White Wine Substitute: What to Use in Cooking, by Dish

The best white wine substitute depends on whether alcohol is fine. If it is, use dry vermouth in the same amount. If it isn’t, use chicken or vegetable broth with a little white wine vinegar or lemon juice stirred in just before serving. For a splash of ¼ cup or less, you can often leave the wine out. Every amount below comes from the cooking source we name, because they don’t all agree.

Why the swap needs acid

White wine does two jobs: it adds liquid, and it adds brightness. Simply Recipes says that wine mostly brings acidity, and that leaving it out can make a dish taste flat. Allrecipes makes the same point, so most good swaps pair a liquid with something sour.

Simply Recipes also says there is no one-to-one substitution for white wine; it depends on how much wine a recipe calls for and what it’s doing there. That’s the framework we’d use:

• ¼ cup or less: Simply Recipes says to feel free to leave it out, and add a squeeze of lemon if the finished dish is missing something.
• More than ¼ cup: you need to replace the volume too. Use water if the dish has strong flavors, or stock with acid if the wine is a main flavor.

Quick substitution table

Substitute	How to use it	Source
Dry vermouth	Same amount as the wine	America’s Test Kitchen
Broth plus vinegar or lemon	½ teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice per ½ cup broth, stirred in just before serving	America’s Test Kitchen (“Cooking with Wine”)
Stock plus white wine vinegar	1 tablespoon vinegar per 1 cup stock	Simply Recipes
Broth alone	Same amount; taste before adding more salt	The Spruce Eats
Water plus lemon	Replace the wine with water, then add a squeeze or two of lemon to taste	Simply Recipes, for a fish stew
Water alone	¾ of the wine amount (¾ cup per 1 cup wine)	The Spruce Eats
White wine vinegar	Half vinegar, half water	The Spruce Eats; Allrecipes
Apple cider vinegar	Same amount as the wine	The Spruce Eats
White grape or apple juice	Add a splash of vinegar or lemon to balance the sweetness	The Spruce Eats
Ginger ale	Same amount, for recipes calling for a sweet white wine	The Spruce Eats
Verjus	No amount given; tart like wine, a bit sweeter	Simply Recipes

Note: The vinegar amounts differ a lot. A second America’s Test Kitchen page uses 1 teaspoon per ½ cup of broth for soups and pan sauces, double its other figure, and The Spruce Eats’ cider vinegar, used in the same amount as the wine, is far stronger than any of them. We’d start with the smallest amount and add more after tasting. You can add acid, but you can’t take it out.

The substitutes in more detail

Dry vermouth

America’s Test Kitchen says dry vermouth can replace white wine in equal amounts. Because it’s fortified, an opened bottle keeps in the fridge for weeks or even months, so you always have some ready. It prefers brands with subtler floral and citrus notes, since very botanical ones can take over a dish, and another of its pages calls vermouth an acceptable swap in recipes that don’t need very much. Wine Enthusiast’s guide adds a warning from cookbook writer Lauren Salkeld: not every vermouth suits every dish, it needs to live in the fridge, and it shouldn’t be an ancient bottle. This is our first choice when alcohol isn’t a concern. Our guide to vermouth explains the styles.

Broth with acid

This is the standard alcohol-free swap. Wine Enthusiast says you can deglaze with broth or water when you’re cooking for someone who avoids alcohol, though it explains that wine lifts more of the browned bits from the pan. Taste of Home suggests low-sodium vegetable broth with 1 to 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar as an alcohol-free replacement, without saying per how much broth. In our view, low-sodium broth is the safer buy, because reducing a salty broth can oversalt a sauce.

Vinegar

Allrecipes says white wine, cider and rice vinegars all work, and that white wine vinegar comes closest to the taste of wine. It tells you to use half the amount of wine in vinegar and make up the rest with water or broth. Don’t confuse this with the much smaller amounts above, which add vinegar to a full measure of broth.

Juice

White grape juice has the grape flavor, but Allrecipes and The Spruce Eats both warn that it’s much sweeter than wine, and The Spruce Eats advises caution in savory or salty recipes. Taste of Home says juice may not work when a recipe calls for a large amount. We’d keep juice for lightly sweet dishes, or for amounts under about ¼ cup.

Verjus

Simply Recipes describes verjus as a wine-like juice from unripe, unfermented wine grapes. It has the tart edge of white wine, though it’s sweeter than most whites used for cooking, and it calls verjus an ideal swap in French onion soup. Simply Recipes doesn’t give a ratio, so taste as you go.

Non-alcoholic wine

None of the sources above give a ratio for this one, but it’s an obvious candidate if you already have a bottle. We’d use a dry one and taste before adding sugar or salt. Be aware of the label: “non-alcoholic” can mean a trace of alcohol, up to 0.5%. Our non-alcoholic wine guide explains the terms.

Which substitute for which dish

Dish	Our pick	Why
Chicken piccata	Stock plus white wine vinegar	Simply Recipes uses ½ cup stock with 1½ teaspoons vinegar, since wine is a prominent flavor here
Fish stew	Water, plus a squeeze of lemon	Simply Recipes’ example, because other strong flavors carry the dish
French onion soup	Verjus or dry vermouth	Verjus is Simply Recipes’ suggestion; we’d try vermouth if you have it
Pan sauce	Dry vermouth, or broth with acid	America’s Test Kitchen adds the acid just before serving
Risotto	Dry vermouth, or extra broth with lemon	Our suggestion: risotto has plenty of liquid already, so only the acid is missing
Steamed mussels	Dry vermouth	Our suggestion: the wine is most of the broth, so the swap needs flavor
A splash in a sauce	Nothing, or a squeeze of lemon	Simply Recipes’ advice for ¼ cup or less

What about cooking wine?

Salted cooking wine contains real wine, so it can stand in for a splash, but it brings salt and preservatives along, as our guide explains. If it’s what you have, reduce the salt in the recipe.

And if you’d rather use the real thing next time, our guide to the best white wine for cooking covers what to buy. America’s Test Kitchen favors a crisp, dry Sauvignon Blanc, and it freezes leftovers in 1-tablespoon cubes so there’s always some on hand.

Important: Vermouth and cooking wine both contain alcohol, and cooking doesn’t remove all of it; our best red wine for cooking guide has the USDA retention table. If someone at the table avoids alcohol, stick to broth, juice or verjus.