Why use alcohol in our recipes?
It is common to use alcohol to bring new flavors to a dish, such as in a sauce by deglazing the juices of meat in the pan, to prepare a coq au vin en croute or to soak a baba au rhum. Alcohol is also known for raising dough in pastries, such as when preparing beer-based pancake batter. He also preserves fruits, covering them with rum and sugar in jars. Finally, alcohol is useful until serving, by igniting the plate. To obtain this breathtaking result, we prepare a laska flambé or the famous crepes suzette.
Cooking alcohol never goes away completely
When tasting, no taste or effect of alcohol invades our taste buds… Strange, where has it gone? The answer is simple: upon contact with heat, the alcohol level decreases. To understand everything, you need to know that the rate of evaporation of alcohol depends above all on the temperature and cooking time. The higher the temperature and the longer the cooking time, the more alcohol evaporates from the preparation. Unlike water which evaporates at 100°C, alcohol disappears at 78°C. Although the evaporation process seems easier for alcohol than water, the alcohol percentage never completely disappears. So you can, at best, mitigate it. In short cooking, by pouring alcohol into a dish a few seconds before turning off the heat, only 15% of the alcohol will have had time to evaporate. When cooking for a long time, such as when preparing coq au vin, you will have to wait two hours for 90% of the alcohol to evaporate. Suffice to say that, to hope to obtain a completely de-alcoholized dish, we will have to call on our patience!
The choice of alcohol
Another factor to take into account: the alcohol used. Not all alcoholic recipes are equal. For good reason, rum does not have the same alcohol content as red wine (75% compared to 10% on average*), liqueur (23% on average*) or beer (4% on average*). If you cook a veal chop with rum for the same time as if you had poured beer instead, the result will not be the same. Your rum recipe will be stronger. You will have understood, in the kitchen, we anticipate and carefully adapt our choice of alcohol.
What can you replace alcohol with in cooking?
Although alcohol is a traditional reflex in cooking, it is not obligatory. You can therefore not add any to the preparations. Aside from non-alcoholic liqueurs and wines, there are still several ways to replace alcohol in cooking. Let’s prepare “virgin dishes” with, for example, pancakes with malted barley syrup rather than beer, beef bourguignon with broth rather than red wine or a baba au rhum without rum, with a syrup made from brown sugar, vanilla, passion fruit juice, lime, mint or even cinnamon. As for the cognac, so divine when preparing an Armorican sauce with squid, we replace it with peach or pear juice extract. To deglaze, replace the red wine with vinegar and the white wine with white vinegar.
And for the children?
After cooking a dish with wine, beer or any other spirit, the quantity of alcohol remains negligible. A child will tolerate a beef and tomato orzo pasta dish just as well as an adult. If in doubt, prepare “parts” without alcohol, separating part of the preparation on one side before pouring your alcohol.
*Ciqual
Alcohol should be consumed in moderation.
