Cooking w/Liquor

Most people think that when you cook with liquor, it evaporates.  When D's Delectables cooks with liquor, that ain't so!! I found this posting online  (Cook's Illustrated) which  backs up my claim.

How much alcohol is cooked off during cooking?

We are frequently asked how much alcohol is cooked off from wine, beer, and spirits used to flavor dishes. The common belief is that the alcohol (ethanol) completely burns off with time (or direct heat—see flambéing below), but we’ve found out that it’s not that simple.

When alcohol and water mix, they form a solution called an azeotrope—a mixture of two different liquids that behaves as if it were a single compound. Even though alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, the vapors coming off of an alcohol-water azeotrope will contain both alcohol and water—they become inextricably mixed.

We measured the alcohol content of the stew liquid in our Beef Burgundy recipe before it went into the oven. Every hour, we sampled the liquid to measure the alcohol concentration, and every time, it had dropped--but not as much as might be expected. After three hours of stewing, the alcohol concentration of the stew liquid had decreased by 60 percent. A major reason for the retention of alcohol in this dish is the use of a lid. If the surface of the liquid is not ventilated, alcohol vapor will accumulate, reducing further evaporation. Because most stews and braises are cooked in lidded pots, significant alcohol retention is the rule rather than the exception, even after hours of cooking.

Alcohol cooked in a skillet, say for a pan sauce, evaporates faster and more completely if allowed to reduce almost completely before liquids are added, though a certain percentage of alcohol will remain. As long as a liquid starts with an alcohol content higher than 5 percent, the final alcohol content will remain at about 5 percent.

Flambéing

One way to quickly reduce the amount of alcohol in a liquid is to ignite the vapors that lie above the pan, a technique known as flambéing. But the degree to which a flambé will remove alcohol depends partly on the heat added to the liquid underneath. We found that brandy ignited over high heat retains 29 percent of its original alcohol concentration, while brandy flamed in a cold pan held 57 percent. In the case of a flambé, the addition of heat (not just the flame from a match) can make a significant difference in the strength of the finished sauce. Practically, what does this mean? Steak Diane, which is cooked on the stovetop, will lose more alcohol than Cherries Jubilee, in which flaming liquid is poured over ice cream.

Our Conclusion?

Though it is possible to remove the majority of alcohol in food through cooking, traces will almost always remain.