I saw an embroidered apron proclaiming: “Cooking with wine is fun. Sometimes I even add it to the food.”
Many people enjoy cooking with wine, beer or hard liquor because the alcohol adds distinctive flavor. But eating foods with alcohol may be a complicated dilemma for some dinner guests.
Some people are reluctant to eat food cooked with alcohol for religious or health reasons. Pregnant women or people taking certain medications also may want to be cautious. Others may have concerns about alcohol in food if they are also drinking alcohol.
Some, but not all, alcohol burns off with cooking, but time and surface areas are also key factors in determining the remaining alcohol content. The longer food is cooked, the less alcohol remains. If a food is baked or simmered for 15 minutes, 40 percent of the alcohol will remain. Twenty-five percent remains after one hour of cooking. Only 5 percent remains after 2 1/2 hours of cooking.
Flaming a dish with alcohol — or lighting a dish on fire momentarily — burns off less alcohol than extended cooking.If you want to minimize alcohol content, choose a recipe such as coq au vin, which is chicken braised in red wine sauce, rather than a flamed dish. These dishes contain as much as 75 percent of the original alcohol after the flames go out. About 85 percent remains if alcohol is added to a boiling liquid and then removed from the heat source.
When alcohol is added to something cold, like whipped cream, or a holiday no-bake rum ball recipe, the alcohol content remains unchanged.
The smaller the pan used for cooking, the more alcohol will remain in the food. That’s because the smaller surface area allows less evaporation of the alcohol.
When choosing wine for cooking, steer away from cooking wine, which tends to be high in sodium. Instead, select a wine you could enjoy drinking. Julia Child once said, “If you do not have a good wine to use, it is far better to omit it, for a poor one can spoil a dish and utterly debase a noble one.”
If you have concerns about added alcohol when eating out, ask the wait staff about entrees you’re considering. The menu may not indicate if a meat has been marinated in alcohol as part of the preparation. It may also be added to a risotto, pasta sauce or other recipes without indication on the menu.
If you choose to eliminate alcohol in recipes, there are some substitutes. Use these substitutions in the same quantity as you would liquor, with the exception of extracts.
• Use broth or juice such as tomato or apple in a savory dish such as a stew. You may wish to also add a small amount of lemon juice or vinegar to mimic wine’s acidity.
• In desserts, substitute a fruit juice. Concentrated orange juice and grated orange zest can fill in for orange liqueur.
• Look for non-alcoholic beer and wine, which contain very little alcohol but contributes a similar flavor.
• Use a flavored extract. Brandy extract will impart the flavor of brandy without the alcohol. Extracts are made with only a small amount of alcohol, so the finished product is virtually non-alcoholic.
Registered dietitian Shirley Perryman is an extension specialist with the Colorado State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.
