ActualAlcoholic

Red wine, bourbon, etc. I like to cook, but a lot of my recipes call for a wine-based sauce. Do you guys keep alcohol in the house for cooking, is that a horrible idea? Are there alternatives?

Thanks!

Dee74

This is one of those polarising topics.

I don't do it.

Alcohol Burn-off Chart

D

kcvalentine

Me neither. There are lots of alternatives. My drinking days were so awful that I never want to have that stuff in my system again.

TigerLili

Yeah. Don't. There's plenty to cook that doesn't involve alcohol. I know someone who relapsed after many years sobriety because she thought it would be ok to have some kind of dessert that had alcohol in it, like tiramisu or trifle. Obviously that doesn't involve cooking the alcohol, but why put yourself in the way of temptation?

I have nothing in my hosue that contains alcohol and if guests bring booze, they take it with them when they leave if there's any left (apparently there's a thing called 'Left-over Wine')(never encountered it myself). I don't cook, so that's one issue I don't have :-)

TigerLili

It's entirely possible that you chose your alcohol laded recipes BECAUSE of the alcohol. It's probably not a coincidence :-)

foolsgold66

I skip it.

Olive1

I use pomegranate juice (thanks Weasel). Or mix grape juice with vinegar. Delicious.

ActualAlcoholic

Whooaaaa. I'm honestly shocked at how much is left over in some of these recipes. I never even thought about it before while cooking.

ActualAlcoholic

Hahaha, I never thought about it that way. That's a good damn point

Inca

I wouldn't do it just because I know myself. Putting the burn off rates aside, the wine probably wouldn't even make it into dinner. I'd probably pour myself some to drink beforehand! That's just me...

ActualAlcoholic

awesome, thanks for the tips! I'll try pomegranate, I love that stuff anyway

ActualAlcoholic

Well, I had bought some for a steak tomorrow. Just dumped it all out. It was probably a horrible idea from the start, thanks for the responses guys.

If anyone has any other alternative liquids, I'm still interested!

Notimetoloose

I love to cook and I love to cook for people, I do use booze in my cooking and I have busted before when I was trying to stay of the wine....

I will give the vino a break in my cooking for a while.

I also use a lot of the asian rice wines in my cooking (average about 25% Alc)

Some you could actually drink, a lot you wouldn't because of the high salt content in the cooking wine.

I do this dish called drunken chicken I saw on Masterchef years ago which is a slow simmers in Shi xing wine (Sherry sort of tasting).
It is so delicious and once the chicken is cooked and prepared, there is no residual alcohol left.
Many asian sauces have a a splash to 1½ cups of rice wines. You can't taste it and it does cook of.

I wont be eating tiramisu or liquor chocolates.

EverySngleNight

Believe it or not:

A study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Data Laboratory showed that it can take longer than two and a half hours for all the alcohol to be cooked out of food to which wine or some other alcoholic beverage has been added. The study showed that the amount of alcohol remaining depends in part on the cooking method. For example, after brandy has been "flamed" - poured on foods and then set alight - approximately 75 percent of the alcohol remains after the flames have died down.

I didn't know that until recently!

I'm taking naltrexone and it kinda' makes me "Meh." feeling about alcohol. I went out to eat and a lot of the food had reductions and I just felt kinda' "meh.". I was thinking- "Well it doesn't REALLY have alcohol in it. It's been cooked off."
Still, I decided to order something else.

It got me thinking about my home cooking. "Oh no!! What will I do?" I thought maybe if I got one of those tiny single bottles of wine, or A beer- it would be... "No! What am I thinking?? Quick! google substitutions!!"

For red wine- I mix a cup of beef stock or veg. broth (or water) with two tablespoons of red wine vinegar. For white wine- I mix a cup of chicken stock (or water) with two tablespoons of white wine vinegar. (test and play with the proportions to suit your taste) Both of these substitutions WILL deglaze a pan FYI. I've tried, and it works!

Wine vinegars vary, so check the bottle for alcohol content. Some brands may contain a bit of alcohol still. But, most that I've found do not.

For beer- you can use ginger ale or stock.

Non-alcoholic wine and beer are an option... I choose to avoid them. It's just too "real" for me personally.

Alcohol has an extremely valid place in cooking, offering up some amazing flavors. It is a little dissapointing as cooking is a serious hobby of mine. But, I'll live, I'm sure. :-)

Not saying that I'll NEVER eat ANYTHING that's been prepared with alcohol. (I wouldn't eat chocolate with liquor in it, or anything in that vein OBVIOUSLY!) But, I will not personally prepare food with alcohol. And I certainly will NOT bring it into my house-under the guise of cooking. (That's exactly what it would be in my case, unfortunately- a guise)

Robertstone

I use alcohol in my cooking. I love a good sauerkraut and ribs with a can of beer in the crock pot. It gives it the perfect flavor! There probably is a little bit of alcohol left in there, but that's not why I include it in the recipe. I'm not drinking it afterwards and I'm not enjoying any kind of a buzz-effect from it. And the big thing, it doesn't make me want to drink because I committed to never drinking again. I'm not trying to avoid alcohol because of some fear that I might get hooked again. I am no longer an alcoholic.

KateL

I never use alcohol in cooking, never have. I would have considered it a a waste when I was drinking Now, however, I can't really see the point, there are loads of herbs and spices to flavour stuff xxx

readerbaby71

Red wine vinegar with chicken, beef or vegetable broth works well, as does balsamic vinegar. Lemon juice and white balsamic work well as substitutions for white wine with broth. Since the vinegars are pretty strong you have to cut them with something.

FeelingGreat

Red wine doesn't do it for me, or beer either so I can and do keep it in the house and never think about it. But if it was white or sparkling I wouldn't trust myself. I think it depends on recognising where your danger areas lie, and avoiding them.

IOAA2

I had read on a post awhile ago that if one is on antabuse to be very careful about this topic and using it.

BE WELL

Threshold

I don't do it.

I tried some of the "substitutions" and the recipes were fine, but they weren't the same thing and I missed the authentic flavor. I pretty much came around to accepting there are some things I'm not going to eat anymore either.

There are other things that age has led me to no longer be able to eat, so I was already used to the process.

A couple months ago I was shocked by how much some champagne sauce poured over a cheesecake hit me. I mean, most of it was just on the dish not the cake and how much booze could there even have been in a cooked sauce? Well, apparently more than I anticipated!

It's been simpler to just take booze off the table entirely