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  • From: "Michele Stanton" <6ducks@gmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] wine content after cooking
  • Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:03:12 -0500

Hi Donna & all,
Cooks Illustrated Magazine studied what happened to wine added to a stew, to see if the alcohol evaporated completely or not during the cooking process.
(I have become a real fan of cooksillustrated.com because the explanations of why things happen in the kitchen are super--I heartily recommend it)
At any rate, the answer in this instance is that not all of the alcohol evaporates.
Here is part of the article:
 
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. While using a wider pan hastens the reduction process (simply switching from a 10-inch to a 12-inch pan can speed things up by 25 percent to 50 percent), as long as a liquid starts with an alcohol content higher than 5 percent, the final alcohol content will remain at about 5 percent. Theoretically, to lower the alcohol content we would need to first reduce the wine on its own before diluting it with broth.
 
Cheers! 
MIchele in SW Ohio


  • [NAFEX] wine content after cooking, Michele Stanton, 12/07/2007

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