When cooking with wine or other booze does the alcohol have an affect on the cooking process?
Example: deglazing a pan or making a wine-based sauce. My understanding is that the alcohol evaporates quickly, so the booze is mostly there to add flavor and act as a liquid medium, and thus substitutible by another liquid, e.g. stock. Is there more going on than this?
Best Answer
The alcohol aids in extracting flavour enhancing compounds which may be more soluble in alcohol than in water.