The Big Myth about Cooking Foods with Alcohol

How many times have you read or heard that the alcohol in vanilla extract bakes out in a cake? Or that all that red wine in your spaghetti sauce or boeuf bourguignon leaves only its flavor after cooking? Or that when you flambé your crepes Suzette with Cointreau, or your bananas Foster with rum, that the flames are burning off all the alcohol in it?

Well, the truth is… each of these culinary myths is just plain wrong.

 

"It takes about three hours of hard cooking to eliminate all traces of alcohol in most foods."

The Study

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Data lab, food with alcohol in it that is baked or simmered for 15 minutes still has 40 percent of the original alcohol in it. After an hour of cooking, 25 percent of the alcohol remains, and even after two-and-a-half hours there's still 5 percent of it is remaining! Oh, and that flambé? As much as 85% of the alcohol remains! It takes about three hours of hard cooking to eliminate all traces of alcohol in most foods.

This is not new news.  In the study (originating in 1992 and most recently updated in 2007), nutritionists from Washington State University, and the University of Idaho together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture experimented with dishes cooked with wine and sherry. They cooked two wine-heavy recipes like boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin, plus a scalloped oyster dish with sherry. Varying methods, temperatures, cooking times, etc. gave widely dispersed results from 4 percent to 49 percent retained alcohol for the dishes.  None of the dishes were 100% free of their alcohol after the cooking. 

https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/80400535/Data/retn/retn06.pdf

Why do we use alcohol in foods?

Most often, we add alcoholic beverages (wine, beer, spirits) to food to add specific desired flavors and aromas to the finished products.

Besides alcoholic beverages, most of the flavoring extracts we add to foods also contain alcohol (sometimes a lot!). Extracts are concentrated solutions made from drawing flavoring elements out of an ingredient like vanilla extract from vanilla beans. 

The alcohol in extracts can vary from 20% to 90% and primarily serves to preserve the aroma and taste of the original flavoring ingredient. The alcohol can also act as a carrier across mucous membranes, increasing the impact of the flavor profile as we eat it.

While extracts may contain a high percentage of alcohol, the total dose of alcohol is so low that the amount of alcohol consumed is miniscule. For example, 30 drops (roughly 1/3 teaspoon) of an extract that is 90% alcohol in 1 cup of water yields an alcohol content of 0.15%, equivalent to about 1/250th of a 12-oz bottle of beer or 1/320th of a 6-oz glass of wine.

So, if it's that little - who cares?

In fact, lots of people.  Even if 99.9% of the alcohol in a food is cooked off, there are plenty of people for whom even having the tiniest bit of alcohol or even the taste of alcohol may be unacceptable. Best practices dictate that food intended for children, pregnant women, and those trying to detox from alcohol should have NO alcohol in them. Likewise, for those who abstain for ethical, religious or health-related reasons.

Alcohol alternatives

Here are some ingredient flavor hacks to avoid using any alcohol in a recipe:

• Instead of brandy, try mixing water, white grape juice, apple juice and peach juice in equal parts.
• Cointreau, triple sec and Grand Marnier may be replaced with orange juice concentrate
• Use rice vinegar instead of sake
• Use white grape juice or slightly diluted white wine vinegar instead of dry vermouth.
• You can replace vodka with apple cider and lime juice in equal parts.

When a small amount of alcohol retention is acceptable try:

• Replacing Amaretto with a few drops of almond extract
• For Anisette flavor use a bit of fennel extract
• For any orange liqueur, a bit of orange essential oil will go a long way.

What's the dif? Comparing Broiling, Grilling, Griddling, Smoking, and BBQing.

At our food truck Grillin N Chillin we see a lot of folks coming by thinking we're a BBQ truck.  Or a grilled cheese truck.  Or something else that we're not.  Maybe it's my fault for picking an ambiguous name (but you gotta admit, it's catchy!). We're a grill truck serving char-grilled specialties from Chicken Teriyaki to Garlic Steak.

So... Let's try to cut through all the confusion right now and look at the differences between five very different, but often confused, cooking methods.  Broiling, vs Grilling, vs Griddling, vs Smoking, vs BBQing.

Yes there are some similarities between the methods and some crossover between the styles, but each is distinct and have unique attributes that make them special.

Let's start with Grilling (aka char-grilling). Think: high heat, short cooking time, on an open grate, over live flames. 

The heat source for grilling can be gas, although wood and charcoal are usually preferred. Wood chips and pellets may be used as well. Grilling is often thought of as a healthier cooking method as no fats are typically added, and many of those fats naturally present in the food, drains away.

"So, what about grilled cheese sandwiches?", I hear you ask.  Good question! Grilled cheese sandwiches are (obviously) not really "grilled". That would be impractical and incredibly messy.

"Grilled" cheese Sandwiches are generally pan-fried or Griddled (our second cooking method). A griddle is a heavy flat piece of metal, heated from below, usually by gas flames or electric elements, although a camp griddle might be set over hot coals too. The food cooked on a griddle is cooked in some kind of fat (that's what keeps it from sticking to the surface). Some people confuse grilling and griddling or use them interchangeably, but the results are totally different so, PLEASE, keep them straight! And (sorry!), I have no clue why they call them grilled cheese sandwiches.

  

Another cooking method that gets confused with Grilling is BBQ (aka bar-be-que, barbeque, and sometimes just Q. Method #3). This confusion comes from the fact that we mostly call our backyard grills "barbeques" and when we have friends over to cook burgers and dogs on the weekend, we call it "throwing a barbeque".

REAL BBQing is a low temperature, slow cooking method. And by slow, I mean REALLY slow.  6-12 hours for ribs, 12-18 hours for pork butts, and 24 hours or more for whole steers. Pit roasting and Spit roasting are, arguably other types of BBQing.

Now, Smoking (method four) is closely related to BBQ. It is also a low and slow method. Perfect smoking is accomplished with indirect heat and just the right amount of hardwood smoke enveloping the food. Ideal long-smoked foods have a pinkish color, despite being fully cooked, and will show a marvelous "smoke ring", the pride and joy of the pit master.

There are actually two different smoke methods, which are used for different results. Hot smoking is typical for ribs, brisket, pork butts, poultry etc. Cold smoking is used for pork bellies (bacon), smoked salmon, cheeses, and some types of ham. Cold smoked foods are still uncooked when they come out, but are deeply infused with smoke flavor.

One way to think about it is that some BBQ is also smoked (a pit roast pig might be one that is not), and some smoked foods are also BBQ (smoked salmon is not). But not all are both.

What about Broiling? (our last method to talk about today) Well, broiling is another high-heat, short-time cooking method, like grilling. In this case the heat is generally from electric elements, infrared, or gas flames, applied from the top. This is a great method for melting cheese on a gratin, or maybe flash-cooking fragile fish fillets, as it imparts no flavors of its own. That, of course, can also be the downside if you're looking for that unique outdoorsy flavor of grilling, smoking and BBQing.

So, now you know the important differences. Go cook up a storm!

Chicken Cordon Bleu

It was Kathryn and my wedding anniversary yesterday (29 years!) and, like any good husband, I'd asked her where she wanted to go for a nice dinner.  Like any cook's wife, she responded "The place I like to eat best is home, with your cooking". (ain't that sweet?)

So, of course the next question was "So, what would you like me to make?".  Without a moment's hesitation she said "Chicken Cordon Bleu".

I can almost hear your incredulous grunts and see your eyes roll.  "What?  That hackneyed old diner stand-by?"  Well, yes AND no.

Chicken Cordon Bleu, while French-sounding by design("cordon bleu" means "blue ribbon" in French), is a dish of breaded chicken breasts with ham and cheese that originated in the1960s in the United States.  It was quite popular on restaurant menus through the end of the 20th century and the basic flavor combination retains a following as is evidenced by the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwiches etc that still pop up on fast food restaurant menus from time to time.  The U.S. even "celebrates" a National Chicken Cordon Bleu Day (it was on April 4th this year and now MY eyes are rolling).

The Chicken Cordon Bleu that Kathryn was requesting was one I'd made for her in the past and while classic in style and presentation, it is made exceptional by being able to use all ranch made and grown ingredients in its preparation. 

Another of what we like to call our "meals that are years in the making" I made this one with chicken breasts from birds we'd raised and butchered ourselves.  The ham isn't wasn't just "ham" but Capocola, a rich and spicy ham we cure and smoke right here from hogs that we've grown-out primarily on cheese whey and butchered here on property. I'd made the Swiss cheese for the dish  last winter from our own goat's milk. The veloutè sauce was made from the chicken stock I'd made and frozen when we butchered and processed the meat chickens last fall, I'd baked the bread I processed into bread crumbs for the coating, and even churned the goat's milk butter that the Cordon Bleu's were sautéed in.  It just doesn't get any more "home-made" than that!

Here's my process for making Chicken Cordon Bleu...

Sandwich each chicken breast between sheets of plastic wrap.
Gently flatten each chicken breast to 1/4" thick, or a little thinner

Like this

Remove the top piece of plastic wrap.
Lay pieces of thinly-sliced ham on the breast.
I used about 3 oz per breast

Make a cylinder out of 2-3 oz of grated Swiss cheese.

Fold about a third of the breast over the fillings.
Use the bottom plastic wrap to help you work.

Fold the ends up.

Continue rolling until the breast meat completely encases the fillings.
Repeat with remaining breasts

Wrap individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate to firm up

Basic Breading Procedure
Dredge each Cordon Bleu in well seasoned flour, then...

Thoroughly coat each Cordon Bleu in beaten eggs, then...

Coat each Cordon Bleu well with fresh bread crumbs.

Chill thoroughly.

Saute each Cordon Bleu in butter over medium heat to set the crust
and brown nicely on all sides.
Do not overcrowd the pan.

The Cordon Bleus will still be quite under-cooked at this point.
Refrigerate until about 40 minutes before serving or move directly to the next step.

Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven (350 degree convection oven)
until properly cooked all the way through and the cheese is melted
(about 165F chicken temp, 120F cheese center temp)
This took about 30 minutes in my oven.
Let sit at room temperature for a couple of minutes before plating.

Slice the Cordon Bleus into about 1/2" sections and arrange on plates
with accompaniments (in this case Saffron Rice and Zucchini Provencale)
Nape with a little chicken veloute sauce
(lightly thickened blond chicken stock)

Puddle Turkey

I've always had a lot to be thankful for and with Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) right around the corner, I find myself thinking about some of the big family gatherings we had when I was a child.  The magnificent spreads my Grandmother always laid out.  How, as children, we would wait to see how quickly "Uncle Jimmy" would fall asleep on the couch after the meal (as he invariably did every year), snoring so loud that the walls of the old farmhouse almost shook. The year that it snowed so hard our family could barely make it the one mile back from my grandparents' farm to our house.  The sad first Thanksgiving after my grandmother, the perennial culinary ringmaster of family gatherings, passed away. 

Some more recent Thanksgivings also stand out.   

2000: A Bachelor Thanksgiving

For our very first Thanksgiving after having moved here to the Ranch in 2000, we had barely gotten running water and rudimentary off-grid electricity going.  The kitchen was effectively non-functional and Kathryn had to travel to Kansas to see her family.  The "bachelor Thanksgiving" ended up being a pre-gurgitated turkey roll, instant mashed potatoes, fake gravy from a powder and a store-bought mince pie, eaten all by myself.  It was completely pathetic. 

1998 The Neighborhood Event

Then there was the time in Tucson AZ in the late 1990's when we invited all our neighbors who "didn't have family" to dine with us.  It was a huge feast for which I prepared four types of turkey (traditional roast, smoked, deep fried and grilled)  plus dozens of sides, salads and relishes, assorted breads and rolls, all followed by 3 types of pie (pumpkin, mince and apple - with ice cream)  - all home made, from scratch, of course.

And speaking of different ways to cook a turkey, here's one Thanksgiving that will always be remembered in our family...

The year of the Puddle Turkey

We were all gathered in Cornwall CT in the early 1980's.  I was put in charge of doing the turkey and stuffing for the family gathering.  Others were taking care of the sides and rest of the meal.

My mother had reminded me that there’s almost never enough stuffing to go around for the requisite third helpings or for leftovers and to make sure that there was plenty.  Now, I have something of a reputation for over-doing my cooking quantities and this was one of the few times I can ever remember anyone in my family actually cautioning me not to make too little of anything and I was up for the challenge.  

My mom was right (of course!); there is almost never enough stuffing.  Many, many years before, a family holiday tradition was born in order to help alleviate this problem.  Realizing that the whole problem was that the darned turkey birds were just too small inside (never mind that we never cooked anything less than a 24-pounder) to hold enough stuffing, somebody had the brilliant idea of making “Outside Stuffing” as well as the traditional “Inside Stuffing”. 

Granted, warming up a pan of stuffing is nothing new (restaurants almost never actually cook any stuffing inside a bird for numerous logistic, timing and health & safety reasons), but my ancestors decided that the Outside stuffing should be something special.  What they did was cook it slowly for a LONG time, so long that the top half inch or so of the crust dried almost completely into marvelously crunchy bites, almost like herby croutons - only better.  When mixed up, the Outside Stuffing was a real adventure for the mouth, each bite a mix of moist, buttery bread intermingled with crispy herbed crunches that explode against the teeth.  Another big bonus of the Outside Stuffing is that it can hold a lot more gravy (another turkey dinner accompaniment of which there is seldom enough!) without getting soggy.  Wonderful good, that Outside Stuffing is!

Even with that one approach to the stuffing shortage problem already accomplished and still I had been warned not to run out.  What to do?  Well I figured the only other thing to do was to make more Inside Stuffing.  But how to do that?  I mean a turkey is only so big on the inside… or is it??  I had an idea!

I had heard about a Paul Prudholmn specialty called “TurDucEn”.  It was a Boned-out turkey, stuffed with a boned out duck, stuffed with a boned out chicken, each of the birds also stuffed with a different and appropriate stuffing.  Paul’s trick was to bone out each of the birds without breaking the skin, or cutting it apart in any way.  In culinary school I had seen a weathered old black chef de-bone a chicken without breaking the skin (“keep da meat on da meat and da bone on da bone” he would mutter over and over as a mantra as he worked) so I even knew the rudiments of what to do.  All I had to do was apply what I knew about doing a chicken to de-boning a 20-something pound turkey whole, fill it up with stuffing and voila!  With all the bones gone there would be lots more room for stuffing right?  Hey!  Even a bonus, I could brown up the bones, make a stock the day before the big meal and be able to make extra gravy to boot.  Great Idea!

Well, things never really go as one plans do they?  As it turns out turkeys are a lot tougher than chickens to work with.  I mean their bones can be BIG and hard and inflexible, much more so than those in a chicken.  I’ve done this exercise on chickens since then several times and they are a piece of cake compared to that turkey.  I swear it fought me every step of the way, but I kept the “meat on the meat and the bone on the bone” as the old chef had taught me and eventually it was done.  Every single bone from that bird, except those in the drumsticks and wings, was in a pile on the counter and I was left with…  

Well, it’s kind of hard to accurately describe what a big fully de-boned bird looks like if you haven’t seen one.  My wife had certainly never seen one and it was at this time she strolled into the kitchen.  Kathryn is something of a traditionalist when it comes to holidays (aren’t most of us?) and Thanksgiving is the kind of holiday where things are supposed to be “just so” and not to be messed with.  I had not told her of my brainstorm for stuffing survival so she had no idea what I was working on when she came in.  For the longest time she just stood there staring at the cutting board and the pink and white blob sitting there.  After a bit her hand came to her mouth and she said “OhmyGawd! That’s the TURKEY??!!”.  

I did what I could to reassure her that it would turn out OK (though my own confidence was a bit shaky by this time).  I mean it really looked BAD.  I explained my whole plan and after taking it all in she finally said she could see the potential of the project.  Eventually we were laughing pretty hard about the poor bird’s sorry/saggy looking condition.  Kathryn then came up with the less-than-complimentary (or so I thought at the time) name for the dish of  “Puddle Turkey” because of the way it looked on the cutting board.  The name has stuck to this day.

We played with the bird for a while, lifting up the different parts, peering through the gaping hole in it from one end to the other, waving its wings around etc.  Eventually Kathryn says “Gosh, that’s really going to take a LOT of stuffing to fill it up, don’t you think?”.  I hadn’t really looked at the size of the opening until now and I saw what she meant.  There was a LOT of room in there.  The whole plan had been to be able to re-assemble the bird, truss it up and roast it so it looked like a normal holiday bird.  Nobody was supposed to be able to tell it was different until I, with a flourish of the carving knife in front of all the guests, sliced clean through it’s middle, exposing all that wonderful stuffing.  Surprise!

Now I was a bit worried.  We had stocked up on Pepperidge Farm Herbed Bread Stuffing.  (Let me interject here that I am an unabashed and complete stuffing snob.  There is no other stuffing in the world as far as I’m concerned and if you come near me with any of that stove-top crap I’ll likely throw it right back at you!  So there!)  Anyway we had 4 or 5 bags of stuffing which I quickly made up and shoved into the orifice.  It barely began to fill the void.  Oh-oh.  Kathryn was good enough to go out and buy up the remaining stock of PF Stuffing at the nearest store, returning with 8 more bags.

I made up two more batches of 4 bags each and started working in earnest on the bird, getting the stuffing into every nook and cranny, making sure to pack it solidly.  I worked steadily and as quickly as possible, trying to judge if Kathryn might have to make another stuffing run (she had already called and confirmed the availability of 7 more bags between two different stores within reasonable driving distance).  I thought things were going pretty well when I realized something.  The stuffed turkey was getting bigger than the whole un-stuffed one had been.  The darned thing was STRETCHING!  It was puffing up like a balloon and getting all out of shape.  NOW what was I supposed to do?  I wasn’t even sure it was going to fit in my roast pan anymore.  Arrrrrrrrrrgh!

A short time-out and a quick glass of wine later and I was calmed again but no easy solution came to mind.  The bird was getting harder to work with, kind of floppy even with all the stuffing in it, I was getting really low on more stuffing AND it just didn’t look right at all.  Kathryn then made some comment about the poor thing needing a face-lift, tummy tuck or maybe a botox treatment.  And I got another idea (Ain’t she a great inspiration?).  I gently rolled the bird over and did a big tuck on the backside, gathering up several inches all along where the backbone had been and tied it together with twine, taking up most of the slack in the body, in effect giving it a lift!  It worked pretty well.  With a little more stuffing and some minor trussing it did look mostly like normal stuffed turkey.  It fit in the roast pan with just a bit of persuasion and it even still fit in the oven!

The cooking time was a little different than on any of the charts, taking longer than usual because bones apparently conduct heat through the body during the cooking of a normal turkey.  I was prepared for this and it got to the correct internal temperature and it came out, on time, with everything else.  After transferring it to the carving platter, I trimmed up a few strings and brought it to the table.  Nobody, at least, laughed or said, “What the hell happened to your bird?”  I really don’t think anybody noticed anything different about it at all.

As planned I parted the beast right down the middle with a single clean slice of the knife to the ooooohs and ahhhhs of everyone around the table.  The bird was well cooked and flavorful, the stuffing tasty and more than plentiful.  As a matter of fact there was actually too much stuffing, not really a surprise having used 12 bags!  Everybody thought it was a novel and creative way of solving the stuffing dilemma but no one actually asked me to do one ever again (which was most definitely just fine with me).

2010 Thanksgiving

Nowadays, here on the Ranch, we grow almost all of our own food.  From the heritage beef, whey-fed pork, and free range chickens we raise and butcher right here, to the bounty from our gardens and greenhouse, every meal is a kind of harvest festival for us but Thanksgiving is still a special holiday. This year I think we'll go uber-traditional all around and leave the Puddle Turkeys to someone else.

Here’s the full menu for T-day (subject to modification)…

·         Assorted Black Mesa Ranch goat cheeses with "sour doe" toasts.

·         Twin Roast Baby Turkeys*

·         Bread Stuffing w/ Apricots & local pecans ("inside" and "outside" versions)

·         Giblet Gravy

·         Buttery Mashed Potatoes

·         Fresh Yams with cinnamon and chipotle

·         Winter Vegetable Medley (carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas etc)

·         Brussels Sprouts w/ Mushrooms in Goats' Milk Sauce with nutmeg

·         Cranberry Sauce (2 kinds)

·         Deep dish Apple pie w/ homemade vanilla bean ice cream

·         Pumpkin pie, Bourbon whipped cream

* OK, these are not technically "baby turkeys". I've never cooked a turkey smaller than 22 lbs for Thanksgiving before (even if it was just the two of us) but the grocery store in town apparently got severely shorted on their bird order this year and the biggest ones they had were all under 14 lbs. So I got two. They look like big chickens to me but I was lucky to get any at all. 

Fair warning... It's getting into our crazy time here at the Ranch with the Holiday crush coming on fast.  This will likely be the last post for a while!