How to Make Wine Salt From Homemade or Leftover Wine
Wine salt is one of those homestead experiments that came directly from refusing to waste something I had already put a lot of work into.
The wine I used was the first batch of homemade grape wine I ever made. The grapes came from our homestead, I juiced them myself, and then I fermented and bottled the wine.
The problem was that it turned out far too strong for me. I don't drink, so I wasn't judging it from a wine-drinking perspective anyway, but even the smell was stronger than I wanted to deal with. I let it age, hoping it would mellow, and it really didn't seem to.
I shared some with people who did drink wine. They told me it tasted good, but it also hit them surprisingly hard with very little consumed. I had no way to measure the alcohol content at the time, so I can't tell you how strong it actually was.
What I did know was that I liked cooking with wine, and I hated the idea of throwing away something that had started with grapes we grew ourselves.
In This Article
Turning a Too-Strong Homemade Wine Into Something Useful
That is how the wine became wine salt.
Instead of treating the batch as a failure, I turned it into a seasoning I could actually use. That is one of my favorite parts of homestead cooking: when something doesn't turn out the way you intended, sometimes the best solution is to change the end goal.
Wine salt gives food a concentrated wine flavor in a form that is easy to keep on hand and easy to use a little at a time. It is especially handy when I want the flavor of wine without opening an entire bottle just for one recipe.
How to Make Wine Salt
The complete recipe is in the card below. I have kept the original recipe intact because this is still the method I used for that first batch.
PrintHow To Make Wine Salt
Instructions
1. Gather your ingredients and pour the entire bottle of wine into a stainless steel pan. You can use homemade wine like I did or use store bought. The important thing is to choose a wine that tastes good.
2. Bring the wine to a boil and then turn the heat down to simmer and let the wine cook down.
3. Stir the wine from time to time to make sure it is not burning. When it looks like thick maple syrup or honey, remove the pan from the heat.
4. Rotate the pan so the wine syrup is spread out on the bottom of the pan.
5. Pour the salt on top of the wine syrup and stir it well so the salt absorbs all the wine syrup.
6. Spread the wine salt on a dehydrator tray or cookie sheet in a single layer. Do not pile the salt up.
7. Turn the dehydrator or oven to the lowest possible setting and dry the wine salt.
8. Once the salt is dry, place it in a glass jar. I use a wide mouth pint size canning jar with a plastic screw on lid.
9. Store the container of wine salt in a cool, dark, dry location.
How I Use Wine Salt
I like wine salt because it is easy to reach for when I am seasoning food. It can add depth to sauces, roasts, beef dishes, pasta sauce and other savory recipes where wine would normally make sense.
It also solves a practical problem for someone like me who cooks with wine but does not drink it. I don't have to open a whole bottle, use a small amount and then wonder what to do with the rest.
A Good Way to Use Leftover Wine
You do not need to start with an entire batch of homemade wine like I did. Smaller amounts of leftover wine can also be turned into wine salt; just scale the amount of salt to match the amount of reduced wine you are working with.
If you make homemade wine and end up with a batch that is not quite what you hoped for, this is one possible way to repurpose it rather than pouring it out.
A Note About Alcohol
My original version of this article said the alcohol was simply "gone" after cooking. That is too absolute. Cooking and reduction can remove a substantial amount of alcohol, but the amount that remains depends on factors such as time, temperature and method.
Because of that, I would not make blanket claims about the finished salt being completely alcohol-free. If avoiding alcohol is important for medical, religious, pregnancy, recovery or other reasons, use a recipe and process specifically designed for that need rather than assuming all alcohol has disappeared.
Why This Recipe Still Belongs on a Homestead Site
This recipe started with grapes grown right here on our homestead. I harvested them, juiced them, made my first wine, discovered that the finished wine was not something I wanted to drink, and then found another use for it.
That is exactly the kind of kitchen problem-solving I want to preserve on Experimental Homesteader. Not every project turns out perfectly the first time. Sometimes the useful skill is knowing how to turn the result into something else.
In this case, a too-strong batch of homemade grape wine became a seasoning I actually enjoyed using.
