As long as there is cooking time after it is added. It doesn't take very long for the alcohol to cook off.
When cooking with something like sherry, you need not worry about a recovering alcoholic eating food that has sherry in it. Cooking removes any significant alcohol in the food dish, and for all intents and purposes, only adds a good flavor. I would not worry about substituting another ingredient for the sherry. Use the sherry.
No, there's no need to keep cooking sherry in the refrigerator. It's fine to store it at room temperature.
yes.
You could substitute rice vinegar for cooking sherry. Rice vinegar has a mild, sweet flavor.
No. Sherry wine is a drinkable sherry, that can be used in cooking, while sherry vinegar is used only for cooking.
Your best bet is to go to the wine and/or liquor store and get real sherry (wine fortified with brandy). Avoid the grocery store stuff labelled "cooking sherry".
Sherry is a wine that is fortified with brandy. Medium dry sherry is a cooking wine that is used in a variety of recipes.
No, they are not the same product and will not produce similar results.
Well, its cheap sherry that you would consider not quite good enough for drinking, or any sherry that has been open to the air for long enough to alter its flavour slightly (say a few weeks) but you don't want to just throw it away.
No, the alcohol has now been turned into vinegar.
You can use equal parts dry sherry/pale sherry wine; not the cooking wine... the drinking wine. :)