What happens alcohol calories when you cook the wine?

How do you calculate the amount of Calories provided by, say, a cup of wine in a recipe? It can not be the same as drinking the wine, since the cooking process will evaporate the alcohol
In the French onion soup it's common to use 1l of wine and a cup of sherry or cognac, but after simmering it for 30 min, not much alcohol is left
Fair to say that when cooking with alcohol the temptation of "having a sip" is just to reach of hand!!

I don't think that alcohol actually has calories (I may be wrong). I think it's what the alcohol is made from is what has the calories--like wine is grape juice that's fermented.

So if you look at it that way, then the calories are going to stay the same with cooking as when you added to wine. Although the alcohol evaporates with cooking, the calories aren't going to magically evaporate too. I'm pretty sure alcohol is just like water; it will evaporate with cooking, leaving the calories behind.

My mistake

Calories from alcohol come from the sugars in it. As you well say, alcohol evaporates, but sugars stay. If I had checked the composition first I woudl hav erealised that the amount of calories in a cup of grape juice and wine are the same, is the sodium content is different.

Well, should have thought before asking!!!

1 gram of alcohol has 7 calories. if you are using wine that is 10% alcohol, that means that 100ml will have 10x7 calories from alcohol (70), and the rest from sugar or whatever else is in there. (about 20 if 100ml of wine has 90cal) If you then cook with it and the alcohol evaporates then these calories are no longer in the food. so you would be left with approx 20 cals per 100mL of wine.

If you use a cup then that would mean about 50cals from the wine left, assuming all the alcohol has been evaporated.

If the wine is slightly higher alcohol percentage, then it may even be more like 40cals left.

Only a small amount of the alcohol cooks off in a recipe. If all of it cooked off it would leave your food completely dried out. It is a myth that it all cooks out.

OKay, just looked it up, http://www.ochef.com/165.htm 

apparently after 30mins simmering, 35% of the alchol remains, so 3.5 x 7 is approx 25 cals per 100ml due to alcohol remains, which means a cup would be 110-115 cals left (the non alcohol 50 + 65 for the alcohol remaining). If my math is right.

Jane, your math is close, but ethanol doesn't have the same density as water             (100mL of ethanol ≠ 100g of ethanol). The density of ethanol is 0.789g/mL.

so, 100mL of wine which is 10% alcohol by volume has 10mL of ethanol.

10mL EtOH x 0.789g/mL = 7.89g EtOH

7.89g EtOH x 7Cal/g = 55 Calories in 100mL of wine

That equates to 130 Calories of alcohol in a cup of wine (213 Calories total)

_____________________________________________ _____________________

Now, if you simmer the wine for 30 minutes and have 35% remaining, then you have burned off 65% of the alcohol. This means that you burn off 6.5mL of ethanol for every 100mL of wine.

6.5mL EtOH x 0.789g/mL = 5.1g EtOH

5.1g EtOH x 7Cal/g = 36 Calories burned off from 100 mL of wine (54 Cal left).

That equates to 85 Calories burned off from a cup of wine, leaving behind 128 Calories for you to consume.

- Eric 

Original Post by jane3001:

OKay, just looked it up, http://www.ochef.com/165.htm 

This has some excellent info (as does Eric's followup post regarding ethanol evaporation). Does anybody have any thoughts on wine used for deglazing? It's not in the list on that web page. I like to use wine for that and let it simmer down a couple of minutes until it's thickened up while scraping up the tasty bits. I always assumed most of the alcohol evaporated during that process since there's always a nice burst of vapor when I do it. And always an excellent sauce when finished. Ok, usually a tasty sauce.

Jim

Next question:  If you lean over the pot and inhale as the alcohol evaporates, will you get drunk? 

Original Post by lazerjd:

Original Post by jane3001:

OKay, just looked it up, http://www.ochef.com/165.htm 

This has some excellent info (as does Eric's followup post regarding ethanol evaporation). Does anybody have any thoughts on wine used for deglazing? It's not in the list on that web page. I like to use wine for that and let it simmer down a couple of minutes until it's thickened up while scraping up the tasty bits. I always assumed most of the alcohol evaporated during that process since there's always a nice burst of vapor when I do it. And always an excellent sauce when finished. Ok, usually a tasty sauce.

Jim

My guess is that more of the alcohol percentage burns off because you're cooking at a higher heat than simmering soup. I know that when you flambe a dessert with alcohol that not much alcohol is left.