Vodka Sauce

RedMar · January 2014

So we're going to our favorite Italian restaurant tonight and I'm dying for their vodka sauce. I've heard mixed reviews and am wondering if it's safe? I know it's cooked and the alcohol is likely to evaporate, but I'm just seeking other opinions...

On this same note, has anyone else been told not to eat sausage? (dirty comments encouraged)

katekat8721 · January 2014

I'd eat it.

jshrop · January 2014

I haven't read anything like this. The alcohol content is cooked off during the cooking process. As for dirty sausages, maybe ask them to take a shower before you put them in your mouth???

enjoy your dinner.

2blessingsin1 · January 2014

eat it it is cooked

sausage take it and enjoy it

LaurelJoy91 · January 2014

Eat it! Mmm, vodka sauce is so good.

RedMar · January 2014

That's unfortunate news about the hand sanitizer...

ElTrain5 · January 2014

It's not "likely" to be cooked off, it is cooked off. Enjoy.

bebemac · January 2014

Put vodka sauce on all the things. I bet you can even use it as hand sanitizer.

wtfisup · January 2014

VODKA SAUCE YES NOW PLZ

Bozzy2 · January 2014

Actually not all of the alcohol get cooked off at all.

Alcohol Burn-off Chart
Preparation Method	Percent Retained
alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat	85%
alcohol flamed	75%
no heat, stored overnight	70%
baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture	45%
Baked/simmered dishes with alcohol stirred into mixture:
15 minutes cooking time	40%
30 minutes cooking time	35%
1 hour cooking time	25%
1.5 hours cooking time	20%
2 hours cooking time	10%
2.5 hours cooking time

The last one should say 5% but I would think that eating a little sauce is perfectly ok and I have never heard anything about sausage.

ElTrain5 · January 2014

Sauce with vodka actually has to come down to around 2% ABV or less to be palatable. Not sure where you got that chart.
Edit: for comparison purposes, that's about the amount of alcohol in a non-alcoholic beer or a glass of orange juice left out overnight.

RedMar · January 2014

Thanks for the info, sausage it is!!!

Bozzy2 · January 2014

ElTrain5 said:

Sauce with vodka actually has to come down to around 2% ABV or less to be palatable. Not sure where you got that chart. Edit: for comparison purposes, that's about the amount of alcohol in a non-alcoholic beer or a glass of orange juice left out overnight.

The chart data comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture with information on how much alcohol remains in your food with specific cooking methods. Keep in mind that this is the percentage of alcohol remaining of the original addition.

Cstarks2013 · January 2014

Mmm... Eat it.

ElTrain5 · January 2014

I could only find it on "about.com" without any links back to the USDA. But who knows. Either way, most vodka sauces do not have that much alcohol content. Anything bought from a store in a jar has 0%. To clarify further, burnoff refers to the ABV only of the alcohol product added. Not the entire sauce. So it you ad a quarter cup of vodka that burns off to 5% ABV to 10 cups of sauce, that's much less than 5% ABV for the sauce itself.