One of the best things about hosting a BYOB party at your house is all the great bottles of wine and liquor left over after the party is finished.
Well… usually.
After the last BYOB shindig I hosted, I found myself left with 3 bottles of not-so-great wine that I knew I’d never drink. They sat collecting dust on the bar in the dining room for weeks and weeks. Every so often my gaze would fall on them, and I’d think, “Now what in the hell am I going to do with this wine?” Then: “And who in the hell brought this to my party anyway?” I considered re-gifting the bottles, but didn’t want the recipient to get the wrong idea about my wine taste. With my luck, they’d end up thinking these undrinkable wines were my favorites and making that my next birthday present.
No thanks.
To make matters worse, the unwanted wines weren’t your standard reds or whites – which I might normally work into a favorite recipe. No sir, the three I had to contend with were: a moscato, a pink moscato, and a sparkling rose with the word ‘sweet’ in the name. Halp.
Determined not to let even wine that I didn’t want to drink go to waste, I turned to the Internets for ideas on how to transform these leftover wines into something delicious.
What To Do With Leftover Moscato
Moscato Poached Pears – This recipe is super simple and uses a full bottle of moscato (perfect for my needs!) along with a touch of honey to soften and flavor delicious ripe pears. The poached pears can even be sliced and saved for serving later over ice cream or yogurt.
Apples Baked in Moscato – Slow-baked apples and prunes in a wine bath flavored with vanilla, cinnamon and brown sugar? Not only is this a great way to use up some leftover moscato, it’s the perfect healthy dessert for Fall.
What To Do With Leftover Rose’
Homemade Wine Jelly – While the original recipe uses red wine, I think it would work just as well with a rose’ like the pink moscato I’ve got on hand. The original poster recommends pairing the final product with cheese and crackers, but I could see using this jelly on everything from biscuits to burgers.
Gummy Wine Fruit Snacks – This recipe also calls for red – but are you telling me you wouldn’t want to tear into these sweet and boozy gummy treats if they were made with rose’ instead? I didn’t think so. Package some of these easy to make adult treats up and share with your friends!
What to do With Leftover Champagne
Strawberry and Champagne Pancakes – When you think champagne and breakfast, you usually think mimosas. But this recipe infuses champagne into homemade pancake batter to make them even lighter and fluffier, then tops the flapjacks with a fresh strawberry and champagne sauce.
Homemade Champagne Vinegar – The thought of making my own vinegar from wine kinda freaks me out, especially since the process involves fermentation. But since that bottle of sparkling sweet wine is going to just sit there collecting dust anyway, might as well give it a shot. Some recipes for making champagne vinegar, like this one from The Kitchn, opt for natural fermentation (i.e., just sitting the open wine in a dark place for a few weeks), while others, like this one on the Williams-Sonoma blog recommend the use of a bacterial vinegar starter or ‘mother’.
More Uses for Leftover Wine
They say you shouldn’t cook with wine you wouldn’t want to drink. But they didn’t say anything about baking with it or using it around the house. These 27 uses for leftover wine from Greatist are range from savory to sweet and even household uses