Alcohol in Cooking

suziecue25

I have always understood that when an alcoholic beverage used in cooking is heated to boiling point the alcohol evaporates, therefore there is no need to count the calories for the alcohol content of the recipe. Is this correct?

Do you count the calories for any alcohol put into dishes?

wilson10102018

If the entire dish gets to 175 F the alcohol will be gone. But, unless you are cooking with Vodka, not all of the calories. Substitute grape juice for wine, and non alcoholic beer if lager is the medium. I don't know what you substitute for bourbon.

pinuplove

If the alcohol comprises a significant portion of the liquid in a dish (beer in a stew or half a bottle of wine over a roast, etc.) I'd count the calories in full and consider any evaporation of alcohol a bit of padding against some other inaccuracy. I wouldn't bother with a splash of vermouth in a sauce, but I'm a self-professed practitioner of sloppy logging sometimes anyway. Someone trying to be more accurate will probably have a different answer.

klrenn

I do because I don’t believe *all* of the alcohol evaporates and, since typically I’m cooking with wine, there are carb calories in it as well.

cmriverside

I would just allow for it. All the tiny details aren't really that important.

With that said, I've found replacements for all alcohol in recipes since I don't drink alcohol any more and I don't need it in recipes. It doesn't all burn off.

Chef_Barbell

I usually count it since I take a swig of whatever I'm cooking with. :drinker: 🤷🏼‍♀️

suziecue25

Thank you people .......I'll count the alcohol in future.

AnnPT77

wilson10102018 wrote: »

If the entire dish gets to 175 F the alcohol will be gone. But, unless you are cooking with Vodka, not all of the calories. Substitute grape juice for wine, and non alcoholic beer if lager is the medium. I don't know what you substitute for bourbon.

I guess that's fine if you like it, depending on why the wine is in the dish in the first place, but grape juice has a really different flavor profile from wine: Much sweeter, less dominant acidity, typically. If the wine is out (I can see why some need or want to eliminate it), a mild vinegar, or some mix of vinegar + juice, might come closer.

https://www.thekitchn.com/simple-nonalcoholic-substitutes-for-red-and-white-wine-tips-from-the-kitchn-184394

mmapags

AnnPT77 wrote: »

wilson10102018 wrote: »

If the entire dish gets to 175 F the alcohol will be gone. But, unless you are cooking with Vodka, not all of the calories. Substitute grape juice for wine, and non alcoholic beer if lager is the medium. I don't know what you substitute for bourbon.

I guess that's fine if you like it, depending on why the wine is in the dish in the first place, but grape juice has a really different flavor profile from wine: Much sweeter, less dominant acidity, typically. If the wine is out (I can see why some need or want to eliminate it), a mild vinegar, or some mix of vinegar + juice, might come closer.

https://www.thekitchn.com/simple-nonalcoholic-substitutes-for-red-and-white-wine-tips-from-the-kitchn-184394

This^^. Also, in many dishes, the acid in the wine is used both for a functional and flavor purpose. Eg. in braises where the acid is used to tenderize and break down the lignin in the meat.

I always add the calories but pretty much all the alcohol evaporates off. Just not something worth worrying about at the portion level. Eg. I may use 3 cups of red wine in a Beef Bourginnone but that is about 8 portions. Not worth the effort to figure out how much alcohol evaporated off and what the calorie deduction may be.

wilson10102018

AnnPT77 wrote: »

wilson10102018 wrote: »

If the entire dish gets to 175 F the alcohol will be gone. But, unless you are cooking with Vodka, not all of the calories. Substitute grape juice for wine, and non alcoholic beer if lager is the medium. I don't know what you substitute for bourbon.

I guess that's fine if you like it, depending on why the wine is in the dish in the first place, but grape juice has a really different flavor profile from wine: Much sweeter, less dominant acidity, typically. If the wine is out (I can see why some need or want to eliminate it), a mild vinegar, or some mix of vinegar + juice, might come closer.

https://www.thekitchn.com/simple-nonalcoholic-substitutes-for-red-and-white-wine-tips-from-the-kitchn-184394

How silly. I said for counting the calories, not putting actual grape juice in the recipe.