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Another Approach to Gourmet Cooking:
Move Over Julia Child!
by Alice Osborne
For religious and health reasons, I avoid drinking alcohol. So I’ve been wondering about something in terms of cooking: Why do some recipes call for wine, and what are the benefits of cooking with this stuff? The answer in a nutshell: cooking with wine can enhance flavor and cut down on the amount of fat needed (in some recipes, you can substitute wine for all or part of the specified quantity of oil).
 Flavor and health are good, but I still wondered, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ALCOHOL in the cooking process? Conventional information says that after a few minutes of cooking, the alcohol in wine evaporates. Not exactly. Research from the USDA shows that 85% of the alcohol remains after wine is added to a boiling liquid and then removed from the heat.
The longer a dish is cooked, however, the less alcohol remains. If a food is baked or simmered 15 minutes, 40% of the alcohol will remain; after one hour, only 25% remains; after 2 ½ hours, just 5%. But since wine does not have a large amount of alcohol to begin with (generally 12 to 14%), the final amount of alcohol in a dish is not a problem for most people.
Hmmm, I dunno. I think if there’s even a trace of alcohol, I will skip the adventure and find a substitute for the wine. So guess what I found when I went looking for this very thing? HAH! On About.com I found an entire table of substitutes for 9 common wines. Now I can have the flavor without the alcohol! (For those that do want to cook with the real McCoy, the Cooking Light website had great information on what specific wines should be used for...
Meanwhile, here’s the table of wine substitutions that you may find very helpful:
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Alcoholic
Ingredient
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Description
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Substitution
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Brandy
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Liqueur
made of distilled wine
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Try
apple, apricot, cherry, peach,
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or
fruit juice
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raspberry
or grape juice. Cor-
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responding
flavored extracts can be
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for
small amounts.
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Claret
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Red
wine or bordeaux
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Non-alcoholic
wine, diluted
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currant
or grape juice, cherry
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cider
syrup
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Cognac
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Aged,
double-distilled wine
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Peach,
apricot or pear juice
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or
fermented fruit juice.
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Red
Burgundy
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Dry
French wine
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Non-alcoholic
wine, red wine
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vinegar
or grape juice
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Red
wine
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Sweet
or dry wine
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Non-alcoholic
wine, beef or
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chicken
stock or broth, diluted
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red
win vinegar, grape juice
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diluted
with red wine vinegar
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or
rice vinegar, tomato juice,
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liquid
from canned mushrooms
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or
plain water
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Sherry
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Fortified
dessert wine, sweet
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Orange or pineapple juice
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or
dry, some with a slightly
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nutty
flavor
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Vermouth
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Wine-based
drink infused
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For
sweet, use non-alcoholic
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with
herbs, sweet or dry
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sweet
wine, apple or grape
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juice
or balsamic vinegar. For
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dry,
use non-alcoholic white
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wine,
white grape juice or
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white
wine vinegar.
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White
Burgundy
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Dry
French wine
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Non-alcoholic
wine, white
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grape
juice diluted with white
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wine
vinegar
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White
wine
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Sweet
or dry wine
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Non-alcoholic
wine, chicken
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broth
or stock, diluted white
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wine
vinegar or cider vinegar,
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white
grape juice diluted with
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white
wine vinegar or ginger
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ale,
canned mushroom liquid,
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water.
For marinades, substi-
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tute
1/4 C vinegar plus 1 Tbsp
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sugar
plus 1/4 C water.
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