Nondrinker needs wine substitute.

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Food Dude is officially two weeks old today, which is, hopefully, older than most of the stuff in your fridge. Turning two weeks old doesn't mean we'll be breaking out the party hats and silly string any time soon, but Food Dude has already lasted longer than that new Heather Graham sit-com.

This is a question-and-answer column for people who like to eat food. No question is too small or too basic for Food Dude, and as this week's installment proves, you can never ask too many questions:

Dear Food Dude: I don't drink alcoholic beverages, so I don't keep any on hand. Can you suggest something else I can use to replace the wine I so often see as an ingredient in recipes, usually for things such as sauces, soups, stews and poached fruit? It seems unreasonably expensive to purchase a bottle of wine and then use only one cup of it. The rest would have to be poured down the drain, because it would go bad before I ever needed it again. Does wine go bad if it's kept refrigerated? How long would it stay good? Could it be frozen in an ice-cube tray?

- A.K. Mack

Dear A.K.: I checked with Steve Eproson, head chef at El Vaquero restaurant in Eugene. He says that although alcohol cooks off quickly, it's possible there might be some trace elements left.

So if you're serious about avoiding alcohol, A.K., you'd probably be better off skipping the wine entirely. Steve Baker, wine buyer and manager at Sundance Wine Cellars, says you can substitute something called verjus, which is a tart, nonalcoholic juice made from unripened wine grapes. Since vinegar and wine don't mix, verjus is often used by wine snobs as an alternative to vinegar in salad dressings and sauces.

The problems: Verjus is not so easy to come by, it's expensive and the shelf life isn't much better than wine.

There are a number of other less exotic substitutes for wine including vinegar, cider, fruit juice and broth.

Broth is a good alternative if you're making a savory dish. But for something such as poached pears, Eproson recommends poaching the pears in the following homemade concoction, which you can then reduce into a simple syrup to be used as a topping.

Combine a gallon of water with a cup of honey, a quarter cup of lemon juice, the zest of one orange, one to two cinnamon sticks, a sprig of rosemary (or a small amount of cloves or star anise), and a pinch of salt. Bring the ingredients to a simmer, reduce the heat and submerge the pears. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes. Strain the liquid and reduce the liquid.

Another way to go is to use nonalcoholic wine, which might buy you a few more days worth of storage if you're dealing with red wine, but you won't gain much in the way of shelf life, says Randy Stokes, wine buyer for the Broadway Bistro.

Baker says you may even lose some shelf life if you're dealing with de-alcoholized wine since alcohol tends to act as a preservative. Baker recommends the ARIEL line of premium wines from Central California's J. Lohr Vineyards.

If you don't mind using wine, Stokes says you could also buy a lesser-priced bottle such as the infamous Charles Shaw, aka "Three-Buck Chuck," label available at Trader Joe's, and then kiss it goodbye when you're done with your recipe. There are also many fine wines in the $5 to $6 range that would be a step up from the cheap stuff, Baker says. Or, you could purchase a half-bottle of good wine for about $3.75.

Both Stokes and Baker say wine should never be frozen.

And as far as refrigerating wine is concerned, Baker recommends it. An even better idea, he says, is to pour the remainder of your full-size bottle into a sterile, half-size bottle, cork it and store it in the fridge. Oxidation is the enemy when it comes to vino, and a bottle filled to capacity reduces the amount of oxygen, he says.

You can also purchase a product at Sundance called Private Reserve for about $10. It's inert gas in a can, and it replaces the oxygen in the wine bottle with a harmless combination of nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide. Seal it with a $1 expansion cork and you should be able to keep that bottle in the fridge for several weeks.

Send your questions about food via e-mail to fooddude @guardnet.com. Or, send mail to Food Dude, The Register Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.