Wine in Stew

Of course you can make good stews and casseroles with out alcohol. You can make good stews or casseroles without a whole range of herbs, spices and other aromatics, but they all add distinct and different flavours to a dish.

You cannot make a really good goulasch unless you add paprika and allspice, you cannot make a true Boeuf Bougignon without adding a good dollop of a good rich red wine.

There is no special expertise in being able to make a stew without wine, nor is it especially virtuous.

As above - the alcohol will eveapoate in the cooking. Even slow cooking.
Braising beef with beer or stout is also good - delicious smell when it's in the oven.
Cheaper than wine.

Try marinating the beef in wine overnight with some aromatics.

The next day drain the beef keeping the marinade, pat it dry to fry it and then add the reserved wine and fresh aromatics.

You could try making two casseroles, one with wine and one without since you will be able to freeze portions.

I often put wine in things, the cooking destroys the alcohol so you just get the nice flavour, so I am told. Good way to use up the dregs! I like the sound of the moussaka Babs758. What is fleurie, is it a white wine ?

My husband makes a great Moussaka using minced lamb and puts half a bottle of fleurie into the mix. Always tastes delicious and rich but the alcohol evaporates during cooking. We drink the rest of the bottle with the meal.

Husband not allowed alcohol for health reasons. If I add wine or beer to a casserole I boil vigorously for a couple of minutes and sometimes set fire to the fumes for good luck.?It has never made him ill whereas a cake with booze added that he ate unwittingly made him very sick.

Slow cooked shin beef with stovies. Delicious and no wine needed ?

I only avoid wine in cooking when the children are very small, say under 5. After that, indeed most of it evaporates and the small amount left won't make anyone sozzled!
I am more careful with alcohol in foods that aren't cooked. I'm also a bit careful with soaking dried fruit if little ones are going to eat a fair amount.

A good alternative to alcohol in uncooked foods is concentrated fruit juices such as grape or red / blackcurrant. I use that to make chelsea buns and fruit cakes etc.

Another casserole alternative, which probably wouldn't work so well with beef, is to soak fruit such as prunes or apricots in fruit juice and add them: think pork with prunes, lamb tagine with apricots etc.

Just use the Swartz range of casserole mixes, tasty and easy, just chuck it all in the slow cooker! No alcohol to worry about. I do slow cooker meals probably three or four times a week in the winter with the Schwartz packet mixes.

Baked potatoes, nice bread to accompany. It says it is enough for four, not in our house, so double up!

When the children were very young, no alcohol was used in the dishes I prepared.

It is a bit of a fallacy that all the alcohol is burned away. Most of it is but there is a little left.

I re- introduced alcohol into my cooking as they got older until at teenage years they had the normal alcohol level in any dish I was preparing.

I always have a couple of bottles of cooking wine in the fridge and slosh it into all kinds of casseroles and stews.

DGC have probably been getting wine enhanced food since they were toddlers. By the time the dish is cooked the alcohol has all evaporated and all that remains is the flavour.

They also scoff my Christmas cake, puddings and minemeat, all well laced with brandy. Then there is the apple cake and pork casserole, both rich with Calvados.

You’d have to put a lot of wine into a dish for anyone to get drunk on it. The alcohol burns off. My Muslim DIL eats food that has had wine added to it, even though she doesn’t drink alcohol at all.

It is strange that this topic should come up now as I made a casserole on Thursday and as I had some white wine left, about a glass and a half, I decided to use it instead of red.
It was absolutely delicious and the meat seemed extra tender.
I wasn’t cooking for children though, my S is 51 and my GD 22.
There was no taste of wine and obviously the alcohol had burned off.

No, the GC will not get sozzled when they eat the stew. A good slug of red wine enriches a casserole, stew etc. My AC all cook with it and the GC have never suffered any ill effects.

ask the parents!

If you are cooking a casserole it will be simmered slowly, and the alcohol burns off. I doubt if the amount you add would be sufficient to get a ten and twelve year old drunk.

Sherry trifles are another matter.

All the alcohol in red wine will cook off, so there is no danger of getting your grandchildren drunk. I don't know how sophisticated the tastes of your GC are, but mine wouldn't like the taste if I added wine to a stew.
If you want to add the acidity that wine gives a dish, why not add a dash of balsamic vinegar near the end of cooking?

If you fry the onions and meat first then add the wine as you are cooking on a high heat the alcohol cooks off.

As an alternative to wine in a beef stew just add some beef stock, a good dollop of Dijon mustard and a couple of teaspoons of bistro powder stirred into a little cold water.

Then make a bouquet garni and add.