Hi Coach!
Welcome to the AA forum!
Cooking with alcohol is an interesting question. I found Carol's response to be very interesting.
I wouldn't want to eat anything which would remind me of drinking. Last year, at my first sober christmas party, someone gave me a cheesecake tart. To my horror, the apriocot glaze on top had apriocot brandy in it. I spit it in a napkin, without anybody noticing. Just having the taste in my mouth made me feel like I had been violated. I actually washed my mouth out in the washroom afterwards.
I've done plenty of cooking with alcohol in my drinking days. Often, I would drink while I cooked.
When I quit drinking, I had half a keg of beer left in my beer fridge. I made a massive rack of ribs which I boiled in beer all day and then BBQ-ed with my tournament style sauce. I couldn't taste the beer, and the sauce was beer free. Boiling the meat in the beer helped break down some of the protiens, and made the ribs nice an tender.
I'm rambling now... I'll stop.
I avoid desserts and sauces with alcohol in them now, just because I don't want to be reminded of the taste. With that said, a good cook knows that if you cook with booze....it's not suposed to taste like booze. If it doesn't taste like booze, it probably doesn't have a substantial amount. I never ate food to get loaded.
I'm sure there are lots of opinion out there. My opinion is to avoid it in early sobriety. Later, one can use good judgement with what they choose to eat. I certainly wouln't eat a rum cake, but I might boil some meat in beer before BBQ-ing it.
chip