A lot of my more-involved recipes include red wine or sherry with the protein. I need to modify my recipes for someone who is not to have any alcohol for medical reasons.
“Alcohol-free” wine such as Fre has .5% alcohol. Is that sufficient from a medical perspective, or should I further treat it, as below? Frankly, I’d rather use better wine or spirits but this starts me off at a lower percent.
The jury of my internet peers appears to be out as to how long an alcoholic beverage should be boiled to remove the alcohol. Though many recipes glibly assert that cooking removes alcohol, the 1-2 empirical studies for which I can find data online assert that even after long boiling, a reasonable amount of alcohol remains. Do you know of a more definitive study?
Are there other easy-ish ways of removing alcohol from wine?
Since this is has health implications, I’d appreciate actual information rather than guesses, or at least please label guesses as such.
You’re right that it’s impossible to cook off *all *of the alcohol. If you really want to make sure there is none, you could use white grape juice or broth, based on which would go better with the particular dish. You should check out this website: http://www.thesoberkitchen.com/. She also has a book by the same name.
I cant beleive that 0.5% wine after cooking could possibly have an effect on anyone, even if they have a medical problem. Cook away!
ps. iana doctor of course
I know a method that’s used in several parts of Spain with “hard” drinks (usually rhum).
Being outside and away from anything that burns, place the drink (with or without added spices) in a low, wide earthenware pot. Place a glass of water right beside it. Turning away from the pot, light a match. Wave it over the pot until it catches fire, drop the match in the glass. Wait until the fire dies off by itself.
Cremà catalana and queimada gallega are both made in this way. “Cremà” and “queimada” mean “burnt”, the other words refer to the region. Traditional break-of-dawn drinks, they’re hot in temperature but non-alky (as far as anybody knows, no idea if actual analysis have been conducted): no bad temper with the wife, no hangover.
Have you tried that, I can’t imagine that would work, even for hard liquor (short of everclear). The only way I’ve been able to light liquor is to throw it in a hot pan and then put a flame into the steam coming off of it. Although that does make a spectacular flame.
I haven’t tried it with wine, but I’ve had queimada once and cremà many times. Cremà is often handed out at singings of Habaneras, which normally take place in the summer and it’s amazing how good it feels when it’s been 40C at 4pm, gone down to a mere 20C at 11pm, and you don’t have a light jacket.
I’ve only lit a cremà once and all I had to do was wave the match close to the surface, PHWOOOOOMP!
I had a portion of my pancreas taken out several years ago and my doctors told me that I could not, under any circumstances, have any alcohol.
Taking my doctors words to heart, (since I almost died during this ordeal, I thought it was in my best interest.) I began researching what contained alcohol. I found out that even soda has a tiny amount of alcohol, so that went out of my diet, as well as vanilla extract and many other things. When I started refusing to let the nurses use rubbing alcohol on me, the doctor decided he needed to rephrase his order.
He explained to me that cooking with wine and other alcoholic beverages would not hurt me, as long as it was done in moderation (no nip for cook and nip for recipe) and heated to release the biggest part of the alcohol. He also approved soda, much to my relief.
I don’t know your friends circumstances, but I thought I would share mine. Your friend may want to ask their doctor at the next visit to clarify. On a side note, if the doctors believe there is alcoholism, they will say “no” to any alcohol what-so-ever.