Can My Baby Eat Food I Have Cooked in Wine

Alcohol can evaporate from wine when it is cooked thoroughly.

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Wine is a coveted cooking ingredient because it intensifies the flavors of the dish, which is why it's often used in sauces, stews and marinades, as a basting liquid and to deglaze a pan. But can children or babies eat food cooked with wine?

Well, it depends: With appropriate cooking methods, foods made with wine can be safe for kids. But with the wrong preparation, alcohol can remain.

Here's how to cook wine safely for kids, including how to best evaporate alcohol from your meals.

Tip

Cooking can eliminate the alcohol content from wine, but may still include its flavor. For some parents, allowing children to taste wine is an issue in itself, so the decision of whether or not to allow your kids to eat food made with wine is a personal one.

Does Alcohol Evaporate When Cooking?

Cooking wine can help burn off some of the alcohol content — provided you're preparing the dish at or above the boiling point of alcohol, which is 173 degrees Fahrenheit, per Idaho State University (ISU).

But exactly how much alcohol evaporates depends on how you cook it, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Here's how much alcohol is removed from food based on preparation method:

Preparation Method	Percent of Alcohol Remaining
Stirred into hot liquid and removed from heat	85%
Flambeed	75%
No heat, stored overnight	70%
Baked for 25 minutes without being stirred into the mixture	45%
Stirred into mixture and baked or simmered for 15 minutes	40%
Stirred into mixture and baked or simmered for 30 minutes	35%
Stirred into mixture and baked or simmered for 1 hour	25%
Stirred into mixture and baked or simmered for 1 1/2 hours	20%
Stirred into mixture and baked or simmered for 2 hours	10%
Stirred into mixture and baked or simmered for 2 1/2 hours	5%

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2007). "USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6"

While this information is from 2007, it's still widely used as a resource when it comes to cooking with alcohol.

Should You Cook With Wine for Kids?

If you're deciding whether or not to include cooking wine (or other alcohol) in a meal your children will eat, first consider how you're going to prepare the food based on the table above.

Per the USDA, you have to cook, simmer or boil a dish that contains wine for more than 2 1/2 hours to remove the alcohol. Accordingly, if you must prepare a dish with wine, only give it to your kids if it's been cooked longer than that so the alcohol evaporates. Use extra caution with younger children and infants.

On the flip side, any recipes that call for adding wine without heating it are not suitable for children. Meals that include a large volume of wine or have a relatively short cooking time after adding wine are also inappropriate given the amount of alcohol that will remain — for instance, this is the case for fruit macerated in wine or flambeed desserts like bananas foster.

Can Toddlers Eat Food Cooked in Beer?

Similar rules apply to foods cooked in beer, per ISU: The longer you cook them at or above the boiling point of alcohol, the less alcohol will remain.

In other words, a meal with beer added after much of the cooking process is over won't be safe for kids, whereas a stew cooked for many hours will contain significantly less alcohol.

Tips for How to Evaporate Alcohol

Besides your cooking method, there are some other tips that may help you remove alcohol from your meals.

1. Use a Wide Pan

Cook with a wide, uncovered pan, which gives the mixture a larger surface area that better allows the alcohol to evaporate, per ISU.

2. Stir Often

Stirring your culinary concoction often may also help reduce its alcohol content by encouraging more evaporation, according to ISU.

3. Try Substitutes

Sometimes the best way to ensure there's no alcohol in your dish is to not use it in the first place. Fortunately, there are several cooking wine substitutes you can use instead.

Swap red wine for grape or cranberry juice, and white wine for apple or white grape juice, per the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. You can also replace wine with vinegar, lemon juice, stock or water with herbs.

Is Cooking Wine Safe to Drink?

Though you can technically drink cooking wine if you're an adult, it's not intended to be used as a beverage, according to the University of Washington. Cooking wine is alcoholic, so it (or any wine, for that matter) is not good for kids who are under the legal drinking age.

Can My Baby Eat Food I Have Cooked in Wine

Source: https://www.livestrong.com/article/532846-can-kids-eat-foods-made-with-cooking-wine/