White Port substitute

Substitutes for White Port with ratios

1. 2Blanc or bianco vermouth

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   Pale, fortified and lightly sweet like white port, so it holds its shape when reduced, but it carries wormwood and citrus botanicals, so the finished dish tastes fresher and faintly bitter rather than honeyed.

   What changes

   Best for

   cream sauces, white fish, chicken, spritzes, vegetables

   Best choice when the colour of the dish matters. It is a bit less sweet and considerably more aromatic than white port, so if you are cooking fruit, add a teaspoon of sugar or honey per quarter cup to make up the difference.

2. 3Sweet Marsala

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   A Sicilian fortified wine of similar strength and sweetness, but with a much more pronounced burnt-caramel and raisin flavour that darkens the dish and dominates delicate ingredients.

   What changes

   Best for

   chicken and pork, mushrooms, zabaglione and custards, pan sauces

   The easiest bottle to find in most supermarkets. Because Marsala's caramel note is stronger, start with three-quarters of the amount and taste before adding more. Do not use dry Marsala unless you also add sugar, since white port is sweeter than people expect.

3. 4Madeira (Verdelho or Bual)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   A fortified wine from the same Portuguese tradition with the same weight and a similar honeyed sweetness, but it is deliberately heated during ageing, so it tastes tangier, smokier and more caramelised.

   What changes

   Best for

   pan sauces, braises, mushrooms, sauce for veal or chicken, cooked fruit

   A close relative and an excellent cooking substitute. Its higher acidity actually makes it a better deglazing liquid than white port, though the flavour reads distinctly of toffee and dried apricot rather than fresh stone fruit.

4. 5Dry white wine plus honey or sugar

   Taste and texture differ

   For ¼ cup white port, use ¼ cup dry white wine plus 1 to 2 teaspoons honey or sugar

   Matches the sweetness and the acidity but not the body: table wine is around 12 percent alcohol against white port's 19, so the sauce ends up thinner and less warming, and it lacks the almond note entirely.

   What changes

   Best for

   glazes, quick pan sauces, poaching fruit, marinades

   Perfectly serviceable when the port is one component of many. Honey gets you closer than white sugar because it brings its own floral quality. Reduce a little longer than the recipe says to make up for the weaker alcohol.

5. 6White grape juice plus a splash of vinegar (alcohol-free)

   Taste and texture differ

   For ¼ cup white port, use 3 tablespoons white grape juice plus 1 tablespoon water and ½ teaspoon white wine vinegar

   Honestly, there is no good non-alcoholic version of a fortified wine, because most of what fortification does is add warmth, aromatic lift and keeping power that juice cannot supply.

   What changes

   This gets the sweetness and a little of the tartness and nothing else.

   Best for

   alcohol-free cooking, poached fruit, glazes, sauces for pork

   Works acceptably where the port was mainly sweetening something, such as poached pears or a fruit glaze. It falls flat in a savoury pan sauce, where you are better off using stock plus a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of sherry vinegar.