Garden Girl

Today I was talking to my sister, she lives across the country, and is very supportive. I was telling her about this amazing Mac and cheese I made with some very earthy delicious cheeses. She said, "Oh, do you ever cook with wine!?!" The first thing that came out of my mouth was the most honest thing I said all day, "I don't think I could handle being around an open bottle of wine by myself." Hmmmm. This is the first time in my sobriety that I have made a statement like that. I was really glad I said that, for my own sake. I sometimes think of all the amazing sauces I have made with red wine... Then I remember how sauced I got and forgot about executing the amazing meal that goes with it. It helps to come here and converse about these things. I am going to create the most amazing non alcoholic cocktails to pair with the most sophisticated of foods, and I will toast all of us sober folks in the most fashionable way! I kinda feel left out of the foodie movement now that I don't drink, I work with specialty foods and my background is beer and wine. Sometimes, I feel lost in life. I worked hard to get into this industry, with alcohol as my motivation. Now, I realize that is my downfall, but I still have this career. I am lucky to have gotten away from directly dealing with beer and wine, but I am still surrounded by the culture. It sometimes makes me feel like a failure, it makes me frustrated that it I invested so much into this, it is frustrating that everywhere I look wine and beer and wine and beer and sex and tequila and scotch and cigarettes. I then think, maybe this is why I want to sleep so much. It is easier to avoid temptation when you sleep through it. Blah!

trachemys

Who was it said: "I love cooking with wine. Sometimes, some even gets in the food."?

You do know there are non-alcoholic wines?

Eventide

I agree that its impossible to open a bottle because you need to put 250ml in your sauce, then store the rest for next time, or throw it out. I've done it a couple of times in the last 7 months and found I have to have a glass myself just to taste it.
The odd thing is, I find I dont like it now so one glass is all I take.
If nothing else, this is expensive! Might as well just not add wine to sauces in the first place.

Eventide

Thinking about what I just wrote .... the REALLY odd thing is that I still have a desire to see what it tastes like and how I'll react to it.
Got to watch that.

Gilmer

Yeah--I find I can't handle it at all. I love beef stroganoff, but I'll have to stay away from it. 1/4 cup of white wine for the recipe--the rest of the bottle for me. As Eventide said, you can't waste it! My husband recently wanted me to cook chili with beer, but I told him I typically didn't add liquid--and If I did, he'd have to handle the opening, pouring, etc. He backed off of the idea, and the chili was fine.

Dee74

Alcohol Burn-off Chart
Alcohol Substitution List - Cooking and Alcohol

D

Gilmer

Wow! I had no idea so much alcohol was retained for sauteeing about five minutes! The substitution list was helpful, but I noticed there was no substitute for white wine. Oh, well. I don't need sauces, anyway.

Garen

I've been sleeping a lot, too. But, I am feeling a lot better in the mornings than I have in a long time. I can wake up with time before work and smile. Not wake up and act like a toad.

My parents would be good folks to talk too. They often talk about cooking and they know how to cook with wine. Most of the wine they cook with isn't even drinkable, you'd get sick if you tried. They say the alcohol is cooked out of it when you cook it so there is no intoxicating effect at all.

sugarbear1

You can make awesome sauces without wine. I've been doing it for years! Look for the recipes or make your own.

Pondlady

If you read up on the science behind what wine imparts to a recipe, you'll discover a variety of vinegars can be used as a substitute ...just make sure they're non alcoholic. I used to cook a LOT with wine...and now I don't. I figure there are plenty of recipes to choose from without alcohol

least

The alcohol does not just "cook out". Depending on the cook time, a lot of it is retained.

Garden Girl

Yeah, I remember when I was running a fairly large wine and beer dept years ago, and people would come in asking for N/A wine and I would direct them to the one ore two option that we had... I would always think, why bother!?! I am now in a different state, and I love drinking my non alcoholic beer, and would love non alcoholic wine, but can't seem to find that here

whatsgoingon

Cooking with wine can be dangerous. The other day I was making a risotto. I had just finished cooking the onion,celery and garlic and the rice had been thrown in. I went in the fridge to get the white wine which has to be added straight away. For split second I had a moment. It was a chilled bottle of Chablis and had condensation running down the sides, I have to be honest it looked amazing, it could have been a commercial for white wine! For a moment there I reminisced about the cold dry wine touching my lips and swirling around my mouth and I quickly had to focus or I could have so easily have had a glass. That is probably the first time in almost 9 months I have felt like that. Quite amazing the power of alcohol, we all need to be careful because it can hypnotically draw you in. That situation actually made me feel light headed and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Scared the life out of me.

trachemys

I've seen mail-order places. Google for it.

Garden Girl

I'm going to check this out.... Anybody try any non alcohol wines?

EndStage

I have to stay away from the non-alcoholic drinks. I found out when I was going through my first detox/recovery stage that I turned to N/A when I had serious withdraws. Bad idea. It just became an even worse trigger. It may not have had the alcohol content to get the buzz ... It was the taste; the reminder that tripped me to relapse.

FeenixxRising

One of my more pathetic benders started when I tried a new recipe that required wine. This was last spring, I had been 45 days sober at that point. I told myself I would not drink and save the wine for future recipes. I made the dish, and then decided I may as well have a glass or two. Well, it let's just say it got ugly after that.

So, no more cooking with alcoholic wine for me Besides, the dish wasn't very good anyway.

360shoes

I have. It doesn't bother me. There is a brut that is non alcohol and I like that one. Has all the good tasting parts and none of the cr*p.. Kind of a nice change once in awhile when I want to drink something different other than fizzy water or tea. I don't go out of my way to keep it around but I've found it nice if I go to a dinner party. Just me.

Dee74

Please don't post links to wine sites guys - even non alcoholic ones - I'll only have to remove them.

What might be fine for you just may be someone else's trigger.

D

wehav2day

i tried na wine one of the white knuckle times i tried to quit, found its taste quite lacking. had an na beer about 6 months ago, it was pretty good. wouldn't want to make a habit of it, seems like a slippery slope for me.

i'm a big food snob too, so not cooking with wine for me is tough. I've omitted wine from almost all of my cooking, except for risotto which i think would just taste wrong without wine. so i haven't made risotto in ages. before my last relapse, i had started cooking with wine a little. bought a "4 pack" of little bottles. cooked with one, had my partner hide the rest from me. that worked out pretty well. as if! i found myself finding reasons to cook all those old recipes i had stopped using, because i now could cook with wine again. then, surprise, relapse.

so i checked dee's links, i'm going to try that apple cider vinegar substitute. it seems promising. and i know i won't want to drink the rest of THAT bottle! :-) if it doesn't work, i'll just have to get my risotto in the restaurant from now on.

thanks for the tread, this has been on my mind before.