According To Ina Garten These 2 Liquors Make 'Everything Taste Better'

Alcohol and cooking are intrinsically linked. We aren't only talking about the best wine to serve with your steak or the cocktails you ought to be sipping with brunch, though. We're talking about the booze that goes right in your food, and culinary superstar Ina Garten says that two spirits in particular are universally uplifting.

"Grand Marnier and cognac make everything taste better," Garten asserts in Esquire's "What I've Learned" series. That is, unfortunately, the extent of her thoughts on the potential improvements, at least in that interview. But a peek at some of Garten's dishes further illuminates how, when, and with what frequency she actually uses these two slightly sweet, lightly fruit-forward spirits.

Grand Marnier, for example, factors into one of our all time favorite Ina Garten desserts. The Barefoot Contessa uses a splash in her Boston cream pie preparation. Cognac also joins wine in Garten's beef stew. And you'll see the liquors grace her filet mignon with mustard and mushrooms, roast chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, and pain perdu. Between these versatile dishes, all checking boxes across mealtimes and reaching across the sweet-to-savory spectrum, the claim that Grand Marnier and cognac make "everything" better might not even be much of an exaggeration. And it's easy enough to test Garten's theory in your own kitchen.

One of the easiest ways to introduce Grand Marnier and cognac into your own pots and pans is just to follow Ina Garten's liquored-up instructions. After all, the latter is the secret to her pot roast. But if you don't want to commit to a whole recipe, there are ways to add a skosh to all kinds of recipes already in your rotation. Just like the Barefoot Contessa, you can glug some cognac into the red wine you might use to deglaze any beef-browning pan, or use the booze combo as Garten does to bring extra depth of flavor to your favorite coq au vin.

You can do the same with many pan sauces that already call for red wine, but you might want to make sure the wine is on the drier side. Both cognac and Grand Marnier bring about as much additional sugar to the mix as you'd want, and they could potentially turn cloying in savory dishes with a vino that does the same.

Sweet treats, however, are primed for a spot of either spirit (some, like crepes suzette, even call for both). Grand Marnier soufflé is a classic (Garten's uses fresh orange zest), as is cherries jubilee flambeed with cognac, but you can imbue plenty of simpler desserts with the boozes' respective bright flavor and spicy bite, too. For example, swapping the vanilla extract in baked goods like chocolate chip cookies with a bit of either booze yields a particularly inspired treat.