A glass of white wine comes to the risotto, a whole bottle of Burgundy to the roast beef. Add a touch of Madeira to the sauce, and a spoonful of cognac in the mousse au chocolat. Alcohol, sometimes more, sometimes less high percentage, is on the ingredients list of many recipes, from appetizers to desserts. It adds flavor, fruity acidity and sometimes a sweet taste.
"I used to cook up gallons of port," recalls Sybille Schönberger. At 27, the cook received her first Michelin star, today she runs a cooking school and advises catering businesses. In the meantime, she largely abstains from alcohol while cooking - not only because she has children. But family planning was the catalyst for questioning the alcohol content of meals.
Many hobby cooks have similar concerns. Is there any wine left for the sauce when children are having a meal? Is an egg cakes cake a good idea if a guest has health problems with alcohol? Or does alcohol matter because he overcooked anyway?
"It's not that easy," says Sascha Rohn, professor of food chemistry at the University of Hamburg. "Alcohol evaporates theoretically at 78.3 degrees, but it is bound in part by the other ingredients and thus held in court."
No alcohol in the food for children and pregnant women
How the individual ingredients react with each other is hardly explored. Therefore, you can not calculate how much residual alcohol from a glass of sherry in the sauce is left over or a liter of red wine in the stew, when the food is finally on the table.
A study by the University of Idaho - which dates back to 1992 - provides at least some clues. The scientists studied six dishes: in stewed meat that simmered in the pot for two and a half hours, only four percent of the alcohol originally added was detectable, compared to 85 percent in a Grand Marnier sauce.
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"Cooking time matters, the temperature, the intensity that is stirred in. But there is no rule of thumb on how much alcohol can boil over which time," explains Rohn. The food chemist recommends: "Children, pregnant women and alcoholics should therefore not be offered alcohol-based foods."
A completely non-alcoholic diet, however, "is hardly possible to implement," says Fabienne Kroening, social worker at the Blue Cross in Wuppertal. The Addiction Aid Association supports addicted and addicted people and their relatives.
Foods with alcohol: from sauerkraut to sweet
Surprisingly many foods contain alcohol: sauerkraut or kefir, for example, as a result of a fermentation process, but also many finished products and sweets. On packaged items all ingredients must be listed, the alcohol is sometimes hidden under names such as ethanol or ethyl alcohol.
For unpackaged goods, such as a snack from the snack bar or the bakery, this labeling requirement does not apply. Even with drinks, the alcohol content must be stated only if it is higher than 1.2 percent by volume. If a beer contains less than 0.5% by volume, manufacturers may refer to it as "non-alcoholic".
Low levels of alcohol are not a health problem, "but if a food tastes like alcohol, it contains more than just a trace of alcohol," says Kroening.
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Nevertheless, the immediate risk of relapse for alcohol-dependent people is often not as high as assumed. "Mechanisms that lead to an alcohol relapse are of a varied psychological nature and have more to do with the inner attitude and the respective mental state, than with the actual amount of alcohol absorbed into the body." Already the taste of alcohol could trigger an addictive pressure by a flavoring with those affected.
What are alternatives?
How can the desired seasoning be achieved differently? "You should think about what tastes similar," advises cook Schönberger. "If the chocolate or cinnamon note of a wine is important to me, then I can also use a piece of dark chocolate or a cinnamon stick."
Grape juice is suitable for dark sauces, white balsamic vinegar can replace white wine, a grated apple in the Bolognese sauce for acidity. "You just have to dare and try a bit," says Schönberger. "We are very frivolous with alcohol in cooking - I do not think that's up-to-date anymore."