New blog about How much alcohol really cooks out of your kids’ Penne alla Vodka?
“The alcohol cooks out!” is the exasperated cry of those who are used to making dishes such as Penne alla Vodka, but ask one of those same cooks just how much booze remains when all is said and done and they might not be so sure.
The confusion was recently brought to my attention by one fellow mom’s disagreement with her sister-in-law. User matkaof4 recently shared in a Reddit post:
“Last night my sister in law and her two kids came over for dinner while her husband has been away on business. I served penne a la vodka, she was raving about it all night and finally asked what was in it, when I told her vodka she FLIPPED. Saying she couldn’t believe I would give alcohol to her toddlers.”
The poster tried to explain she cooks with alcohol every once in a while and her kids are just fine, but her relative wouldn’t have it.
The drama was far from over. Matkaof4 went on to say: “Later on she texted me a very long message about how upset she was and how when her husband gets back they’ll be having a talk about calling CPS on me for ‘getting my kids drunk.’ My husband just laughed and said his sister is known for being overdramatic but I’m shaken up about it.”
Nearly every commenter I saw replied agreed it was an overdramatic reaction, but even those who were on the original poster’s side couldn’t say for sure how much vodka the kids may have gotten.
I also would have assumed the alcohol would cook out, but apparently I also didn’t realize how much goes into such a recipe. For example, Ree Drummond’s Penne alla Vodka (for the sake of example, it’s the first recipe that turned up in a web search) calls for a full cup of liquor! Obviously I’m not much of a chef, because that’s a fair bit more than I was expecting.
So, here’s the official word on alcohol cooking out from the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services: “Many cookbooks and cooks tell the consumer that the ‘alcohol will have burned off,’ however the process is more complicated than this simple statement implies.”
Additionally, everything from the cooking method (simmering or baking), to the temperature, the time cooked, and even the size of the pan make a difference. Anywhere “from 4 percent to 49 percent of the original alcohol” remained in one experiment.
Overall, the experiment showed “long simmering in a wide pan was the most effective way to remove alcohol; baking appeared to be the least.”
So, does a sister-in-law have a right to freak about kids being served vodka? I hate to say it, but perhaps. It really all depends on how the dish was prepared, and specifically how long the sauce simmered for.
I’ve read Ree Drummond’s recipe over and over again, and it says nothing about simmering time — which would lead me to believe you stir in the ingredients, heat through, then add the pasta, and eat. The total prep time for the recipe is just 25 minutes. Based on how I’d follow those instructions, close to 40 percent of my cup of alcohol would still be in the dish. That’s 3.2 ounces of vodka in a recipe that serves 4-6 people.
Let’s be real — my kids likely wouldn’t eat much of their servings if any, but I read plenty of comments from others about Penne alla Vodka being one dish their entire family devours. I hope those who eat it regularly know more than us non-cooks out there, and give simmering plenty of time do its thing.
Images by MorgueFile
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