Cooking with wine? but cannot have any alcohol in my system?

Question

I am a recovering alcoholic, and I take a medication called Antabuse to help me to avoid "slips." This medication causes a person to get very sick if they imbibe any alcohol. My problem is that I love to cook, and wish I could use wine in some of my dishes. I know the alcohol is supposed to evaporate, but does anyone out there have the knowledge of how high the heat must be, or how long the cooking, for ALL the alcohol to "cook off"? I asked my doctor, and even he doesn't know, and wants to err on the side of caution. I certainly don't want to make myself sick, and know there are substitutes that can be used (chicken broth, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, etc) but some recipes really demand the real thing. Does anybody have knowlege of this to solve my dilemma? Thanks.

To all of you (and wow, how many!) who tried to help with this, I want to thank you so much. For those of you who think I really want to drink, NOT SO! I still keep beer in the house for beer-battered fish because I know that's safe. I was sober for over ten years when I had a "slip" and decided to take Antabuse as a further precaution than just what I already did to stay sober and have a great life. I appreciate your concern. Thanks to those who gave me the brand names of non-alcoholic wine, I couldn't fremember the brand I used to know about. (Actually, a friend asked me about the great "Boef a la Bourgingon" that I used to make, and that takes a whole bottle of red wine, so of course I couldn't make it. Thanks again, and I feel much too terrific to want to take a drink and lose the wonderful life I have now.

Answer 1

The conventional wisdom accepted by just about everyone in the food world is that all the alcohol you add to a dish evaporates or dissipates during cooking. It’s wrong. In fact, you have to cook something for a good three hours to really eradicate all traces of alcohol. And some cooking methods are less effective at removing alcohol than just letting it stand out uncovered overnight.

There's a chart on this page: http://www.ochef.com/165.htm

Answer 2

Hello, all the info you need is contained in the link below. It seems like alcohol does not evaporate that quickly, and you have to cook the dish for a good three hours before all traces of alcohol are gone. Also, some cooking methods are more effective than others in eradicating the alcohol traces. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Sounds like an excuse to imbibe wine to me. Why risk it? There are millions of good recipes that don't contain wine. Have you spoken to your fellow alcoholics at AA about this? Even if the alcohol burns away you will be left with the flavour and I would imagine tasting wine is a dangerous step. Are you sure you want alcohol in your house? In your hand while you are pouring it in the cooking? Are you sure you won't drink any? Why dance with the devil?

Answer 4

All of the alcohol is burnt off during cooking... if making a stew/casserole etc. then allow the wine to reduce for 3 minutes before adding other wet ingredients then allow to stew for 2 hours, this will remove all of the alcohol.

If making a sauce with wine, then reduce to a quarter of the original volume and there will be no alcohol left in it...

Hope this help!

Answer 5

Here's some stuff I answered previously to someone who'd asked a somewhat similar question:

```````````````````````````````````````````````````

First I agree with previous posters about substiting with things like fruit juice or fruit puree (maybe along with chicken or other stock and a bit of vinegar if not using a sour fruit), flavored vinegars (apple, rice, etc.), some extracts (those without alcohol), etc.

The basic thing though is just to think of *what the wine or liqueur specified actually has in it* (besides the alcohol):
... e.g....grapes or grape juice (white or red) and sugar, plus peach-apple-plum-apricot or other fruits and things that may be present in liqueurs, etc. . . .

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

And you might want to check out the rest of that whole thread as well:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuWwzLIdJyIzvX1Ej7ZsF2nty6IX?qid=20070312061108AAgYNyH&show=7#profile-info-df76e91640f206bfdc32c4a4073d6cf7aa


Great job on your recovery!... and happy life

Diane B.

Answer 6

I am an aspiring chef and my husband has been sober for over 14 years, I'm always creating or trying out new recipes, but when they call for the wine I just leave it out. I used to love to make this delicious white wine sauce to pour over chicken or pork, but now I just add extra butter to add back what is lacking without the wine. I also just add extra herbs and flavors to enhance what the wine would have.

This works for me and my husband! Hope this information helps you!

Answer 7

I don't know the exact number of minutes, however; I can give you an example of how to tell.
I know this works for vodka.
When you add vodka to a recipe and it starts to simmer, smell the steam...it will have a very high alcohol smell.
Smell it again after a couple of minutes...it will still smell like alcohol, but it will start diminishing. After about 10 minutes or so smell it again. When you smell the steam and the alcohol smell doesn't shoot straight up your nose, the alcohol has evaporated. I know this, because the alcohol has to evaporate when I make the sauce for Pasta Vodka just before adding the heavy cream.

Answer 8

I am not a doctor but i can tell you that if you are cokking on high heat it wont take long...Alchohol evaporates fast and your not going to use enough to even hurt you i would think....I think you will be fine...Also, you can substitute sutter home fre which is non achoholic wine and it will serve the same purpose...U really cant taste the wine in the food so i think that would be the way to go!! I hope this helps

Answer 9

It isn't worth the risk, honey. If you have the wine in your hand to put in the food, you know what you are going to do and so do I.

Stop playing with the idea of getting away with alcohol in any form if you really want to stay sober. It's a game you are destined to lose.

As for cooking, broth works best. If you really want the same taste, try the "white wine" version of Worchestershire Sauce by Lea & Perrins.

Answer 10

I love to cook but take many medications that strongly say I cannot have wine or any form of alcohol I never put in wine. My food always comes out fine. Just leave it out.