cooking with alcohol

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catskills@monmouth.com - 27 Feb 2006 11:41 GMT

made a chicken dish that required 1/4 cup hennessey, and 2 cups red
wine. Now I cooked it (boiling) but the carbs still count right???
They don't burn off with the alcohol??

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Alan - 27 Feb 2006 12:37 GMT

Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar content
will presumably remain.

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Bob (this one) - 28 Feb 2006 11:51 GMT

> Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar content
> will presumably remain.

Actually, the alcohol won't burn off quickly.

Alcohol remaining         preparation
-----------------        --------------------
    100% Immediate consumption
    70% Overnight storage
    85% Boiling liquid, remove from heat
    75% flamed

                baked or simmered for:
    40% 15 min.
    35% 30 min.
    25% 1 hour
    20% 1.5 hour
    10% 2 hours
    5% 2.5 hours
(from Agricultural Research Service 1989)

Pastorio

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jbuch - 28 Feb 2006 12:30 GMT

>> Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar content
>> will presumably remain.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Pastorio

Look how much harder it is to actually tell the truth.

Oversimplifications are so much easier to spread.

Thanks, Bob.

I know some recovered alcoholics that would actually like to know the
details for cooking purposes. If you have the link, I'd appreciate it.

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Bob (this one) - 28 Feb 2006 23:55 GMT

>>> Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar content
>>> will presumably remain.
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> I know some recovered alcoholics that would actually like to know the
> details for cooking purposes. If you have the link, I'd appreciate it.

I didn't get it online. It was in a brochure that I got when I owned
restaurants and bars. I went online to see if I could find the original
info, but all I found were lots of references to it.

Sorry.

Pastorio

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jbuch - 01 Mar 2006 16:10 GMT

>>>> Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar content
>>>> will presumably remain.
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Pastorio

Thanks for trying to find it. Maybe the pamphlet is still available
from one of the government publication sites.

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Alan - 28 Feb 2006 16:46 GMT

I find this hard to understand. Alcohol (ethanol) boils at 78C (172F)
so if the cooking liquid boilsat say 100C (212F) for any length of
time, the alcohol would surely evaporate very quickly indeed.

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Doug Freyburger - 28 Feb 2006 22:41 GMT

> I find this hard to understand. Alcohol (ethanol) boils at 78C (172F)
> so if the cooking liquid boilsat say 100C (212F) for any length of
> time, the alcohol would surely evaporate very quickly indeed.

The problem is that's pure ethanol that boils at 78C. Dissolve
it in water and that spreads its boiling into a very wide range
from 78C up to 100C.

Consider this comparison:

Liquid ammonia boils at a couple hundred degees below zero
so ammonia is a gas under normal temperatures. That means
ammonia is never dissolved in water because it would boil
out, right? Nope, dissolving into water changes the boiling
point for it a lot.

Same deal with alcohol. As you heat the water less and less
alcohol dissolves so it slowly goes away, but it doesn't all go
away any more than all of the ammonia goes away the minute
you open the bottle of cleaner. Same chemical process is
involved in both.

My take-away on this is that recovering alcoholics should not
be cooking with alcohol but the amount left after cooking is
not likely to bother folks without a drinking problem. How to
count the alcohol calories, dunno.

Say, does anyone consider alcohol as a carb-alike and so
count alcohol calories as if they were carb calories? The
body burns alcohol first so counting alcohol as carb is not
really any more accurate than not counting it as carb. Either
way doesn't quite work.

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Bob (this one) - 28 Feb 2006 23:34 GMT

> I find this hard to understand. Alcohol (ethanol) boils at 78C (172F)
> so if the cooking liquid boils at say 100C (212F) for any length of
> time, the alcohol would surely evaporate very quickly indeed.

Sorry. That's nothing like the mechanism in effect. Look up "azeotrope"
for a fuller explanation.

Here's a (rather complicated) technical explanation of the conditions
and
processes.<http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/phaseeqia/vapourpress.html#top>

Pastorio

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jbuch - 01 Mar 2006 16:13 GMT

>> I find this hard to understand. Alcohol (ethanol) boils at 78C (172F)
>> so if the cooking liquid boils at say 100C (212F) for any length of
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Pastorio

I remember "minimum boiling azeotrope" from undergraduate chmistry years
ago. Poses a problem in thermal distilling ethyl alcohol to high purity
without water content.

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Bob (this one) - 01 Mar 2006 20:27 GMT

>>> I find this hard to understand. Alcohol (ethanol) boils at 78C
>>> (172F) so if the cooking liquid boils at say 100C (212F) for any
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> years ago. Poses a problem in thermal distilling ethyl alcohol to
> high purity without water content.

Yep. Talk about your counterintuitive processes...

Pastorio

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Chakolate - 28 Feb 2006 23:32 GMT

>> Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar
>> content will presumably remain.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> 5% 2.5 hours
> (from Agricultural Research Service 1989)

Doesn't some of the sugar burn off, too?

Chak

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In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it
would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples
might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal
time in physics classrooms.
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Bob (this one) - 01 Mar 2006 06:19 GMT

>
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Doesn't some of the sugar burn off, too?

<LOL> I wish...

No. It doesn't. It becomes more concentrated.

Pastorio

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David Harmon - 02 Mar 2006 22:14 GMT

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 01:19:03 -0500 in alt.support.diet.low-carb,
"Bob (this one)" <Bob@nospam.com> wrote,

>> Doesn't some of the sugar burn off, too?
>
><LOL> I wish...
>
>No. It doesn't. It becomes more concentrated.

But putting food in the refrigerator still removes calories, right?

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Bob (this one) - 03 Mar 2006 08:31 GMT

> On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 01:19:03 -0500 in alt.support.diet.low-carb,
> "Bob (this one)" <Bob@nospam.com> wrote,
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> But putting food in the refrigerator still removes calories, right?

Only if you eat it standing up.

Pastorio

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Chakolate - 04 Mar 2006 05:38 GMT

David Harmon <source@netcom.com> wrote in news:44476ddc.342296781
@news.east.earthlink.net:

> On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 01:19:03 -0500 in alt.support.diet.low-carb,
> "Bob (this one)" <Bob@nospam.com> wrote,
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> But putting food in the refrigerator still removes calories, right?

Certainly. It's eating food that is calorific, not chilling it.

Chak

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Hannah Gruen - 01 Mar 2006 12:08 GMT

>> Correct - the alcohol will burn off quite quickly but any sugar content
>> will presumably remain.
>
> Actually, the alcohol won't burn off quickly.

Wow! Thanks for this, Bob. And also thanks to you and Doug as to why it
doesn't. I never knew that... had always heard that the alcohol just burns
off...

Since I occasionally cook for a friend who is an alcoholic, this is
something to keep in mind.

And Doug, I don't court alcohol carbs. But then again, I drink very
infrequently and then usually just one.

HG

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