Alcohol is used in a variety of ways for meal preparation.
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Many foods contain alcoholic beverages that are later incorporated into the food itself, rather than being consumed separately by drinking them. Such dishes include coq au vin, hunter style chicken, and boeuf bourguignon. More modern examples are beer grilled chicken and bratwursts boiled in beer. Adding beer, instead of water, to chili during cooking is popular. An overnight marinate of chicken, pork or beef in beer and spices is another example - generally for broiling, grilling or barbecue.
Specialist cooking wines, liqueurs, vermouths and eaux de vie are widely used by professional chefs to enhance flavour in traditional and modern dishes. These are specially created to be an ingredient in cooking, not a beverage. As well as offering excellent value for money, they have a longer shelf life which avoids wastage. The addition of specialist cooking wines, liqueurs and vermouths adds flavour to finished meat and fish dishes; desserts benefit from the use of sweet or dry wines. In addition, the use of specialist cooking wine in marinades can tenderise meat and is of particular benefit to game dishes. Many chefs discourage the serving of the same alcoholic beverage with the meal that was cooked using it.
Flambé is a technique where alcohol, such as brandy, is poured on top of a dish and then ignited to create a stunning visual presentation.
A variation of the flambé tradition is employed in Japanese teppanyaki restaurants where a spirit is poured onto the griddle and then lit, providing both a dramatic start to the cooking, and a residue on the griddle which indicates to the chef which parts of the griddle are hottest.
A study by a team of researchers at the University of Idaho, Washington State University, and the US Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Data Laboratory calculated the percentage of alcohol remaining in a dish based on various cooking methods. The results are as follows:
| Time (h) | Alcohol retained[1] |
|---|---|
| 0.25 | 40% |
| 0.5 | 35% |
| 1.0 | 25% |
| 1.5 | 20% |
| 2.0 | 10% |
| 2.5 | 5% |
Also as an alternative to cooking with propane or kerosene on boats, alcohol stoves have been very popular in the past, but are known to be dangerous due to the operator not knowing how much odorless vapor is being released, often resulting in explosions below deck in the galley. Propane and kerosene are scented, negating this issue.
For an example of a very light weight alcohol stove for camping see Beverage-can stove.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/retn6/retn06.pdf Page 14, Lines 5001-5009