Amontillado sherry is a wine rich in flavor and stronger aroma prepared by two distinct aging processes. Its flavor feels like a combination of aromatic and nutty herbs with slight hints of oak flavor. Its complex yet wonderful flavor makes it good for drinking and cooking purposes. But can you substitute sherry when it is not available in your cabinet? Or, what is the best amontillado sherry substitute?
Can any other alcoholic or non-alcoholic liquor replace the rich flavor of amontillado sherry? These are some questions to which we will answer right ahead in this guide. Here, you can find the best alternatives for amontillado sherry for drinking and cooking. So, let’s see.
Amontillado Sherry Substitute
Whenever you want to substitute anything, you must consider its characteristics such as flavor and ingredient compatibility. And for amontillado sherry, it’s obvious that liquors having stronger flavor and aroma will work.
After comparing the taste and content of ingredients, we found red wine, vermouth, brandy, and marsala the best amontillado sherry substitutes for drinking.
For cooking, fruit juice, red wine vinegar, and apple cider vinegar are best to replace sherry in your dream recipes.
All these substitutes either for drinking and cooking, cannot replace amontillado sherry completely but can mimic its taste and flavor to a great extent.
But knowing the substitutes is not enough, you must know how to choose a substitute that goes best for your taste and recipe preferences.
Amontillado Sherry Substitute for Drinking
There are a variety of alcoholic or non-alcoholic liquors having a complex flavor and strong aroma, like sherry. But you cannot use all such drinks instead of amontillado sherry. So, only choose the beverage that can give flavor closest to your dream sherry.
For example, red wine, vermouth, brandy, and marsala are considered best for drinking replacement.
1. Red wine
Red wine as an alternative for amontillado sherry is widely available and probably always on hand. Being a wonderful combination of fruity flavor and ample tannin, it can easily replace sherry that sounds amazing.
White wine can also work the same if mixed with the right proportion of white vinegar. White vinegar will round off the sweetish taste hints of wine making it another easy substitution for amontillado sherry.
2. Vermouth
Just like red wine, there’s also two varieties of vermouth, red and white. However, the red vermouth is considered best to substitute sherry because of its sweet yet spiced or bitter flavor hints.
Drink vermouth the same as amontillado sherry or add some ice cubes to it. To enjoy the more realistic flavor, top up your vermouth with carbonated water.
3. Brandy
You may surprise to see brandy in this list of substitutions but it really works. As its flavor is more on the sweet side, you can swing it to flavor somewhat like amontillado sherry. Brandy is also a good hennessy substitute.
Add some red wine vinegar or soda water to brandy to make it less sweet. Lemon-lime soda or lemonade can also roll the sweet brandy flavor to refreshing tartness.
4. Marsala
Marsala wine also wins whenever we talk about the best amontillado sherry substitutes. It comes in so many varieties with different flavor ranges. So, you can pick any marsala wine flavor that suits you in place of amontillado.
But it goes wonderful when mixed with other wines or beverages. Simply you can add cola soda, lemon soda, or white or red wine vinegar to marsala.
Amontillado Sherry Substitute for Cooking
Amontillado sherry is a common ingredient in sauces, stews, dips, and other food dishes. It contains several food colorings, preservatives, and salt to maintain its quality.
You can substitute it in your recipes easily to get almost a similar flavor and aroma. Apple cider vinegar, fruit juice, and red wine vinegar are the best amontillado sherry replacements.
1. Apple cider vinegar
Apple cider vinegar being easily available at affordable price replaces cooking sherry wonderfully. And, you will definitely have it in your liquor cabinet always.
For substituting amontillado sherry, you must add some sugar and water to modify its consistency and flavor. Consequently, you’ll get an easy alternative for cooking sherry.
Additionally, it is the best option for those who want to cut down too much salty flavor of cooking sherry because apple cider vinegar is low in salt content.
2. Fruit Juice
If nothing seems to be on your side at the moment of substituting amontillado, using fruit juice could be an easy replacement. Here, remember that you cannot use all kinds of fruit juices to every dish that calls for cooking sherry.
You can use apple juice, peach juice, and orange juice instead of amontillado sherry because all these have a somewhat tart flavor with a little sweetness.
3. Red Wine Vinegar
When you want to drop alcoholic content from your food recipes but still want sherry’s flavor, red wine vinegar can help you. It is also considered the best substitute for amontillado sherry in your beloved recipes.
Dilute it using water to get the consistency like amontillado and use it in a small amount. This is because its stronger flavor will do the same job as the proper quantity of sherry will do in your dish.
All these substitutes work well in different dishes whenever we want to replace amontillado sherry, but it’s up to you which substitute you have to choose.
As I have mentioned some replacements for drinking and cooking amontillado, but sometimes people search for amontillado sherry substitutes to avoid alcoholic content. So, if you are also among them, you can use white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or fruit juice to cut down sherry.
In the end, we recommend you to use any substitute in a controlled way or in less amount because the more you will replace any ingredient in a dish, the more it will differ from its actual flavor.
