Alternative to wine/alcohol when cooking?

supersheeps

Hi, as the title says, can anybody recommend an alternative to alcohol to use when cooking? I use wine for risotto/carbonara and brandy in some Chinese food and sauces, and they just don't taste the same if I leave them out. My bf is trying to cut out booze so I don't want to keep any in the house, just to help him along. Ta!

brianthebard

The alcohol is cooked off if that's what you are worried about? If you really wanted to you could use non alcoholic drinks, or evaporate the alcohol before cooking to get every drop, but really its not necessary if its added to the food for a few mins in the cooking process.

taram

I know this would mean you'd still have some alcohol in the house, but what about single serving bottles? I buy the odd mini rum or single glass sized bottle of white wine for cooking, works perfectly.

supersheeps

Hi, thanks for the replies. It's not the alcohol in the food I'm worried about, it's the alcohol left in the bottles!! The single serve bottles are a good idea, had forgotten about those (can they be got anywhere other than M&S?), anyone have any other suggestions? Can wine be frozen? Has anybody tried cooking with alcohol-free wine to any success?

taram

Agh forgot that! Yep, have frozen wine using an ice-cube tray tons of times, beware it will probably make the tray smell/discolour it.