Advice On Cooking With Alcohol

Alcohol is an ingredient in many different recipes - it can be used to add flavor to a variety of sauces, marinades, soups, stews and desserts. The reason it is used is because the flavors in certain foods become fuller and more noticeable with alcohol.

Any type of alcohol can not just be added to any type of food though; you need to correctly match the right kind of food with the right kind of alcohol. If the match is not correct then the taste of a food will worsen.

Of course, the smaller the amount of alcohol added to begin with, the less alcohol content there will be in the finished dish. Despite what many people think, the alcohol is not completely burned off during cooking.

Research has shown that the majority of the alcohol remains present after cooking for less than a couple of hours. It is unlikely that the alcohol content retained will be high enough to get the person eating the dish drunk though. It actually several hours for all of the alcohol in a dish to be burnt off.

As well as the quantity of alcohol added, the quality of the alcohol used will also have a noticeable effect on the taste of the finished dish. Try to avoid using cheap beers, wines and liqueurs, as the taste of the dish will not be anywhere near good as if quality brands had been used.

Should you wish to do so, it is possible to avoid using alcohol in recipes that require it. Though you will not get the full bodied flavor of using alcoholic beverages, you can use non-alcoholic wine or beer in your recipes. To replace rum or flavored liqueur in recipes, use zests or extracts of juices and, for heartier liqueurs, use a mixture of soy sauce and tomato juice / sauce.

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