Sherry Substitute: Best Swaps for Cooking, With Amounts

The best sherry substitute for most recipes is another dry fortified wine, and dry vermouth is the easiest to find. Dry Madeira and dry Marsala also work, and a dry white wine with a pinch of brown sugar is a handy fallback. For a dish with no alcohol, America’s Test Kitchen’s mix of apple juice, cider vinegar, water and a little soy sauce is the closest we’ve found in print. First check which kind of sherry your recipe wants, because dry and sweet need different swaps.

Quick substitution table

Recipe calls for	Substitute	How to use it	Source
Dry sherry	Dry vermouth	“Your best bet”; no amount given	The Spruce Eats
Dry sherry	Dry Madeira or dry Marsala	“Great options”; no amount given	The Spruce Eats
Dry sherry	White wine plus light brown sugar	Add sugar ¼ teaspoon at a time, tasting	America’s Test Kitchen
Dry sherry	Apple cider vinegar	Full strength for 1–2 tablespoons; for 1 cup, ½ cup vinegar plus ½ cup water	The Spruce Eats
Dry sherry	Mock sherry (no alcohol)	½ cup water, ⅓ cup apple juice, 3 tablespoons cider vinegar, ¼ teaspoon soy sauce	America’s Test Kitchen
Sweet sherry	Port, sweet vermouth, sweet Madeira or sweet Marsala	No amount given	The Spruce Eats
Cream sherry	Dry sherry plus dark brown sugar	2 teaspoons sugar per ½ cup sherry	America’s Test Kitchen
Sherry in a sweet recipe, small amounts	Vanilla extract	1 teaspoon per tablespoon of sherry	The Spruce Eats

Alcoholic substitutes

Dry vermouth

The Spruce Eats’ reasoning is simple: sherry is a fortified wine, so the closest swap is another fortified wine, and dry white vermouth is the first it names. It is also the one we’d reach for, since it’s easy to find and keeps well in the fridge once open, as our vermouth guide explains. In our view it won’t give you sherry’s nutty note, so we’d use it in soups and pan sauces rather than a dish built around sherry.

Madeira and Marsala

The Spruce Eats calls dry versions of both great options. Check the label, because both come in sweet styles as well:

• Madeira: the dry classic style is Sercial. Our Madeira wine guide explains the labels.
• Marsala: look for secco on the label. Our Marsala wine guide shows you how to read it.

Both are aged with exposure to air. In our view, that makes them the better swaps for braises and mushroom dishes where sherry’s nutty note matters.

Dry white wine

The Spruce Eats lists Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Blanc and Sémillon, and says dry sparkling wines can work in small amounts. America’s Test Kitchen found that in a sherry-cream sauce made with Chardonnay, the wine’s “sharper alcohol flavor stood out immediately.”

Its fix was to stir in light brown sugar a quarter teaspoon at a time, tasting after each addition, until the sweetness masks the boozy aftertaste. Honey’s flavor was too noticeable in its trials; granulated and brown sugar both worked, with brown sugar closer to aged fortified wine. There’s no fixed total, because wines vary. Our guide to the best white wine for cooking covers which bottle to use.

Shaoxing wine

Chinese recipes treat the two as close relatives. Serious Eats lists “Shaoxing wine or dry sherry” in its beef and broccoli recipe, and The Spruce Eats says pale dry sherry is the most commonly recommended replacement for Chinese rice wine. None of the sources we read covers the reverse swap for Western dishes, so this one is our suggestion: if you have an unsalted bottle, it should work in savory dishes and especially in stir-fries, but we wouldn’t use it in a dessert. Our Shaoxing wine guide explains the salted and unsalted kinds.

Cooking sherry

It sounds like the obvious swap, but it’s salted. The Spruce Eats says it’s fine in savory dishes, that the salt is unwelcome in desserts, and that drinking sherry is the better choice in general. If you use it, cut the salt in the recipe. Our cooking sherry guide has more.

Alcohol-free substitutes

America’s Test Kitchen’s mock sherry. This is the one with a published kitchen test behind it. Stir together:

• ½ cup water
• ⅓ cup apple juice
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon soy sauce

It makes about 1 cup and keeps in the fridge for up to 1 week. The soy sauce adds a musky depth, and in a sherry-rosemary pan sauce, America’s Test Kitchen says the mix tasted very close to the version made with sherry. For sweet recipes, leave out the soy sauce.

Apple cider vinegar. The Spruce Eats calls this probably the best alcohol-free swap for dry sherry, especially for ½ cup or more. Use it straight for a tablespoon or two, and dilute it for larger amounts: ½ cup vinegar plus ½ cup water replaces 1 cup of dry sherry. To mimic sweet sherry, it adds a bit of sugar.

Chicken stock or fruit juice. The Spruce Eats calls these decent replacements, and its alcohol substitutes list names orange, pineapple and apple juice for sherry. We’d pick stock for savory dishes and apple juice for lightly sweet ones.

Vanilla extract. For small amounts in sweet recipes, The Spruce Eats uses a teaspoon per tablespoon of sherry. Regular vanilla extract contains alcohol, so look for a non-alcoholic one if that matters.

Which substitute for which dish

Apart from the sourced examples noted above, these are our suggestions.

Dish	Our pick
Pan sauce	Dry vermouth, or America’s Test Kitchen’s mock sherry without alcohol
Cream soup	Dry vermouth, or white wine plus a pinch of brown sugar
Braise or stew	Dry Madeira or dry Marsala; stock with a little cider vinegar without alcohol
Stir-fry or Chinese marinade	Unsalted Shaoxing wine
Trifle and other desserts	Sweet Marsala, sweet Madeira or Port; apple juice with no alcohol
Sauce with mushrooms	Dry Marsala

Note: The Spruce Eats reminds readers that the more you substitute, the more the dish will differ from the original. If sherry is the main flavor of a recipe, we’d buy a bottle: real dry sherry keeps up to 2 months in the fridge for most styles, according to the Consejo Regulador.

A word on alcohol

Vermouth, Madeira, Marsala and white wine all contain alcohol, and cooking doesn’t remove all of it. If someone at the table avoids alcohol, use one of the alcohol-free options above.