Heather Rockwood is a food science senior and Mustang Daily food columnist.
It is my fourth and last year here in college, and I have finally reached the magical age of 21. As an avid foodie, this was a monumental moment for my cooking repertoire and tasting experiences. When I blew out that last birthday candle, the world of beverages opened up with full and unrestricted access.
Wine and beer tasting in itself is a remarkably expansive field within the world of food and drink. Then, add in mastering pairing beer and wine with meals to enhance and create new intoxicating flavors (both figuratively and literally). With all these novel combinations at my fingertips, I feel like I have just now been introduced to the art of food. Yet, these few examples just scratch the surface of the role of alcohol in the world of food — and I haven’t even mentioned spirits and liqueurs.
I have just begun to test the waters of cooking with alcohol, but I can surely say this is a field I will not bore from quickly.
My longing for cooking with alcohol began with a mixture of two things.
First, as I stated before, being an avid foodie, I detested the fact that I was banned from using an ingredient simply because of my age. Second, was my dear Daddy Doo Doo (grandpa). I always hated spaghetti and red sauce growing up. My Daddy Doo Doo was quite the cook though, and his sauce was the only red sauce I would let past the gates of my little lips. He would heat the sauce up in a family sized pan and then would uncork a bottle of red and pour the entire bottle in the sauce. He always promised me that all the alcohol cooked out, but I found it hard to believe.
So, that’s where we’ll start. Does alcohol really just cook out? Sure, when you order the Roll on Fire from Sushiya the flames lap up all the alcohol — a technique referred to as flambé — but when you aren’t lighting your food on fire, can it really all cook out? Well, it all depends on your cooking methods and just how much alcohol you add.
Alcohol has a lower boiling point than water (173 degrees as compared to the 212 degrees for water), and therefore if exposed to heat for long times and high temps, such as in soups, stews and sauces, most of the alcohol really does evaporate off. Guess grandpa really was telling the truth. However, if a recipe calls for the alcohol to be added just at the end, then typically it is in an attempt to expose it to less heat and retain more alcohol. Baking can evaporate off some of the alcohol as well, but if the internal temperature doesn’t go beyond 173 degrees, then the alcohol does not evaporate off.
I find it odd that although recipes typically do not call for much alcohol when compared to the overall volume of food, and the likelihood of actually feeling the effects of the alcohol from eating one serving of the prepared dish are slim to none, some people still prefer not to serve these dishes to their children because the fear of serving alcohol to minors, but to each his own.
And remember, contrary to popular belief, the main point for the addition of alcohol is not to feel a buzz, but to impart flavor.
Many of the most well-loved flavor complexes are alcohol-based: for example, vanilla. And the process of fermentation is a natural reaction that has the ability to concentrate flavors and can lend a helping hand to chemical reactions that are very useful in cooking such as leavening bread and breaking down muscle fibers in meat marinades. In the eyes of a foodie and the art of cooking, alcohol acts as a functional food ingredient, not a flamboyant additive.
Unfortunately, we aren’t in France, and the art of cooking with alcohol is reserved for those above the magic number 21. However, I encourage those of you who are of age to venture out, live a little and try transforming a simple meal into an extravagant escape by cooking with alcohol.