Some of the alcohol evaporates when you cook with wine, but not nearly as much as most people assume. Even after 30 minutes of simmering, about 35% of the original alcohol remains in your dish. It takes roughly two and a half hours of steady cooking to get that number down to 5%. The common belief that alcohol “burns off” completely is a myth.
How Much Alcohol Remains by Cook Time
The USDA tracks alcohol retention in its Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, and the numbers surprise most home cooks. For a dish that’s stirred while simmering or baking:
- 15 minutes: 40% of the alcohol remains
- 30 minutes: 35% remains
- 1 hour: 25% remains
- 2.5 hours: 5% remains
So if you deglaze a pan with a cup of wine and let your sauce simmer for 15 minutes, nearly half the alcohol is still there when you serve it. That’s a meaningful amount, even if the total volume of alcohol in a serving is small.
Why Alcohol Doesn’t Just Boil Away
Pure ethanol boils at about 173°F (78°C), which is well below water’s boiling point of 212°F (100°F). This leads many people to assume that once a liquid reaches a simmer, the alcohol should vanish quickly. But wine isn’t pure ethanol. It’s a mixture of water, alcohol, sugars, and other compounds, and when ethanol is dissolved in water, the two liquids influence each other’s evaporation rate.
In a dilute ethanol-water mixture (which is what wine essentially is), the alcohol’s vapor pressure drops significantly compared to pure ethanol. That means alcohol molecules don’t escape into the air as easily as they would on their own. Water and alcohol evaporate together at a rate that depends on their relative concentrations, the temperature, and how much surface area is exposed. This is why cooking wine down to near-zero alcohol content requires such a long simmer.
Cooking Method Matters More Than Time Alone
Not all cooking techniques are equal when it comes to alcohol removal. The method you use can matter as much as how long you cook.
Flambéing is the most dramatic example. Despite the impressive flames, dishes like cherries jubilee or steak Diane still retain about 75% of their original alcohol. The fire burns off surface alcohol quickly but doesn’t last long enough to remove much from the liquid itself.
Sauces brought to a boil and then removed from the heat, like a bourbon caramel or beer cheese sauce, keep roughly 85% of their alcohol. The brief exposure to high heat barely makes a dent. Meats and baked goods cooked for 25 minutes without stirring retain about 45%.
Stirring during cooking helps, because it exposes more of the liquid to air and heat, promoting evaporation. Long-simmered stews and braises perform best, getting down to around 5% after two and a half hours. The combination of extended heat, stirring, and a wide, open cooking surface gives the alcohol the most opportunity to escape.
Starting ABV Changes the Final Amount
The percentages above describe how much of the original alcohol stays in the food, so what you start with matters. Wine typically contains 8 to 14% alcohol by volume. Beer ranges from 3 to 13%, with most falling between 4 and 7%. Spirits run from 15 to 50%.
Consider a practical example. You add a cup of red wine at 12% ABV to a beef stew and simmer it for an hour. With 25% of the alcohol remaining, you’re left with the equivalent of about 3% ABV distributed across the entire pot. Divide that among four to six servings and each portion contains a very small amount of alcohol, roughly comparable to what you’d find in some fruit juices that undergo natural fermentation.
Now swap that wine for a half cup of bourbon at 40% ABV in a sauce you only cook for 15 minutes. You’re retaining 40% of a much higher starting concentration. The remaining alcohol per serving is noticeably higher, though still modest in absolute terms.
Tips to Maximize Alcohol Evaporation
If you want to minimize the alcohol left in your food, a few practical adjustments help. Cook uncovered, since a lid traps vapor and slows evaporation. Use a wide pan rather than a deep, narrow pot, which gives more surface area for alcohol to escape. Stir frequently. And most importantly, give it time. A quick deglaze won’t do much; a long, slow simmer will.
Adding the wine early in the cooking process rather than near the end also makes a difference. A splash of wine added in the last five minutes of cooking retains far more alcohol than the same amount added at the start of a 90-minute braise.
Who Should Pay Attention
For most adults, the small amount of alcohol remaining in a well-cooked dish is negligible. But it’s not zero, and that distinction matters for certain people. Anyone avoiding alcohol entirely, whether for recovery, pregnancy, medication interactions, or religious reasons, should know that “cooked off” doesn’t mean “gone.” A sauce simmered for only 10 or 15 minutes can retain a meaningful fraction of its original alcohol, and a flambéed dessert retains even more. If complete avoidance is the goal, the safest approach is to skip alcohol-based ingredients or substitute with stock, juice, or vinegar.