sub for hard cider - not apple juice

[alisonk]

Hi there

Am about to roast a pheasant and was looking for a sauce to go with it and loads of recipes are recommending using hard cider. I should have been more prepared about this, but am not so I have no cider in the house and no apple juice,,, doh! Would sweet vermouth work as a substitute? I think i read online that apple juice or cider could be a sub for the vermouth - will it work the other way?

Any thoughts welcome
Cheers

Alison

[Ruth Lafler]

To go back to your original question, when I read the heading, I thought "vermouth" -- I think it would work well. It won't, of course, taste the same, but it should provide a similar sweet/tart/acidic balance that works well with game.

[alisonk]

Thanks Ruth - have some partidge as well, might try the vermouth with that!!

[soupkitten]

erm, i think that *white* vermouth would work well, but the sweet vermouth you are thinking of using just because you have it on hand-- i wouldn't do that, or try to sub sweet vermouth for white vermouth in any application, actually. i would use almost any white wine, before using sweet vermouth, in a sauce for game birds...

[alisonk]

Thanks soupkitten. I have dry vermouth as well, it was just that the substitution suggestion was sweet.... not my favourite but very nice in a journalist cocktail!! Am not using vermouth at all now, going to use madeira so that should work.

I have got a good lot of game at the moment - have got some pigeon breasts, was going to make a pigeon pie, but if there are any other suggestions...Going O/T know, but since you guys have good game suggestions..!

[megjp]

Do you have non-alcoholic cider, like the pressed apple juice that's cloudy that you warm up in the wintertime? You could use that and some cider vinegar for tang..

[alisonk]

Thanks for the replies. I think that I will save the experimentation with the sauce for the next pheasant - just going to do an Emeril Madeira one instead.

Being back in the UK I have been out of the habit of keeping non-alcoholic cider in the fridge - the stuff we get in Scotland does not quite compete with local New England pressed cider. Though I should always have the hard stuff -total lack of foresight!

Thanks again
Alison

[escondido123]

I try to keep a bottle of Calvados in the house, both for sipping and to add a dash of flavor.

[alisonk]

That is a good idea actually, I do really love it - and means that it can be used for spontaneous apple and calvados crepes .. which reminds me that I have a jar of apple butter to use - think that this would be an especially good idea!!

[escondido123]

Do you have any apples or applesauce? Depending on the recipe, you could use one of them. Otherwise, you can use vermouth--again, depending on the sauce--but it will taste totally different.