Do you love to bake food in cooking wine due to the increased aroma and flavor it leaves the dish with? However, have you ever thought about whether cooking wine can get you drunk?
Drinking Cooking Wine can certainly get you drunk, and the reason is that it contains high alcohol content. However, it poses various health risks. Therefore, it is better not to drink cooking wine directly. Instead, you can cook food in it. Moreover, the food can also make you feel drunk if improperly cooked.
To find more details, let’s dive into the next section!
What Is Cooking Wine?
Cooking wine is a special wine that is used mostly for cooking purposes. It has a relatively higher alcohol content than regular wine, and it is extensively used to both deglaze your pan as well as add an aroma to your sauce.
A few of the characteristic features of cooking wine are:
- It contains preservatives like potassium sorbate in it.
- Moreover, it has lots of added salt in it. In fact, it is loaded with salt, so much so that it tastes very salty and frizzy.
- And to add more, it usually lacks sugar or any added sweetener.
Cooking wine is primarily designed to add flavor and crispness to your dish. There is a myriad of cooking wine flavors available, with the six most common being:
- Sweet Whites
- Red Wine
- Dry Nutty Wine
- Dry Red and Whites
- Sweet Fortified Reds
- Sweet Nutty Wine
Can You Drink Cooking Wine?
Yes, drinking Cooking wine is not going to kill you. So you can definitely sip it. However, it is not formulated to be used as a drinking beverage.
The reason is that cooking wine has reasonably rich alcohol with a quite bitter taste. And just in case you are a sweet Wine lover, you will definitely regret tasting cooked wine as it lacks all means of sweetness.
Therefore, it is better not to drink cooking wine because not only does it taste bad, but its high sodium content is known to be associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular problems and other diseases.
Can Drinking Cooking Wine Get You Drunk?
Yes, drinking Cooking Wine can get you drunk. The reason is that in cooking wine, nearly 16 to 17 percent of alcohol content is present. This is more than the alcohol content in most drinking wines. The reason lies in its usage since most of the alcohol is to be burned up and evaporated.
So, if you drink cooking wine, you can easily get drunk by taking even fewer shots than regular Red wine alcohol.
Risks Of Drinking Cooking Wine Directly
A common question asked by people all around the world is if cooking wine puts a risk on your health. And the answer is, unfortunately, A BIG YES!
Where drinking cooking wine doesn’t have a pleasant taste, it poses various risks to human health too. And the reason lies in its increased alcohol tolerance.
From damaging your organs to expiry, it offers severe damage to your health. These include:
- High alcohol content saturates the liver and results in increased workload. As a result, it leads to various liver-associated disorders, including fatty liver, alcoholic cirrhosis, and hepatitis.
- Increased risk of alcohol dependency within no time, thus resulting in a faster rate of alcohol addiction.
- Resulting in anxiety, depression, and violent behavior of hurting oneself due to increased alcohol dependency.
- And wait! That doesn’t end up on the list of cooking wine risks! The high content of sodium in drinking cooking wine poses increased arterial hypertension and vessel obstruction that ultimately reduces proper blood circulation and causes a stroke or heart failure.
Therefore, it is better to keep oneself from drinking cooking wine. Instead, you can go for red wine, beers, and other liquors that offer a better taste and comparatively fewer health problems.
Can Food Made In Cooking Wine Get You Drunk?
No!
Usually, the food made in cooking wine doesn’t get you drunk. The reason is that most of the alcohol is evaporated and burned off. However, the chances are always there. The reason is that even after cooking for hours, all of the alcohol within cooked off completely.
Cooking wine is used to add aroma and crispness to the dishes. Usually, 5 to 40 percent alcohol remains in the food, depending on how well the food was cooked.
How long does it take to evaporate alcohol completely from food?
According to a study, baking or cooking a portion of food for
- 15 minutes reduces the alcohol content to 40%
- Further cooking for half an hour reduces the amount to 25%
- After 2 to 2.5 hours of cooking, only 5% remains
- After 3 hours, only traces of alcohol are present in the food
So, in short, the longer the cooking and simmering time, the more alcohol gets burned up, and thus there is a reduced chance of one getting drunk from it.
Cooking Wine Vs. Drinking Alcohol: The Difference
Last but not least, let’s have general know-how of the difference between regular alcohol and cooking wine. The differences are:
- Cooking wine contains relatively high Alcohol Content than regular wine (usually cooking wine has 16 to 17%)
- Cooking wine has a more bitter taste than regular wine.
- Cooking wine has added salt as a preservative, while regular wine lacks any such addition. That is why the shelf life of traditional wine is much smaller than that of cooking wine.
- Regular wine can change into vinegar, while cooking wine doesn’t.
- Chefs prefer using regular wine, while amateurs go for cooking wine.
Final Verdict
To put it bluntly, drinking cooking wine can easily get you drunk. The reason is that it contains high alcohol content, nearly 17%, which can easily be absorbed into the bloodstream by consuming a few shots of cooking wine. Therefore, you should avoid drinking it directly.
However, if the food is cooked in cooking wine, the chance of getting drunk is usually less.
I am a passionate beer connoisseur with a deep appreciation for the art and science of brewing. With years of experience tasting and evaluating various beers, I love to share my opinions and insights with others and I am always eager to engage in lively discussions about my favorite beverage.
