Alcohol in food
 

Some dishes are prepared with for example wine. It is generally believed that cooking takes all the alcohol away, but that is not the case. After cooking the food for a short while, only 15% has dissipated. After 1 hour (!) of cooking, still 25% is left.

So I was thinking about this and have come to a conclusion:

1. At this point in my recovery, I will avoid food with alcohol in it. This will remain the case until I am certain that it is no risk at all.

2. It is not a relapse UNLESS I eat the food for the sake of getting alcohol in my system. Then it's just an excuse wrapped in a different delivery system.

3. Generally speaking, food with alcohol in it is ok and does not contradict sobriety as long as you do it for the right reason.

Thoughts?

Jerry,

You seem to be thinking about this an awful lot, so perhaps it is best to avoid food cooked with alcohol for now. I'm concerned you will wrestle with your conscious otherwise. I have a pretty simple food rule. If the alcohol smell coming off of it is obvious, I avoid it. Otherwise, I don't think twice about eating it. In reality, I am rarely exposed to such foods though.

You're right. I will avoid it completely for now. I was two weeks sober yesterday, so it is way too early to even think about it. No alcohol, period.

Fortunately I am rarely exposed to such foods as well. The only people who sometimes cook it are the people that know I have a problem with alcohol. And now that I think about it, they haven't done that at all anymore from the moment they knew of my problem. They don't drink around me anymore as well. Never really realized that. I should thank them for it.

They don't have a problem with alcohol and before it became a problem for me, we would have a glass of wine in the evening every once in a while. Now they don't drink when I'm there. I saw on a photo of an evening when I wasn't present that there was a glass of wine in it. :)

Actually, I'm feeling increasingly grateful. Time to make a phone call.

Here are my thoughts. If you are concerned then stay away. However, if you enjoy cooking many recipes will do fine if you swap out the wine for chicken or vegetable stock. Otherwise you could look for cooking wines which have a much lower alcohol by volume content than drinking wine.

I love to bake and would never swap pure extracts for the imitation but you can.

Alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water which is why cooking will eliminate much of it. But in chemical terms alcohol is very hydrophilic (ie it loves water) so the chemical bonds can only be completely broken with something like a centerfuge.

But to put things in perspective after a few hours of simmering the majority of the alcohol will be gone.

Should you avoid it altogether? That depends. If you're new to sobriety or very easily triggered it would be safest not to cook with alcohol. Certainly something with a lot of alcohol and short cooking times isn't a good idea. On the other hand, a splash of wine in a pasta may not be a big deal at all (very low amount of alcohol to begin with).

Since I quit drinking I have made Coq Au Vin at least twice. This involves stewing a chicken for hours in two bottles of red wine. The long cooking time boils off most of the alcohol and you don't drink the cooking sauce, and I have not been able to detect any effects from what small amount of alcohol remains.

In summary I agree it's something to consider but I don't think it's a big deal, at least to me. YMMV.

Alcohol Burn-off Chart - US Dept of Agriculture :
http://www.oasas.ny.gov/admed/fyi/fyi-cooking.cfm

I gave up preparing food with alcohol in it, and knowingly infesting foods made by others with alcohol in it.

I feel it simply doesn't gel with the rest of my alcohol free life.

I don't miss it and I think my palate has improved immensely in its absence.

I understand others hold contrary views :)

I think GHD makes a great point though - if you're thinking this much about what's a relapse and what's not, it's got to be easier to avoid it altogether.

D

What D said

Ethanol and water form an azeotrope that prevents all of the alcohol from being driven off by boiling. There is always going to be a certain percentage of alcohol in food prepared with alcoholic beverages.

But yeah, if total abstinence is an issue than you should probably cook with something else.

I work in a restaurant. I started this job at eleven days sober. We serve this absolutely gorgeous-looking loaf of homemade wheat bread to every table. It is baked with Shiner Bock beer so I have never tasted it and never will. There are too many foods that don't deliberately have alcohol in them, so I have decided for myself that if I know something has alcohol in it, I don't need to eat it. And I won't be cooking with alcohol in my own home.

But that's a personal decision. To each their own.

I think it depends on the individual. Go with your instincts. If its going to mess with you psychologically, just don't do it. I had brats this past weekend that were made with 2 cans of beer in the water (with onions). Threw em on the grill for a bit, didn't think twice about it.

The problem with cooking with alcohol, and btw I love getting creative in the kitchen, is the fact of having alcohol in my house, that bottle of wine, that bottle of brandy etc etc, so that in itself is not ideal or compatible with the Sober lifestyle I'm trying to create.

The other point on this is being somewhere and eating something with alcohol unintentionally, we can't be beating ourselves up every time we unknowingly consume something with alcohol in it, this extends to medicines, mouth washes etc etc, it may happen without knowing, but the reality is if I'm over at a friend's house and I ask "how did you make that sauce, it's delicious, and the response is oh a few dashes of red wine and drop of brandy!!"

Sure I may not have any more but we have to be sensible about these things in terms of not consciously knowing or consciously trying to drink, compared with the occasion a few Christmases ago when I took 1 bite of a chocolate truffle, immediately tasted the alcohol and discretely spat it out!!

I don't blame you but the Bock is probably just to feed the yeast, and not much of it is likely used. But still better safe than sorry.