I have always been told, and always believed, that any food cooked with alcohol would retain the flavor but not the alcoholic content. This year I started reading through a devotional that has an additional weight loss program with it. I've skimmed the weight loss program but have really focused on the devotional more. A few weeks ago I actually read through the recipes in the back of the book, and most of the ones that sound like food we'd eat call for cooking wine.
I am the granddaughter of an alcoholic. My mother and my aunt are both tee-totalers. To them, alcohol is of the devil. My aunt will rant that she doesn't understand why our government is so anti-smoking but allows alcohol. Smoke has never abused anyone, forced anyone to hide or lock their bedroom doors in fear, caused people to lose their jobs, caused wrecks injuring or killing people, nor kept food off the table. My mother will quote you almost any verse in the Bible that gives a warning against wine or the verses that list drunkenness as one of the "terrible" sins. It shouldn't be any surprise that she remained a Free Will Baptist after leaving home, one of the few Baptist denominations that deals with the issue of alcohol in the church covenant.
My father-in-law was also adamantly opposed to alcohol of any form, and instilled in his children that drinking was a reasonable cause to disinherit. Even during the time he spent in the Army, he never once had a drop of alcohol touch his lips. He certainly did a great job of passing that sense of morality down to his oldest son.
I believe the Bible's admonitions and warnings about alcohol should be heeded. For me, those warnings are strong enough that I'll gladly leave the stuff alone. This next sentence may keep me from ever being welcomed back in FWB circles, but I don't believe it is a sin to drink. I have never knowingly drank alcohol and have no intentions of starting now, but wine is mentioned too much in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, for God to have considered it a sin. I will willingly agree with my husband that most of the OT stories where it is mentioned do not have happy outcomes, but nevertheless, I think the sin there is gluttony and not consumption.
Which leads me to my discovery last week. I was seriously debating whether or not to buy cooking wine for use in these diet recipes and whether or not it was worth causing a tiff in our marriage for doing so. I knew for Bobby to even hear me out, I would have to have factual data to back me up. So I googled the subject and was blatantly shocked by the articles I read. I fully expected to find articles by religious groups on the subject. I did not expect for almost every article on the first page to be from either state owned nutritionist groups, AA groups, or doctors. I only read the first four or five, but they were all consistent with each other. Food must be cooked longer than 30 minutes for even half of the alcohol to cook out. Here's a link to the chart which gives the cooking times, method of cooking, and the amount of alcohol that burns up: http://www.betterendings.org/Recipes/cookal.htm
I was thankful to read that white grape juice can be substituted in many white wine recipes, though this chart does state it's really best to find a new recipe that doesn't call for it. The other sites weren't as flexible, saying there really was no substitute.
So I bought white grape juice today. If I get the chance to try out a recipe or two this next week, I'll let you know what I think. Meanwhile, if anyone has a non-alcoholic recipe for shrimp scampi, could you send it my way?
I am the granddaughter of an alcoholic. My mother and my aunt are both tee-totalers. To them, alcohol is of the devil. My aunt will rant that she doesn't understand why our government is so anti-smoking but allows alcohol. Smoke has never abused anyone, forced anyone to hide or lock their bedroom doors in fear, caused people to lose their jobs, caused wrecks injuring or killing people, nor kept food off the table. My mother will quote you almost any verse in the Bible that gives a warning against wine or the verses that list drunkenness as one of the "terrible" sins. It shouldn't be any surprise that she remained a Free Will Baptist after leaving home, one of the few Baptist denominations that deals with the issue of alcohol in the church covenant.
My father-in-law was also adamantly opposed to alcohol of any form, and instilled in his children that drinking was a reasonable cause to disinherit. Even during the time he spent in the Army, he never once had a drop of alcohol touch his lips. He certainly did a great job of passing that sense of morality down to his oldest son.
I believe the Bible's admonitions and warnings about alcohol should be heeded. For me, those warnings are strong enough that I'll gladly leave the stuff alone. This next sentence may keep me from ever being welcomed back in FWB circles, but I don't believe it is a sin to drink. I have never knowingly drank alcohol and have no intentions of starting now, but wine is mentioned too much in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, for God to have considered it a sin. I will willingly agree with my husband that most of the OT stories where it is mentioned do not have happy outcomes, but nevertheless, I think the sin there is gluttony and not consumption.
Which leads me to my discovery last week. I was seriously debating whether or not to buy cooking wine for use in these diet recipes and whether or not it was worth causing a tiff in our marriage for doing so. I knew for Bobby to even hear me out, I would have to have factual data to back me up. So I googled the subject and was blatantly shocked by the articles I read. I fully expected to find articles by religious groups on the subject. I did not expect for almost every article on the first page to be from either state owned nutritionist groups, AA groups, or doctors. I only read the first four or five, but they were all consistent with each other. Food must be cooked longer than 30 minutes for even half of the alcohol to cook out. Here's a link to the chart which gives the cooking times, method of cooking, and the amount of alcohol that burns up: http://www.betterendings.org/Recipes/cookal.htm
I was thankful to read that white grape juice can be substituted in many white wine recipes, though this chart does state it's really best to find a new recipe that doesn't call for it. The other sites weren't as flexible, saying there really was no substitute.
So I bought white grape juice today. If I get the chance to try out a recipe or two this next week, I'll let you know what I think. Meanwhile, if anyone has a non-alcoholic recipe for shrimp scampi, could you send it my way?
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