You hear of putting red wine cooking sauce or white wine cooking sauce on food. What would happen if you didn’t cook the wine cooking sauce and drank it like you would regular wine? If I just took a bottle of red or white wine cooking sauce, and poured a glass, would I be drinking alcohol? What would happen to me? Would it be bad for me?

Best reply by ellie4duke77:

You’re fine. It’s like drinking salty wine!

Read more replies
What would happen if you drank red wine cooking sauce without cooking it to kill the alcohol?

When you cook with wine, the harshness of the alcohol burns off. However, the amount of alcohol remaining varies with the length of cooking time. A study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory calculated the percentage of alcohol remaining in a dish based on various cooking times. This was the result when alcohol was added to boiling liquid and removed from the heat – alcohol retained 85%. These are the lengths of cooking time and the percent of alcohol retained when simmered in a dish: 15 min. – 40% retained, 30 min. – 35% retained, 1 hour – 25% retained, 1.5 hours – 20% retained, 2 hours – 10% retained and 2.5 hours – 5% retained. Keep in mind the alcohol remaining could be of significant concern to recovering alcoholics, parents, and others who have ethical or religious reasons for avoiding alcohol.

The reduction (boiling down) of wine will intensify the flavor which includes the acidity and sweetness. So a fruity wine will concentrate those flavors and give a rather fruity flavor to the final dish. A sweet wine will provide sweetness to the final dish. Be cautious with the amount of wine you use, as its flavor may overpower your food.

Adding homemade red wine to a dish just before serving will not produce the best results. To enhance the flavor of the dish, the wine should simmer with the food, or sauce. If you add wine to the mix too late, it might add a harshness to the flavor of your dish. Time is needed for wine to render its flavor into your dish. You should wait for 10 minutes or more to taste before adding more wine.

Keep this in mind that wine does not belong in every dish. If you prepare more than one wine based sauce for a meal, it could become monotonous. Only when wine’s contribution will enrich the finished dish should it be used in cooking.

Remember to:

• simmer homemade wine with the food or sauce being cooked
• when wine cooks, it reduces and develops into an extract that flavors the recipe
• you will wind up with a harsh effect if you add the homemade wine to your dish too late.

All wines contain at least some small amount of sulphites. Although some wines have not had any sulphites added during the wine making process there will still be some amount of sulphites present. Yeast naturally produce sulphites during fermentation so there is only a rare wine which contains none. Campden – a sulphite used by homemade winemakers – is a natural compound that inhibits bacteria and acts as an antioxidant. It prevents browning and keeps the wine tasting good.

When the sulphites in wine are heated, they are converted into sulfur dioxide which is a gas that dissipates into the air. This conversion process leaves behind a minute amount of salts that is so insignificant that they have no affect on the flavor.