The Recovery Village advocates for a comprehensive approach to recovery, where dietary guidance is integral to treatment and long-term well-being. For individuals in recovery from substance use or those recovering from illness or surgery, the presence of alcohol in food can pose potential risks. The liver, which is central to detoxification, can be affected by even small amounts of alcohol. If you’re cooking for yourself or for other people, it’s a good idea to always let everyone know that you plan to cook with alcohol so that they can make their own decision.
- I have also researched extracts on Google, and most of them do contain a small amount of alcohol.
- You have to ask yourself what your limits are and then respect those limits, adapting as needed.
- Some will even use it as a means of justifying a return to alcohol use and abuse.
Mental Health Newsletter
Recipes frequently call for flavoring dishes with wine or other alcoholic spirits — often as a replacement for heavy creams and starches in “nouvelle” or light cuisine. Don’t worry about inebriating your dinner guests or adding “empty” calories, cooks are told; virtually all of the alcohol volatilizes during food preparation. While that may sound plausible, new research shows that up to 85% of the alcohol used in cooking may end up in the finished entree. I have been insanely obsessive about not ingesting any speck of alcohol since my hard road to sobriety. The method or cooking beer battered fish, or making Beurre Blanc sauce, would clearly cook off the alcohol; but I still will have no part of them.
If you flambé a dish with brandy it will have 86% of the alcohol in it. And with no way to know exactly how much alcohol is in a dish you’re risking your sobriety every time you cook with alcohol. So cooking with alcohol can be bad for your sobriety by exposing you to the taste and smell of alcohol. That’s why some specialists recommend avoiding even alcohol flavored or things like “bourbon barrel aged syrup” in early recovery. Nutritionists from Washington State University, the University of Idaho and U.S. Department of Agriculture experimented with cooking with alcohol, though not with beer, but with wine and sherry.
Cooking with Alcohol – Is This OK in Recovery?
Thankfully, there are many items that can be easily substituted for alcoholic components without ruining your favorite dish. It also showed that 75% of alcohol remained even after using the flaming method of cooking, which is one of the most common ways of using alcohol for cooking. Of all the cooking methods you could use, baking or simmering (as was likely done with this fish stew) removes the most alcohol overall, according to the USDA report. But 30 minutes of baking still leaves you with a little over a third of any alcohol you added to the mixture.
Is it okay to cook with wine when serving a guest in AA recovery?
The precise mechanisms that contribute to relapse are still being studied, but for those wishing to minimize the risk, avoiding food prepared with alcohol is a wise precaution. Evidence indicates those recovering from alcoholism could be adversely affected by a small amount of alcohol, even if consumed accidentally. Accurately assessing risk and making wise choices depends on getting the facts straight.Alcohol Retention in FoodThe U.S. Department of Agriculture published a table of nutrient retention factors. The table includes information about nutrients, including alcohol, contained in 290 different foods under a variety of cooking and preparation methods. Some insist that alcohol in food or cooking is nothing to worry about, often citing a commonly held belief that alcohol gets cooked out of foods during the preparation process. They claim that alcohol is literally boiled off during heating or cooking and its alcoholic potency is destroyed or eliminated.
It is advisable for those in recovery to consult with healthcare professionals regarding their diet. This includes discussing the consumption of food with alcohol content. Someone’s health history and stage of recovery can greatly influence can alcoholics eat food cooked with alcohol dietary choices.
Is it OK to cook with alcohol if you’re in recovery?
So, in any case where you add alcohol to food, there’s a good chance there’s still alcohol in the food after cooking. None of them have a lot of alcohol – after all, you’d have to eat over a pound of cherries jubilee to get to a single serving – but they do have alcohol. If you’re in recovery, getting into cooking can be a great way to eat and live well. But, cooking means experimenting and working with food – and alcohol is in so much food. Whether you’re cooking for yourself or for your loved one, you probably want to know if cooking with alcohol affects your sobriety. If you’re in recovery, you’re taking the steps to the life you deserve to live.
Alcohol relapse triggers can be caused by exposure to small amounts of alcohol, exposure to alcohol-related cues or environmental contexts and stress. Absolute advocacy (2022) explains that a dish needs to bake or simmer for up to 2 hours to reduce the alcohol to 10%. The average dish calls for alcohol to be added to boiling liquid which can retain up to 85% of the alcohol – this means that adding any amount of alcohol to your cooking for a recovering alcoholic can be very dangerous. For a healthy person with a good history of stability and no cravings, there’s probably no problem with a little bit of alcohol in your food every now and then. For someone in early recovery or who still has cravings, that’s not the case at all. Just like with alcohol free beers, even that tiny bit of alcohol can prolong your addiction and dependency on a substance.