Alcohol in foods

harryw · Member

Alcohol in foods

DeanC · Guru

Hi Harry,

It's my understanding that when alcohol is cooked it evaporates. Here's an quote I found-

http://www.ochef.com/165.htm

"Several stated that the alcohol burns off, but no one took a stab at how quickly or slowly that happens. We looked in our favorite food science books. Nothing. Finally, James Peterson, a cookbook writer who studied chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, mentioned it in his encyclopedic cookbook, Sauces (Canada, UK). He says you need to cook a sauce for at least 20 to 30 seconds after adding wine to it to allow the alcohol to evaporate. And there is some sense to that, since alcohol evaporates at 172°F (78°C), so any sauce or stew that is simmering or boiling is certainly hot enough to evaporate the alcohol."

It goes on to give a chart of how much and how long it takes. I was careful about it for the first years of recovery. At about 5 years I was invited to a AA friends house to watch football with a group of guys with double digit sobriety and a few of them were drinking NA "malt beverage" (beer), which is not recommended. I asked one of them about it and he explained that the percentage (less than half of one percent) is less than the amount of alcohol present in vanilla ice cream (which I have not researched). More importantly (to me) he said that when he drank the NA beverage, he did not think of drinking alcohol at all. He went on to say that he could drink one and was done, didn't obsess, didn't the next day, week, month.... either. That was him.

On the other hand, I have a very close friend, with 22 years clean and sober, that I met when I had 3 months. When we go out to restaurants, he grills the server about all the food, the salad dressings, and the coffee, whether it contained ANY amount of alcohol. He even has asked them to bring the salad dressing bottles to the table. To be honest, I don't enjoy going out to eat with him because of it, but that's his program, and it works for him. There are some of us that are absolutely allergic to small amounts of alcohol and they have reactions and fear of the same.

That said, If it bothers us, or we obsess about it, then it's a problem. Being careful is a good thing. Personally, I've had my share of rum cake, clam chowder with a tad of cooking sherry, and a few NA beverages and never thought once about drinking or using, but that's me and I don't recommend that.

BigV · Senior Member

Took my girl out for a nice Italian dinner a few weeks back she has a favorite plate there and when she got her plate she says WOO thats some heavy duty wine tasting stuff, so of course I took a whiff and I could smell the wine scent coming off the food I took a taste and its was so over powering with the wine flavor it was rediculous.

Did it make me want a whole glass? NO it smelled really good but tasted like crapola LOL obviously the cook was drunk or something because only a wino would enjoy it which my girl didn't she likes her alcohol she's a social drinker but only occasionally. I sat and thought about that and the difference between myself and her, i'd have ate the whole damn plate along with a decanter of wine or 2 in the old days, probably would have puked later , she ate about 1/3 of the plate didnt order a glass of wine we brought the leftover plate home I wanted to eat more of it because all I could think about was that wine taste and how I'd get a buzz off the pasta LOL.

I say dont tempt the palate LOL stay away from it these things CAN trigger us but what do we do with TRIGGER do we pull it and go into full blown relapse or do we set it down and walk away putting it on safety like it were a gun. I think fear kicked in and that fear is what needs to be addressed Harry you dont have to pickup a whole bottle over this or make a big deal out of it or blame your friend for there ignorance, I used worshisire sauce just yesterday and some stew I made just a dab well actually 2 shakes from the bottle I dont use cooking sherry though a few meals I make would be tastier and a steak soaked in beer is good but I dont do that either anymore, beer batter is GREAT and i'll eat it as long as it doesn't taste like 'm eating a bottle of malt liquor LOL

ryrym · Member

As a chef I can tell you that the alcohol is burnt off rather quickly. What you are left with is the flavors in the liquid that is left after the reduction of liquid. A liquid that contains no alcohol cannot induce a physical craving. There is small amounts of alcohol in most things you wouldnt even think of. Bread for instance uses yeast as a leavening agent (makes it rise) and the yeast eats the sugars and releases co2 and alcohol as a by-product. There are countless other instances of small amounts of alcohol used per serving that you wont even know. Even if a sauce contained uncooked wine you would have do drink gallons of the sauce to feel anything.

If you are obsessing over the fact that what was used in the dish used to contain alcohol that may be what the trigger would be and in my opinion is an unhealthy approach to life in recovery.

Ps. a lot of places don't even use vodka in their alla vodka sauce its usually just tomato sauce with cream.

mark k · Newbie

if it makes you uncomfortable, dont do it. dont turn it into a drama for yourself. a few years back, i took the wrong shotglass at communion, thought it was grape juice found out when it hit the back of my throat it wasnt. called my sponsor, told him and moved on. no need to sell my car for crack over a simple mistake. call your sponsor

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