SC - Alcohol in Cooking (Long)

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings from Alys Katharine.  I thought some of you might be 
interested in this article was just in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about 
the amount of alcohol left after cooking.  It was written by Robert L. 
Wolke in the Washington Post.  

“So many cookbooks assert that all or virtually all of the alcohol 
‘burns off’ during cooking...that almost everyone accepts that 
statement as gospel.  The standard ‘explanation,’ when there is one, 
is that alcohol boils at 173 degrees Fahrenheit, while water doesn’t 
boil until 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and therefore the alcohol will 
boil off before the water does.

“Well, that’s not the way it works.

“It’s true that pure alcohol boils at 173 degrees and pure water 
boils at 212.  But that doesn’t mean that they behave independently 
when mixed; each affects the boiling temperature of the other.  A 
mixture of alcohol and water will boil at a temperature between 
173 and 212 degrees - closer to 212 if it’s mostly water, closer to 
173 if it’s mostly alcohol, which I certainly hope is not the case in 
your cooking.

“Here’s what’s happening when you simmer a pan of food containing 
wine or beer:

“When a mixture of water and alcohol boils, the vapors are a mixture 
of water and alcohol together.  But because alcohol evaporates more 
readily than water, the proportion of alcohol in the vapoars is higher 
than it was in the liquid.  But the vapors are still far from pure 
alcohol, and as they waft away from the pan, they’re not carrying much 
of the alcohol.  The alcohol-loss is much less efficient than people 
think.  

“How much alcohol will remain in your pan depends on so many 
factors that a general answer for all recipes is impossible.  But the 
results of some tests may surprise you.

“In 1992 a group of nutritionists at the University of Idaho, 
Washington State University and the Department of Agriculture measured 
the amounts of alcohol before and after cooking two Burgundy-laden 
dishes similar to boef bourguignon and coq au vin, plus a casserole of 
scalloped oysters made with sherry.  They found that anywhere from 4 
percent to 49 percent of the original alcohol remained in the finished 
dishes, depending on the type of food and the cooking method.

“Higher temperatures, longer cooking times, uncovered pans, wider 
pans, tip-of-the-stove rather than closed-oven cooking - all conditions 
that increase the general amount of evaporation - were found, not 
surprisingly, to increase the loss of alcohol.”

“What about using wine to deglaze a pan when there isn’t any other 
alcohol in the recipe?  The researchers didn’t test this, but it stands 
to reason that the more you reduce or evaporate it, the less alcohol 
- - and water, of course - is going to remain.  So to get rid of the 
alcohol, take the sauce almost to dryness and then quickly replace 
some of its (hot) water before it scorches.

“Do you think you’re buring off  all the alcohol as you march 
triumphantly into your darkened dining room bearing a tray of 
blazing cherries jubilee or crepes suzette?  Well, think again.  
According to the 1992 test results, you may be buring off only 
about 20 percent of the alcohol beofe the flame goes out.  That’s 
because to sustain a flame, the percentage of alcohol in the vapor 
must be above a certain level.  Remember that you had to use a 
high-proof brandy and warm it to make more alcohol vapor before 
it would even ignite.  (You can’t light wine, for example.)  When 
the alcohol burns down to a certai, still-substantial level in the 
dish, the fumes are no longer flammable and your fire goes out.  That’s 
show biz.

“How much weight should you give these test results when trying 
to accommodate your guests?

“One thing you should conisder is the dilution factor.  If your recipe 
for 6 servings of coq au vin calls for 3 cups of wine, and if about 
half of the alcohol cooks off during a 30-minute simmer (as the 
researchers 
found), each serving will wind oup with the amount of alcohol in 2 
ounces of wine.  On the other hand, those 3 cups of wine in a 6-serving 
boef bourguignon that simmers for three hours and loses 95 percent 
of its alcohol (according to the test results) will wind up giving each 
diner the alcohol equivalent of only two-tenths of an ounce of wine.

“Still, alcohol is alcohol.  So let your conscience be your guide.”


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