Alternatives to wine in cooking?

[T42]

I read a good while back that in slow-cooked dishes (boeuf bourgignon etc) about 30% of the alcohol remains after two hours' cooking.  I have a very low alcohol tolerance, and the last time BB was served at a cycling club dinner I had a splitting headache within 15 minutes of eating it. I didn't much like the flavour, either.

OTOH if I cook steak or game in a frying-pan then when I turn out the meat, a thick splash of Madeira unsticks the residue very efficiently, and the alcohol is gone in seconds.  Balsamic vinegar does work pretty well here, and goes very nicely with shallots.  White wine is OK too if you want to avoid the negligible sugar content, but won't caramelize as well.  I haven't thought the physical chem. through, but I feel that the alcohol in the Madeira evaporates faster than that in white wine. The Madeira tastes better, too.

[Pancho]

I don't understand. Why not use wine?

I dunno, maybe he's already considered why not, why not just answer his question?  I'd find being returned with 'meh, just use wine' (to paraphrase a few here) a pretty irritating answer if I was the OP.

Because it's the motherfucking internet, that's why. We are here to ask impertinent questions. There are only two other known uses of the internet.

Reasons for avoiding wine? Recovering alcoholics? Alcohol-phobia caused by knowing unrecovered alcoholics? Halal meals? Not having any booze in the house and can't be bothered to cycle to shops?

[caerau]

I don't understand. Why not use wine?

I dunno, maybe he's already considered why not, why not just answer his question?  I'd find being returned with 'meh, just use wine' (to paraphrase a few here) a pretty irritating answer if I was the OP.

Because it's the motherfucking internet, that's why. We are here to ask impertinent questions. There are only two other known uses of the internet.

    *doffs cap*  An excellent point well made

[Mr Larrington]

Two?

• lolcatz
• pr0n

HTH HAND

[Cudzoziemiec]

If you're morally opposed to alcohol, buying wine and boiling off the alcohol might be a bit like a vegan going to the butcher to buy steak and throw it away.

[Ian H]

If you're morally opposed to alcohol, buying wine and boiling off the alcohol might be a bit like a vegan going to the butcher to buy steak and throw it away.

Moral dilemma because the grape has already had the life squished out of it?

[T42]

It's like yeast, innit?  Brewers want the alcohol, bakers want the CO₂.  Cooks want the flavour of plonk, not the diminished brain function.

[caerau]

You never watched Keith Floyd clearly

[trekker12]

Sometimes he added the wine to food

(usually as he spilt it on the way to his mouth)

[cycleman]

Alternatives to wine, beer