Cooking is an art and there are various ways to enhance that art of yours. One of the most creative ways to cook is cooking with alcohol. Cooking with a liquor gives that/s extra notch of flavours and taste. Whether you are using beer, sake, rum or wine or cabernet or any other alcoholic beverages this acta as a flavour enhancer. From preserving fruit to enhancing sauces to be it tenderizing meat in marinades or concentrate flavour of the sauces as it lightly simmers, it’s fun to cook with alcohol. This versatile ingredient, bonds well with both fat and water molecules, and hence is great to carry aromas and flavours. While wine helps to intensify the flavour, professional chefs are known to believe that alcohol added to a meal during the cooking process evaporates, which surely is a myth. A Danish study, published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science in 2016, also saw researchers experiment with beer to determine whether you can ‘cook out the alcohol added to beer-based recipes.
Let’s see how alcohol is used in cooking:
Flavor Sauces
Mix Into Brine
Brine basically is water that is highly saturated with common salt and adding a strong alcohol that sees a bold flavors such as a bourbon into the mixture gives the whole brine an extra notch of flavours. Also pickled brine goes best with vodka or Jager bomb shots. Also the Honey Bourbon Spatchcocked chicken or lamb where the bourbon picks up flavors and aromas and it is just simply infused into the meat for that extra smoky-sweet spirit.
Adding It To Your Popsicles
Recently Chef Saransh Goila took to Instagram and wrote- “Are you team ice lolly or ice cream? I'm personally chuski or ice lolly or popsicle kind of person. I love that brain freeze 🥶 in summers and can keep having this G & T chuski through the day to keep me cool and happy 😁😊 Will you try this #delishaaas chuski?” where he pepped up his chuski with some Gin n Tonic and it’s no secret that such boozy popsicles taste best. Pick your choice of fruit be it watermelomn, cucumber or mango just spike it for that extra happiness.
Make Preserves
How about some boozy jams for your breakfast? Great to preserve the seasonal favourites, bourbon and rums go best for preserve for the extra flavour and taste. Also by adding some gin or wine to the hot jam, the spirit content of the alcohol burns off leaving a great flavour. Try some Honey Bourbon Peach Preserves where peaches and smoky bourbon make afor a perfect match and to enhance the flavour add some fresh thyme. This one goes great with brie or breads.