this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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[–] Hoimo@ani.social 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

It's not untrue that it boils off, but dilution is the bigger factor by a wide margin. When I use wine to deglaze, it will be 100ml. That is then turned into 2 or 3 liters of sauce, so a dilution of 1:20, 1:30. Or, expressed in percentages, 3-5% of the sauce would be wine if none of it evaporated - 14% alcohol would be reduced to less than 0.5% just by dilution.

To get a similar reduction from evaporation, you'd need to boil off 95% of the alcohol, assuming none of the water is also evaporated, which it will at the temperature of deglazing. I don't know the exact ratios here, but even a 75% net alcohol evaporation (which I think is generous) would leave you with a 3.5% alcohol (light beer) before dilution.

Relevant Adam Ragusea video.

Edit: the table he shows has 95% actual alcohol loss for a 2.5 hours simmer, but every other method (where you'd "burn it off") is below 25%, so that's definitely a noticeble amount of alcohol left in, especially when you start with something like a brandy.