Substitute for alcohol in recipes

[drive]

Does there excist a substitute for alcohol which you must use in recipes? My husband, my children and myself are not drinking alcohol. Sometimes I see a recipe where you must use alcohol in in (red wine or something). I have once heard that you don't taste that, but why can I taste it in a readycook meal of fish? (fishcuisine Bretagne of Iglo, a Dutch counter. )

http://www.iglo.nl/

Here is the site you can find it.

I didn't know that there was wine in it. I read it afterwards, but I tasted it very good.

[phatch]

You can buy de-alcoholized versions of wine, beer and such. That's pretty close in the final flavor, unless you can't find a non-alcohol version of something such as marsala.

Some dishes, flambe for example, are not possible with out the alcohol.

The grape juice I had in Europe was less sweet and had the yeasty aroma as it was pressed from wine grapes. It substituted well for wine. But the US has mostly sweet concord grapes for grape juice. As for drinking, I prefer the concord juice.

For day to day use, you can do pretty well with some fruit juice (apple, white and purple grape) and lemon juice combined with an appropriate stock: chix, beef, fish. Ratio along the lines of 2::1::4-6 to taste. Other people recommend a SMALL amount of the same wine vinegar and the rest stock. So a cup of red wine would have 2-3 teaspoons of red wine vinegar and the remaining volume chicken/beef/fish stock.

Verjus has some potential as a substitute as well, but not as a one for one substitution.

[Jayme]

phatch said it well. It depends on the recipe as to what you want to use. If it is the alcohol you are trying to avoid, but DO want the flavor- note that when cooking, the alcohol does evaporate. So your results are alcohol-free. If it is a sweet or meat dish, fruit juice is fine. In sauces that call for stock and wine, using just stock works fine. Although you won't get that extra flavour that you get from the wine. Some recipes, just don't taste the same w/o the wine.

[phatch]

Originally Posted by Jayme

If it is the alcohol you are trying to avoid, but DO want the flavor- note that when cooking, the alcohol does evaporate. So your results are alcohol-free.

No, it doesn't. You have to cook (diluted) alcohol a LONG time to get rid of it.

http://www.cheftalk.com/forums/showt...ohol+evaporate

Phil

[SGMChef]

Hello Drive,

As a possible alternative to the information above, you could try making reductions. I worked as a private chef and had MANY half-full bottles of before dinner red and white wines, the dinner red and white wines, and the leftover champagne. I put the wine over a very low heat, below a simmer, and left them to reduce for hours, while I did other things. After 1 hour there will still be 25% alcohol remaining and after 2 ½ hours there will still be 5 % alcohol, according to the US Dept of Agriculture. I would typically leave them over the heat for about 5-6 hours or until the viscosity of warm golden syrup. How much alcohol is left then? There still may be 1% or less remaining, which may or may not meet your needs. If less than 1 % alcohol content is acceptable, this might be one way for you to add the flavor without the alcohol.

Just purchase a bottle of red and one of white and simmer away! When refrigerated, they keep for quite a while.

You need only to add a few drops of the reduction and add water to make up for the difference in volume for your recipes.

I hope this helps.