Cooking With Alcohol
Forward we go...side by side-Rest In Peace
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Serene In Dixie
Posts: 36,740
Cooking With Alcohol
I noticed this subject has come up
and wanted to give you the facts
Up to you if you do or do not...
I choose to not cook with alcohol.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/AlcoholCooking.htm
and wanted to give you the facts
Up to you if you do or do not...
I choose to not cook with alcohol.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/AlcoholCooking.htm
To Life!
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Rhode Island
Posts: 9,293
WOW!
Carol, that's really interesting. I've always been told that cooking it burns off the alcohol, but, leaves the taste. NEver understood that, but, I never understood chemistry in school, either.
Thanks for sharing this information. It's really important.
Shalom!
Carol, that's really interesting. I've always been told that cooking it burns off the alcohol, but, leaves the taste. NEver understood that, but, I never understood chemistry in school, either.
Thanks for sharing this information. It's really important.
Shalom!
Forward we go...side by side-Rest In Peace
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Serene In Dixie
Posts: 36,740
Thanks teach and Anna
Did you notice this link at the bottom
with alternatives?
http://whatscookingamerica.net/alcoholsub.htm
Did you notice this link at the bottom
with alternatives?
http://whatscookingamerica.net/alcoholsub.htm
Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 98
Good timing for this post!
I was going to ask how many people in recovery use alcohol for cooking.
Being a bit of a...erm..."food snob," I couldn't imagine using substitutes in certain cases. I have thus far (45 days!) used red wine for tomato sauce and white wine for risotto. I haven't noticed any effects from the alcohol.
I'm not in a hurry to try brandy or cognac for deglazing. Perhaps I'll try it when I have a lot more months of sobriety under my belt (pun intended).
I would be curious to hear if anyone else has had positive or negative effect from cooking with alcohol.
Earl
I was going to ask how many people in recovery use alcohol for cooking.
Being a bit of a...erm..."food snob," I couldn't imagine using substitutes in certain cases. I have thus far (45 days!) used red wine for tomato sauce and white wine for risotto. I haven't noticed any effects from the alcohol.
I'm not in a hurry to try brandy or cognac for deglazing. Perhaps I'll try it when I have a lot more months of sobriety under my belt (pun intended).
I would be curious to hear if anyone else has had positive or negative effect from cooking with alcohol.
Earl
Forward we go...side by side-Rest In Peace
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Serene In Dixie
Posts: 36,740
Hmmm.. It's now no mystery to me why I loved
Steak Diane and Cherries Jubilee...
While I was visiting my best friend we were hosting
an informal dinner party.
We each made a Beef Stew..exactly the same
except she added Burgundy.
We asked our guests..some drinkers some not..
to critique.
They had no idea of what the differece was
or who cooked whitch.
12 guests ... 8 preferred mine!
Go figure!
Steak Diane and Cherries Jubilee...
While I was visiting my best friend we were hosting
an informal dinner party.
We each made a Beef Stew..exactly the same
except she added Burgundy.
We asked our guests..some drinkers some not..
to critique.
They had no idea of what the differece was
or who cooked whitch.
12 guests ... 8 preferred mine!
Go figure!
Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Upper Kolobia
Posts: 153
As Long as I've Been Sober, I Wouldn't Use Brandy or Cognac . . .
To deglaze a pan unless the sauce was intended for further cooking (as a marinade for a roast pork loin or something similar).
That tough old boy who was a therapist and mentor of mine (as well as for my sponsor, still sober 36 years) was always fond of pointing out my penchance for "all or nothing" thinking, and I hope I can provide a useful model of "middle-of-the-road" stuff while still showing that I do draw firm lines where appropriate.
I get the spaghetti sauce for my kids out of a Ragu jar, but I've also never had problem with my mother's homemade sauce (which uses a cup or two of red table wine for a six or eight quart recipe). I know the simmer time on that one is upwards of several hours . . .
I don't have that recipe, but look at the herbed chicken recipe that I fix from time to time. It calls for one cup of dry white wine which is then simmered in a saucepan before being poured over the chicken and baked in the oven for an hour. From the chart I see 40% left from simmering it (probably not quite that much since it usually doesn't go the full 15 minutes), and after baking it for an hour, 25% of that remainder is left, which I see leaves around 15% of the original amount.
Well, how much alcohol is that? Dry white wine averages about 14% alcohol, so in a cup there is slightly more than an ounce of alcohol. Forty percent--let's take 50 because of the shortened simmer time noted above--reduces that to around half an ounce, and the additional baking reduces it to 25% of that original volume. Which mean there's about 1/10 of an ounce of alcohol in the entire finished meal, or 1/40 of an ounce in a serving . . .
Honest, folks, if you want to get drunk there are better ways . . . The stroganoff recipe might be ever-so-slightly stronger--since it uses sherry, fortified to around 18%--and has added tomato juice (with trace amounts of alcohol), but then the recipe makes six servings . . .
Now if you're taking some vicarious pleasure from this thinking (like you're getting away with something), then I'd suggest some extra meetings are in order. Me, I put it on my gratitude list, that I'm still above ground and breathing and able to enjoy the pleasure of a well-prepared meal.
JMHO . . . And none of my ideas have threatened my First Step, at least so far. I hold no illusions that if I were to have a drink of alcohol in any form that the results would be any different than they were way back when . . .
That tough old boy who was a therapist and mentor of mine (as well as for my sponsor, still sober 36 years) was always fond of pointing out my penchance for "all or nothing" thinking, and I hope I can provide a useful model of "middle-of-the-road" stuff while still showing that I do draw firm lines where appropriate.
I get the spaghetti sauce for my kids out of a Ragu jar, but I've also never had problem with my mother's homemade sauce (which uses a cup or two of red table wine for a six or eight quart recipe). I know the simmer time on that one is upwards of several hours . . .
I don't have that recipe, but look at the herbed chicken recipe that I fix from time to time. It calls for one cup of dry white wine which is then simmered in a saucepan before being poured over the chicken and baked in the oven for an hour. From the chart I see 40% left from simmering it (probably not quite that much since it usually doesn't go the full 15 minutes), and after baking it for an hour, 25% of that remainder is left, which I see leaves around 15% of the original amount.
Well, how much alcohol is that? Dry white wine averages about 14% alcohol, so in a cup there is slightly more than an ounce of alcohol. Forty percent--let's take 50 because of the shortened simmer time noted above--reduces that to around half an ounce, and the additional baking reduces it to 25% of that original volume. Which mean there's about 1/10 of an ounce of alcohol in the entire finished meal, or 1/40 of an ounce in a serving . . .
Honest, folks, if you want to get drunk there are better ways . . . The stroganoff recipe might be ever-so-slightly stronger--since it uses sherry, fortified to around 18%--and has added tomato juice (with trace amounts of alcohol), but then the recipe makes six servings . . .
Now if you're taking some vicarious pleasure from this thinking (like you're getting away with something), then I'd suggest some extra meetings are in order. Me, I put it on my gratitude list, that I'm still above ground and breathing and able to enjoy the pleasure of a well-prepared meal.
JMHO . . . And none of my ideas have threatened my First Step, at least so far. I hold no illusions that if I were to have a drink of alcohol in any form that the results would be any different than they were way back when . . .
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
