The Boozy Slow-Cooker Blunder That's Ruining A Taste Of Dinner

Cooking with wine or liquor is tricky, but it's generally safe and great for enhancing flavor. While you won't get rid of 100% of the alcohol when you're simmering it in a pot or pan, even boozy baked goods won't get you drunk since you're evaporating most of the liquor. That all assumes you're cooking normally, though. Slow cookers have different rules, and they're usually sealed. To find out whether that makes a difference, we asked Susan "Lazy Susan" Goldenberg, the owner, recipe tester, and blogger at The Lazy Slow Cooker, and she confirmed that it's risky to slow-cook booze.

According to Goldenberg: "Alcohol does not cook off in a slow cooker the same way it does in an open pot (I learned this the hard way!). Alcohol cooks off through evaporation. Slow cookers are intentionally humid environments that purposefully do not allow for much evaporation." Normally, according to the USDA, you'd need to cook liquor at its boiling point for two and half hours to remove 95% of the alcohol and leave just the flavor behind. In a sealed environment, however, that evaporated liquor has no way to escape your food while the lid is down. If your goal is to keep the flavor of a wine or spirit without the burn of ethanol, keeping the slow cooker sealed will leave you with an extremely bitter, strong alcohol taste. 

Generally speaking, wine and liquor are among the ingredients that don't belong in a slow cooker — you might be better off leaving the wine flavor out of your marinade. However, if the liquor flavor is really important to whatever you're tossing into the trusty appliance, Susan Goldenberg says that all hope is not lost. According to her, the easy solution here is to remove your slow cooker's lid for part of the cooking time: "If you are slow cooking with liquor or wine and want some of the alcohol to cook out, cook with the lid either askew or off for an hour or so to allow for actual evaporation to occur," she said.

It can still be risky, though, simply because slow cookers struggle to reach the 173 degrees Fahrenheit at which booze evaporates, although they certainly can get that hot after enough time. Despite this, you might still be better off adding boozy ingredients to your marinade in a separate pot or pan, and then moving that over to the slow cooker. It's an extra step for you, and part of the beauty of a slow cooker is how hands-off it can be, but it's probably better for the dish.