Dispelling the Greatest Culinary Urban Myth

posted October 10, 2006

by Victoria Wesseler

http://cooking.cdkitchen.com/AHealthyBite/385.html

It is perhaps the greatest culinary urban myth of our time. You’ve heard it stated repeatedly on cooking shows. The chef adds a cup of wine to a delicious looking dish simmering away on the stove, leans into the camera for his/her close up, and confidently says, “We’ll give the alcohol a few minutes to cook out.” Or with a dismissive wave of a hand, assures us with, “Don’t worry about the alcohol, it will all cook out in just a few seconds.” Sadly, his or her confidence in the presumed disappearing act of the alcohol is misplaced. Research proves that the alcohol does not all cook out.

Wines and spirits are popular ingredients in many sweet and savory dishes. They add a flavorful dimension to entrees, sauces, and desserts. In our calorie conscious world, many cooks will often use a wine or spirit to add flavor to a dish in place of higher calorie fats such as butter or oil.

Because alcohol (ethanol) has a lower boiling point (78.5 degrees C) than water (100 degrees C) the presumption among many home cooks and culinary professionals has been that the alcohol cooks out when it is exposed to heat. But in 1992, a team of researchers at the University of Idaho, Washington State University, and the United States Department of Agriculture set out to confirm this assumption and found the assumption did not hold true.

In their study*, six recipes were prepared using various sources of alcohol including Burgundy wine, dry sherry, brandy, crème de cocoa, and Grand Marnier. A variety of preparations were used including applying no heat and refrigerating overnight, adding alcohol to a hot sauce, flaming, oven baking, and simmering (both 30 minutes and 2 ½ hours). Alcohol retention, after preparation, ranged from 4%-85% and was dependent upon a number of factors such as cooking temperature, size of the cooking vessel, cooking time, and the presence of other ingredients in the prepared dish. Breadcrumbs, for instance, which might absorb some of the alcohol and prevent it from evaporating.

Interestingly enough, the cherries jubilee recipe had one of the highest alcohol retentions at 77%-78% after the flames died out! The researchers explained this by saying that “with a flaming dish, alcohol loss is primarily the result of alcohol combustion. The alcohol continues to burn as long as minimum alcohol vapor pressure is maintained. Once this vapor is reduced below a certain point, the alcohol ceases to burn, which happens during flaming and thus accounts for the relatively high retention of alcohol during the process.”

After they reviewed their data, the research team concluded that “the assumption that all alcohol is evaporated when heat is applied during cooking is not valid.”

For home and professional cooks alike, this information is extremely important. There are many individuals who for age, health, religious, and/or personal reasons do not include alcoholic beverages in their diets and should not be served food prepared with alcohol. When cooking for these individuals, alcohol should never be used as an ingredient in the dishes served to them. Some of the alcohol will always remain in the prepared dish.

And, cautions Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, National Spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and Director, BTD Nutrition Consultants, if the alcohol remains, so do the calories associated with it. She notes if you are substituting wine or spirits for fats or oils in your cooking in the hopes that the alcohol and the calories associated with them will both “all burn out and just leave the flavor behind”, that isn’t going to happen. You will still have to count some of the calories from the added wine or spirits.

My goal is to dispel this urban culinary myth and I need your help. Now that you know the facts, pass them on. And if you know any folks at the Food Network, please email them the link to this column!

*Jorg Augustin, PhD, Evelyn Augustin, MS, Rena L. Cutruffelli, Steven Hagen, PhD, and Charlene Teitzel. Alcohol Retention in Food Preparation, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April 1992, Volume 92, Number 4.