The Best Alcohol Substitutes for Cooking
Whether you're avoiding alcohol or just don't have any on hand, you can still make your favorite dishes without sacrificing flavor. Read on to learn how.
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Extra-Virgin Cooking
Eliminating wine and spirits doesn't mean you have to toss out the culinary classics. Here are eight easy switch-outs to help you omit the hard stuff yet stay true to a recipe's flavor when making everything from fondue to fruit cobbler.
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Risotto
Instead of white wine, try … lemon juice. This citrus offers the same light, bright acidic hit you get from a crisp white. Dilute it with a little water or chicken broth, and use it in place of wine wherever it's called for in your recipe.
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Stew
Cobblers and Pies
Au Poivre Sauce
Instead of cognac, try ... peach, apricot or pear nectar. Though cognac is made from white grapes, the sediment-y, fruity quality of these juices mimics the effect that cooking with brandies has on a pan sauce.
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Marinade
Instead of mirin or sake, try … rice vinegar. These rice-based wines can add a sweet and salty quality to dishes, and so does rice vinegar, which is also derived from (surprise!) rice.
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Fondue
Instead of kirsch, try … black cherry juice or syrup. That tiny, almost imperceptible hit of cherry that rounds out the cheeses so well will also work when it's alcohol-free.
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Frying Batter
Instead of beer, try … club soda or seltzer. In dishes like beer-battered onion rings, the bubbles will work their magic in a similar way.
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Clambake
Instead of beer, try … clam juice or chicken broth with a splash of malt vinegar. You'll get a satisfying malty tang.
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Pan Sauce
Instead of port, try … balsamic vinegar. That deep, dark sticky-sweet flavor of an aged balsamic will be nearly indistinguishable from the flavor of fortified wine.
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Baked Sweets
Instead of vanilla extract, try … vanilla bean seeds. The paste you scrape from a vanilla bean is what gives vanilla extract flavor, after all. For a second, budget-stretching alternative, make vanilla sugar. Stick a scraped bean or two in a sealed canister of sugar. With time, the sugar will take on a warm, rummy fragrance and can be substituted for the granulated sugar in your recipe.
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