Port would be great. If you don't have any, get some to keep in the cabinet for cooking and apres dinner sipping. So much tastier than sherry, in my book.

I'd go sub with dry vermouth or wine.

Any fortified wine should suffice. It won;t be exactly the same, but unless you are a supertaster there should not be any problems.

Recently made mushroom barley soup and used white wine as a stand -in. I also tossed in a parmesan rind (as I do with most soups :) - ln the end the soup had all kinds of flavor and depth!

Hmm, vermouth, marsala, white wine, red wine, brandy, or balsamic vinegar. All of which I have in my house, but I don't know about yours!

Just think about the characteristics of a dry sherry and match it with whatever is closest in your home.

If the problem is that there's no sherry in the house, I'm assuming you don't want to leave the house to get the substitute, because you could just get sherry then!

What kinds of booze do you have laying around?

I just omit it in that case. Sherry really adds a subtle interesting flavor. Trader Joe's has decent dry sherry at low price. But the vinegar sounds like a good little perk up.

How about port? Brandy or dry red would probably work too.

My husband always uses a little balsamic vinegar when there is no sherry for his soup...

In the house? Well marsala would work, but then you would have to shop for that too.