apparently the friend was babysitting and the kid wanted pasta for red sauce that had red wine in it … and it caused a stir
should she of asked first ? I know they have jarred pasta sauce made with red wine …
Even for the New York Post, this is lazy journalism. The entire article can be summed up as “Hey, guys, what do you think of this Reddit post I saw?” I see no evidence that they asked the poster or anyone else for comment, or did any amount of due diligence to determine whether any of this actually happened (and considering that r/AITA is essentially the 2020s equivalent of Penthouse Forum, there’s a good chance it didn’t).
That being said, I doubt a properly simmered meat sauce with red wine would have any intoxifying amount of alcohol in it that would cause Hypothetical Karen any legitimate cause for concern.
Off the top of my head, Islam and Mormonism prohibit even the slightest trace of alcohol. Some Protestant branches are the same though I don’t remember which ones.
Agreed that there wouldn’t be an intoxifying amount of alcohol, however it has been suggested that alcohol doesn’t simply “boil off” when simmered. It does go down, but it takes a long time to actually remove most or all of it.
It’s “should have,” not “should of.”
True, but you didn’t answer the OP’s question. Should she should of had? 
There would be such a miniscule amount of alcohol in the portion the boy had, it’s not something it would even occur to me to mention. I served my friends daughter roast beef the other week, and my gravy has red wine in it.
But then, I come from a culture that has a very relaxed attitude to alcohol. Heck, it’s legal to serve 5 year olds alcohol at home here (UK)*
*Though not common, I might add!
Years ago, I took some clients out to lunch, and one of them, saying he was a recovering alcoholic, asked about the wine in the sauce. So for him at least, it was a concern.
I’m sure that there’s not enough alcohol to intoxicate the kid, but that’s not the only legitimate concern. There’s the religious reasons as mentioned but I wouldn’t expect a friend to be feeding my eight year old pasta sauce with red wine in it or sausages cooked in beer so I might not mention that I think the kid is allergic to beer/wine/alcohol based on having eaten foods containing alcohol in the past. That said, “furious” is an overreaction unless the friend actually knew mom would object in advance.
I chalk this whole type of issue / article to be “outrage as entertainment” which is a thing these days.
Every single bolognese I make has wine (I prefer white in this case) in it and I’ve been feeding it to my kids for years (ages 8 and 7). And, to boot, I’m a recovering alcoholic as well. I don’t even think of it as having alcohol, since the wine is just another ingredient that (mostly) cooks off, so I would easily serve it without thinking to other people’s children (and I’m pretty sure I have.)
ETA: - unless I know they have allergies or religious objections or whatnot.
The sauce probably had as much intoxicating effect as a dose of cough syrup, maybe less. Are there religious objections to cough syrup?
It may vary by religion or sect, but, basically, if there’s a non-alcoholic alternative (and there are with cough syrups), use that one.
Here’s one site for Muslims:
https://www.islamawareness.net/Alcohol/fatwa_alcohol002.html
She should of followed by asking the furious mom if her concern is due to the alcohol content of the sauce being harmful to her precious son. If she replies yes, then present her with this article and tell her you cooked the wine sauce for 3 hours specifically to burn off all trace of alcohol.
If she says her concern is for religious reasons, then laugh and ask if she also believes in the Flying Spaghetti monster. You could even claim the Spaghetti Monster likes to be anointed with wine sauce.
I don’t really laugh at, or debate people who hold religious beliefs (to each his own), unless they are overly obnoxious about it, as this furious mom appears to be.
What is the opposite of gourmet? Foodie? Because that is what we are. I don’t think we use any alcohol in any cooking. I’ve had foods in the past with wine or beer in the recipes, but never appreciated any benefit from the booze.
I’m 20 or so years sober, so I’d prefer not to have booze in my food, tho I may have unknowingly had some in the past 2 decades and it wouldn’t set me on a bender.
As to the OP, I dunno. I probably wouldn’t give someone else’s kid a sauce w/ wine. But it is tough to say, as it isn’t something that would ever have happened to us. And if the mom had asked for our recipe, we woulda said, “Buy a jar of sauce. Open the jar and pour the sauce in a pan…” 
Unless the kid came home obviously loopy, or is emptying the booze bottles at home, I think the kid’s mom shouldn’t have said anything other than - at most - “If this ever occurs in the future, we prefer that our kid not eat anything with alcohol a an ingredient. But thanks for watching - and feeding, my kid.”
I don’t know - under the circumstances described ( kids asks for pasta with red sauce , friend used her tried and true recipe to made the red sauce*) , I would absolutely not believe that the sauce was cooked for three hours. And that might make me furious (although the friend wouldn’t necessarily know) , even if the wine in the sauce didn’t.
* In other circumstances it would be believable - if she makes this sauce every Saturday, maybe she cooked it for three hours but not in response to a same day request
Agreed! Alcohol evaporates very quickly when heated. I doubt anything other than a trace is left by the time the sauce is done. This is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot.
It’s definitely not “foodie.” Foodies like all sorts of food and range of cuisines. They’re closer to being synonymous than antonyms.
As for the wine, it helps bring out some alcohol soluble flavors. I’ve made bolognese both with and without and it’s enough of a difference for me that I always use wine. I doubt most would care though.
My MIL was a recovering alcoholic, and we never served her anything cooked with wine. But the concern was that the flavor might be a trigger, not that she’d ingest enough alcohol to be problematic.
My husband is a teetotaler, and he is fine with my cooking with wine, so long as i cook off most of the alcohol. He doesn’t want it to taste of alcohol, and of course he doesn’t want it to have enough booze in it to get him tipsy or anything. I’m also his taste-tester for potentially boozy restaurant desserts.
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to avoid serving a food with some cooked wine in it to kids. So i might have done it, and would have been surprised if the parents objected. If the kids were Muslim i might have checked with the parents first. Dunno if it would have occurred to me with Mormons. But… If I’m babysitting the kids, I’ve probably had the parents over to eat before, and i probably asked them about dietary restrictions. So actually, i probably would have known.
Anyway, outrage seems an overreaction. “Please don’t do it again”, and an apology from the one who did the cooking both seem reasonable.
So if I am not outraged by the wine in the sauce, can I get my outrage fix by being outraged at the poor journalistic standards?