cairns87

I am going on a date tonight and she is cooking rice rissoto. She asked me if its alright if she puts wine in it. Psychologically it is not alright. i dont want her to feel pressured though? Are there any old timers/ newcomers here who have alcahol in food?

Dee74

I know you don't want to annoy your date but you have a right to your personal preferences too, I think.

If it's not psychologically right with you, I think you should speak up, IMO

D

cairns87

Cheers Dee! I told her I would prefer it wasnt in there and she was fine. She is a vegetarian herself so she would know the feeling of not beeing able to eat something. I think I am going to face the problem of alcahol and food every now and then. For example about 6 weeks ago I had a piece of bread which I discovered had rum in it oops! At least I didnt let it get to me.. There is probably more alcahol in a bit of mouth wash than cooked food anyway!

Dee74

I'm glad that worked out Cairns

I guess I can safely post this now without freaking you out lol

Alcohol Burn-off Chart

D

Soberpotamus

Being a self-proclaimed foodie, and problem drinker/addict/alchy... whatever you wanna call it... this is something I've thought about recently myself.

Personally, if I'm not grabbing a bottle of wine, pouring myself a glass (or turning up the bottle), and drinking it outright, I just don't have issues with it being cooked in food... some Italian and French dishes just will NOT be the same without that reduction of wine.

Yes, there are substitutes out there... and I've tried using vinegar in place of wine in a dish, it was "ok".

At this point in time I will NOT bring a bottle of alcohol into my home (I'm freshly sober... although not Jonesing for it at all...yet) and have even gone so far as to throw out all my corkscrews.

Personally, if someone was doing the cooking in her own home and I didn't have to be around the bottle, but knew the wine was cooked into the food... even if it wasn't cooked down well, I don't think I'd much of a problem with it... but I've never been physically addicted and can't speak for those who have.

Do what makes you feel comfortable with the situation... that is what's important.

Froglet

In all honesty, the psychological aspect of drinking is what hurts, especially those achieving sobriety. I've spoken to people who do not drink, but will have a beer or 2 at a party or dinner. If you had to put a tally, they'd proally drink less than 10 cans a year. I wouldn't consider my friend an alcoholic, nor would I think he would consider him a drinker.

I think your fine, lots of culinary dishes of many cultures use wine to cook.

The main thing to me is to not get hammered, nor 'drink' and attain sobriety until the mentality is cured.

Dee74

The more time I spend sober, the more important it becomes to me...I love the life I've built...and that life is alcohol free.

Alcohol nearly destroyed me...I'm not in fear of it anymore, but I do respect it....
I don't go swimming with sharks either.

I know how insidious my thought processes can be.

D

ozgoddess

I copied and pasted (and slightly adapted) this from a reply i did to a similar thread that was posted a little while ago..........
------------------
I work in Food & Hospitality Industry and train underage students to cook. We never use alcohol and always replace the alcohol in the recipe with a substitute. I have never had a complaint of the food tasting "bad".

In my opinion, anything that tastes like alcohol could cause a relapse and again in my opinion, anything that retains alcohol at the percentages that Dee posted in his link is a relapse.

Abstaining is what it is. Via whatever method i ingest it, I would consider any conscious consumption of alcohol a relapse...

beerdad1

when a recipe calls for cooking with alcohol, the alcohol evaporates very quickly. Whats left is the flavor. If you take a cup of red wine, heat it at a very low boil, the alcohol is all gone in about a minute. The term "reduction" means reducing all the alcohol and a degree of the water.

The exceptions are adding booze without it being cooked. This here could be problematic,

EmeraldRose

I think there are enough recipes in the world that one could find a recipe without alcohol if it was questionable. I, myself, wouldn't cook with wine. That would mean going to the store, purchasing wine, bringing it into my house, opening it and we all know what happens from there.....

beerdad is right that it is evaporated BUT even just the thought of 'having' booze could be a trigger. The smell, the idea, the thought that I can eat with it why not just have a sip with this fabulous dinner. A sip leads to day 1.
There is a vulnerablility in your recovery. I don't want to cross that line.

smacked

Like Dee posted, the alcohol doesn't 'burn off' or evaporate as much as most people think, it's really a common misconception.

Although some of us don't think that it's a problem to eat alcohol, others are truly trying to live alcohol free either by choice, or medical necessity, so it's really important information to review;

Alcohol Burn-off Chart
Preparation Method / Percent Retained

alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat 85%
alcohol flamed 75%
no heat, stored overnight 70%
baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture 45%
Baked/simmered dishes with alcohol stirred into mixture:
15 minutes cooking time 40%
30 minutes cooking time 35%
1 hour cooking time 25%
1.5 hours cooking time 20%
2 hours cooking time 10%
2.5 hours cooking time 5%

Elisabeth888

This is just me, but I am not going to cook with alcohol anymore. Frankly I used cooking with it as an excuse to drink while I cooked.

Drinking nearly ruined my life also and I don't want any of it whatsoever in my body.

Crow3000

People probably have different physiological and physiological tolerances for traces of alcohol in food and beverages. There are probably some people who are extremely trigger prone and cannot have any, period. I personally am not bothered by it, although I find the smell of undiluted, raw alcohol, to be very unpleasant since I quit. I certainly wouldn't recommend "experimenting" but instead err on the side of caution. I'd probably find accidentally swallowing an alcoholic beverage containing more than 3% to be EXTREMELY unpleasant, it would probably make me sick. Diluting it in a sauce is a different story for me. I believe there is even some evidence that the yeasts and sugars contained in the digestive track are constantly manufacturing trace amounts of alcohol so avoiding it altogether might be very difficult. Really though, I believe its the thought that counts.

ETA

As I'm only on day 15 so I have bigger issues I'm trying to resolve. This topic is one I have pondered... I have always really enjoyed the taste of alcohol in food but...

I probably won't cook with it or order it out. Where it's grey is if something is made by a friend.

Interesting conversation here: Once and for all. Does Alcohol cook out or not? - General Chowhounding Topics - Chowhound

cairns87

Cheers everyone for your feedback! Personally I have never cooked with alcahol even when I was a drinker. The dinner she ended up cooking was great without wine in it! It wasnt a big deal after all it wasnt even mentioned after I told her i'd prefer it not to be in there! It is a very interesting topic alcahol and food though. it just goes to show that alcahol is everywhere!

Anna

Yeah, it's a topic that comes up here from time to time.

It's definitely a misconception that alcohol is burned off when cooking. And, more than that, I don't want to handle alcohol when I'm cooking and then get rid of it. I don't buy it, never have it in the house and never serve it in our home. That's what works for me.

LosingmyMisery

Personally, I don't cook with alcohol. I would never buy a bottle of wine to add to a recipe. However, I'm sure I have eaten food at a dinner party or any gathering that serves food that may have had alcohol in it. I don't worry about it much. I have never eaten anything to get drunk. Food enriched with alcohol was never my problem. Alcohol straight from the bottle was.

Latte

I don't like the taste of alcohol so there is that. I have cooked with wine and liquor for others but I choose not to eat those items. I also cook mushrooms and don't like the way those taste.

I hope that people would be up front about the alcohol in foods but I don't count on it. When I am in question, I don't eat the item. I can always eat bread until I get home. LOL

Pachystima

Any raised bread contains a small amount of alcohol residue from the action of the yeast on sugar. I don't know how much there is in the average slice but some of the bread I have bought has had, at least to me, a detectable ethanol flavor to it; particularly Wonder Bread for some reason. I don't think anyone could get even a mild buzz from bread but there is at least a trace of alcohol in most of it.

ACT10Npack

I don't eat food with alcohol made with it not because the alcohol but because I eat really healthy and none of the recipe calls for wine. If the person knows how to cook with wine then you will not get drunk on the food. Most of the alcohol will burn up and the rest will be the flavor. You should be fine and you will not get drunk on the food. The worst will happen is that you will go to a liquor store and buy alcohol to drink after you dinner date. If your really that worry then tell her to get Fre wine. That wine has 0% alcohol in it. Not .5% alcohol but 0%. You could go that route.