{"id":28327,"date":"2025-12-19T08:58:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=28327"},"modified":"2025-12-20T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T18:03:17","slug":"cooking-without-wine-or-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/cooking-without-wine-or-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking without wine or beer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Try
Try this risotto verde recipe as a main or side dish. Instead of using white wine in this recipe, if you’re avoiding alcoholic drinks, you can substitute apple juice or ginger ale. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you don’t drink alcoholic beverages or you’re trying “Dry January,”<\/a> and the ingredient list on the recipe for coq au vin includes 1\/4 cup brandy and 1\/2 bottle of red wine, what should you do? Or your favorite risotto recipe calls for a glass of white wine. Or, to make the batter for an \u201cauthentic\u201d fish and chips, you’ll need a bottle of beer.<\/p>\n

Many people don\u2019t drink alcohol for reasons of health, religion, or culture or because they don\u2019t want to feed the coq au vin sauce to the baby.
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Get more tips and recipes from Bill St. John<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Just as I used to find many ingredients in non-Western cooking not only out of my league but also out of my pantry, I suspect that many cooks new to this country find it difficult to use wine, beer, spirits or liqueurs to make many a Western preparation.<\/p>\n

So, sadly, they just avoid cooking that way.<\/p>\n

And there is the matter of caution. I know vegans or vegetarians who blanch \u2014 to use a cooking term in a second meaning \u2014 if they discover that a spoon or spatula that prepared their food merely touched a bit of beef. I respect their blanchedness.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common assumption that the heat of cooking rids a dish of any alcohol introduced into it. That\u2019s only partially true.<\/p>\n

According to the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture<\/a>, 75% of the original alcohol by volume of the liquid used, for instance, will remain in a flamb\u00e9ed dessert; 25% in a dish that has been simmered or braised for one hour; and five percent in the same dish after two and a half hours. (Those percentages for braising are guaranteed if the pot has been covered while cooking, the norm.)<\/p>\n

Those numbers won\u2019t work for a lot of folks.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been preparing many recipes for months now, substituting completely alcohol-free liquids for the same quantities of beer or wine, both red and white. (I don\u2019t cook much with spirits or liqueurs, so I haven\u2019t, for example, had to pull a shot of espresso to sub out for \u201c2 teaspoons Kahlua.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Except for a wee worry, once in a while, to adjust a recipe allowing for higher levels of sweetness introduced by the liquids that I\u2019ve used, the substitutions have worked very well indeed. I counter the added sugar, for taste mostly, with a small amount of acidity (a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of rice vinegar).<\/p>\n

It helped me to think about what role any wine or beer played in an original recipe. It added flavor, of course, but also the very important crispness of fruity acidity or carbonation. So, I sought out fruit juices or other beverages that mimed those same qualities.<\/p>\n

You will find online many charts about substitutes for wine or beer in cooking. I certainly haven\u2019t tried them all, but I\u2019ll tell you what has worked well for my cooking after using many different sorts of juices or liquids.<\/p>\n

Red wine:<\/strong> Cup for cup, I use R. W. Knudsen\u2019s \u201cJust Tart Cherry\u201d juice. It\u2019s a splendid proxy for red wines, and no person at my table for whom I\u2019ve cooked a boeuf bourguignon or oxtail stew could guess that I didn\u2019t use red wine.<\/p>\n

White wine:<\/strong> In equal measure, I\u2019ve had great luck with \u201clight\u201d (lower sugar level) apple juice \u2014 for example, Mott\u2019s \u201cFor Tots\u201d brand \u2014 or, in a pinch, regular apple juice. It\u2019s pretty interesting how cold apple juice smells just like a Mosel Riesling \u2014 or is it the other way around?<\/p>\n

Beer:<\/strong> And get this: add a teaspoon of malted milk powder to sparkling apple juice or low-sugar-level ginger ale, and you\u2019ll swear you\u2019re in beer country. Ergo, \u201cbeer\u201d batter success, including the bubbles.<\/p>\n

Risotto Verde<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Serves 6-8<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/h3>\n

2 cups risotto rice (short-grain rice such as Arborio, Vialone Nero, Carnaroli, Bomba, etc.)<\/p>\n

6 cups chicken broth (vegetarians and vegans, use vegetable broth)<\/p>\n

4 cups firmly packed greens and herbs (any mix that you fancy, but more leafy greens than herbs; see note)<\/p>\n

3 garlic cloves, peeled<\/p>\n

3 tablespoons fat (depending on your diet, either unsalted butter or vegetable oil)<\/p>\n

4 tablespoons leek, light green part, finely chopped<\/p>\n

1 cup ginger ale or apple juice (instead of white wine)<\/p>\n

1 12-13 ounce package frozen green peas<\/p>\n

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice<\/p>\n

1 cup finely shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese<\/p>\n

Salt and pepper, to taste<\/p>\n

Finely sliced or peeled lemon rind and chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish<\/p>\n

Directions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Assemble 2-3 large bowls side by side, along with a sieve or fine-mesh strainer. Pour all the broth into one of the bowls, add the rice, and rinse the rice with your fingers for 5-6 minutes, until the liquid gets very cloudy. Using the straining implement, drain the rice from the liquid, but also capture the liquid.<\/em> It is very important not to discard the broth, while also allowing the rice to drain well.<\/p>\n

Make a slurry of the cloudy broth, the greens, and the garlic, using a traditional or immersion blender or a food processor, being sure that the greens are very well pur\u00e9ed. Heat the green broth in a saucepan until it is quite warm but neither boiling nor simmering and keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Over medium-high heat, in a large and open, heavy-bottomed pot, cook the leeks in the fat for 5 minutes, until they have melted a bit. Add the rinsed rice and stir well to coat as many grains of rice with the fat as possible, 5-6 minutes. When the rice begins to smell slightly nutty, add the wine (or ginger ale or apple juice) and stir well until the rice has taken it in, 4-5 minutes.<\/p>\n

Add 4 cups of the heated broth, stir it in well, bring the pot to a slow boil, cover and then set the heat to as low as it goes. Cook for 10 minutes, undisturbed. Remove the cover, add the rest of the broth and the peas, stir again well, bring up the heat until the risotto bubbles once more, cover, lower the heat to very low, and cook for another 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the grated cheese, salt and pepper to taste (the cheese and broth may have carried in enough salt), and the lemon juice.<\/p>\n

Serve garnished with the lemon rind and parsley.<\/p>\n

Note on the greens:<\/strong> For the mix of greens, these proportions will work: 3 cups 50\/50 blend of baby arugula and baby spinach (widely available) or 3 cups baby spinach, plus 1 cup mixed green herbs such as basil, parsley leaves, dill, chives, chervil, and (if used, less than the others) tarragon.<\/p>\n

Alcohol substitutes when braising meat<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The oxtail recipe is from my mom, who in turn took it by hand from chef Claude Peyrot, proprietor of the restaurant Le Vivarois in Paris. She attended a cooking class of his while there in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The original recipe calls for braising the meat in a red Burgundy, Gevrey-Chambertin.<\/p>\n

\"Cooking
Cooking without wine or beer is easy with some simple tricks. Try making delicious braised oxtail with tart cherry juice instead of red wine. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Braised Oxtail<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Adapted from \u201cQueue de Boeuf,\u201d Claude Peyrot, Le Vivarois, Paris
\nServes 4<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/h3>\n