Hi all,

I recently came across a recipe that I wish to try for a lentil bolognese. I’m excited to try it as I’ve been trying to find a recipe I can use my red lentils with, but I’m curious about one thing both with this recipe, and recipes in general.

This recipe calls for the pan to be deglazed with red wine. This is something I’ve seen before in other recipes, though this recipe is the first of which I’m taking an interest in exploring. I’m personally fine with regular red wine, but my concern is that I have a friend who is incredibly cautious with alcohol, and says she’d refuse to eat things if they had alcoholic ingredients.

Putting aside my personal thoughts about that, I was curious if using a non-alcoholic wine would work just as well, or if the alcohol adds certain properties to the wine that make it function better as an ingredient or for deglazing. I’m mainly curious as I hope to invite friends over for dinner in the future, and want to make accommodations where possible, especially if it’s as easy as simply buying a slightly different ingredient.

Thanks in advance!

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    163·
    2 months ago

    It should, yes.

    Also, while this is unlikely to appease your friend if you properly heat the wine during deglazing you’ll cook off any alcohol. I see non-alcoholic cooking wines as being more useful to alcoholics that don’t trust themselves having any booze in the house (though in that case I’d honestly suggest completely avoiding any taste of wine).

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
      11·
      2 months ago

      You lose as much alcohol as you do water, as they’re chemically bound together.

      Alcohol doesn’t really cook out of a dish.

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
        1·
        2 months ago

        That’s not true, otherwise distillation would be impossible. You lose some water along with the alcohol but not the same percentage of both.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          1·
          1 month ago

          Distillation isn’t the same thing, because of controlled temps and the condensing process is a significant part of the separation.

          For food you don’t really cook out the alcohol.

          Chemist cooks have tested this. The alcohol cooks out at very close to the same rate as water.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          11·
          1 month ago

          No, you don’t.

          They’re chemically bound and evaporate together in food.

          I don’t have a link to it, but about a decade ago a chemist cook did some testing and demonstrated you lose alcohol at the same rate as the water (or so close as to not be able to see a difference).

          In the end, alcohol doesn’t “cook out” to any significant degree.