy

 
Well, me of course. It really depends on what you like about sherry though. Here are some ideas...

The very sweet sherries such as the Creams (Harvey's Bristol would be an example) will not be very useful as a cooking ingredient, so if you're not going to drink it much, I wouldn't bother with them. Unless your plan is to use the sherry exclusively for desserts. Then this is what you do want. You could, I think, get a Harvey's Bristol Milk, which is less sweet but could still be used in desserts and might be more useful otherwise.

What I like about cooking with sherries is that there presence is noticed without its being overpowering. Generally.

Typically, you would use a dry sherry for cooking. Some are so dry that your mouth would go into shock. Tio Pepe, for example is very dry and probably too dry for cooking. It would be a 0.

So mid-range dry might be....and Amontillado, which is probably a 1 on the sugar scale that starts at 0. It's generally inexpensive and just fine for sipping, even if you like ice with it. An Olorosso Dry would be okay too. It is probably classified as an MD.

There are a whole lot of absolutely divine sweet sipping sherries from small bottlers in Spain. These are so wonderful that you just wouldn't think of using them IN food.

I dunno. It really depends on what you want to do with them. They run the gammut from $10 to $1500 a bottle and the whole range of sweetness.

 
Excellent info, Marg. I use Amontillado for cooking as a general rule but sometimes

I use Harvey's Bristol Cream even for cooking- I make a sour cream/mushroom based chicken dish that calls for a bit of cream sherry and there are a couple dessert recipes I use it for but as a rule I would not use it for just any dish that calls for Sherry.

 
For cream sherry a good brand that is widely available is Harvey's Bristol Cream

remember "I'll have a spot of Harvey's"! loved that add as a kid! anyway, it's nice to sip on while cooking and excellent with chicken and in gravies. The local wine merchant sells me dry Spanish sherry, a fina, and I just let him pick whichever brand is best in my price range at the time. Here's a fun idea, if you have a tapas restaurant in your city ask them to give you a taste test of the sherries. yum!

 
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