The Alcohol Cooks Off Completely When You Cook With Wine

A lot of the alcohol survives, and how much depends entirely on the method and time. US Department of Agriculture data on this is eye-opening: flambeing or quickly stirring booze into a hot dish can leave around 75 percent of the alcohol behind, and even a dish simmered for a full 30 minutes still retains roughly a third. To get down to about 5 percent of the original alcohol, you need to simmer or bake the dish for around two and a half hours. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so some does evaporate, but it does not all vanish the instant it hits heat, and a brief deglaze or a splash near the end keeps most of it. For most people this is harmless and irrelevant. But for anyone who genuinely needs to avoid alcohol, the cheerful 'it all cooks off' is wrong, and worth knowing. The flavour stays. So, often, does a decent slug of the alcohol.