Pregnant: Cooking with alcohol question

[sugarmagnolia22]

I am not a troll. Just a regular poster who is newly pregnant and now ready to announce it publicly yet , and not sure if anyone from my "real world" posts on here.

Just have a question that I *think* I know the answer to, but just wanted to make sure.

I am making a crockpot meat recipe tomorrow that calls for 1 bottle of light beer as part of the ingredients. This is dispersed across 3lbs of meat. Since cooking kills off the alcohol, it is safe for a pregnant person to eat this, right?

I'm in my first trimester, if that info matters.

Thanks for any input you might offer

 

[Christine]

Cooking alcohol does not necessarily burn off the alcohol. Please check this link:

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blalcohol12.htm

If avoiding every speck of alcohol during pregnancy is important to you, then I would avoid it.

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

Thank you so much for that link. I will be cooking the roast for 8 hours (on low) in the crock pot. Does that seem safe?

Otherwise, what could I substitute the bottle of beer for? Is it even necessary or could I do without it? I would post the recipe, but I don't have enough posts yet. It's a crockpot brisket recipe.

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

I just noticed the link you posted included a link for alcohol substitutions. It suggests either chicken broth, white grape juice, or ginger ale. Which do think would go better with a brisket recipe?

 

[sonnyjane]

I am not a troll. Just a regular poster who is newly pregnant and now ready to announce it publicly yet , and not sure if anyone from my "real world" posts on here.

Just have a question that I *think* I know the answer to, but just wanted to make sure.

I am making a crockpot meat recipe tomorrow that calls for 1 bottle of light beer as part of the ingredients. This is dispersed across 3lbs of meat. Since cooking kills off the alcohol, it is safe for a pregnant person to eat this, right?

I'm in my first trimester, if that info matters.

Thanks for any input you might offer

I might get flamed but one can of beer as an ingredient in a meal, even if all the alcohol didn't burn off, is not anything to be concerned with. I don't want this to turn into that kind of thread but there have been many studies in Europe showing that even a glass of wine PER DAY doesn't negatively affect pregnancy. I'm not telling you to go out and booze it up every night but if you do choose to use the recipe as is, I think you'll be fine.

 

[Tazicket]

I just noticed the link you posted included a link for alcohol substitutions. It suggests either chicken broth, white grape juice, or ginger ale. Which do think would go better with a brisket recipe?

With it being a brisket, I would substitute beef broth.

 

[clh2]

I might get flamed but one can of beer as an ingredient in a meal, even if all the alcohol didn't burn off, is not anything to be concerned with. I don't want this to turn into that kind of thread but there have been many studies in Europe showing that even a glass of wine PER DAY doesn't negatively affect pregnancy. I'm not telling you to go out and booze it up every night but if you do choose to use the recipe as is, I think you'll be fine.

This is exactly my thoughts as well.

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

With it being a brisket, I would substitute beef broth.

LOL-right, the obvious-thank you I think I will go with that.

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

I know, in reality, it is only one bottle of beef to be dispersed across several pounds of beef, but it's a high risk pregnancy so I'm trying to be extra cautious. I normally wouldn't even eat something this heavy, but we are having family over for dinner and they requested this recipe.

 

[sonnyjane]

LOL-right, the obvious-thank you I think I will go with that.

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

I know, in reality, it is only one bottle of beef to be dispersed across several pounds of beef, but it's a high risk pregnancy so I'm trying to be extra cautious. I normally wouldn't even eat something this heavy, but we are having family over for dinner and they requested this recipe.

In that case, knowing that it's a high-risk pregnancy, I would just play it safe, not necessarily because it could be damaging, but for your own peace of mind. Stick with the beef broth.

ETA: I just thought of this though - if you haven't announced the pregnancy to this particular group of family yet and they requested this recipe specifically, if they notice it tastes different, you might "out" yourself if you explain that you didn't want to use beer

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

In that case, knowing that it's a high-risk pregnancy, I would just play it safe, not necessarily because it could be damaging, but for your own peace of mind. Stick with the beef broth.

Yes, you understand exactly where I am coming from-my piece of mind is everything right now

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

In that case, knowing that it's a high-risk pregnancy, I would just play it safe, not necessarily because it could be damaging, but for your own peace of mind. Stick with the beef broth.

ETA: I just thought of this though - if you haven't announced the pregnancy to this particular group of family yet and they requested this recipe specifically, if they notice it tastes different, you might "out" yourself if you explain that you didn't want to use beer

LOL-good point, but luckily these particular family members are not that swift Even if they did notice, if I just said I forgot to buy the beer so I added beef broth instead, you wouldn't suspect anything. They also can barely make their way around the internet, much less a message board, so I'm pretty confident they won't come across this post.

 

[bcla]

For the most part these recipes aren't about the alcohol but the flavor imparted by the beer. Why not an non-alcoholic beer substitute like Clausthaler?

http://www.11points.com/Food-Drink/11_Non-Alcoholic_Beers,_Taste_Tested

None of the brews mentioned were "light" per se, but in general these ones are low calorie ones.

 

[minkydog]

I chaperoned a group of
3-9th graders to New Orleans for a choral convention. Our group was treated to a cooking &tasting program and Bananas Foster was on the menu. It was very cool to see the frying pan catch fire when she put the liquor in. The kids ate it all up. Yum!

And then we began to notice how "happy" some of the kids were. A few put their heads down on the tables. Thankfully, nobody got sick and the effects didn't last long nut we were pretty horrified whem we realized these kids were a little tipsy.

The liquor obviously did not burn off. If it is important to you to avoid alcohol, then I'd just not use it on cooking.

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

BCLA: I actually thought of that earlier today, but my DH laughed at me and said "What the heck am I going to do with the 5 leftover bottles of non-alcoholic beer??"

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

I chaperoned a group of
3-9th graders to New Orleans for a choral convention. Our group was treated to a cooking &tasting program and Bananas Foster was on the menu. It was very cool to see the frying pan catch fire when she put the liquor in. The kids ate it all up. Yum!

And then we began to notice how "happy" some of the kids were. A few put their heads down on the tables. Thankfully, nobody got sick and the effects didn't last long nut we were pretty horrified whem we realized these kids were a little tipsy.

The liquor obviously did not burn off. If it is important to you to avoid alcohol, then I'd just not use it on cooking.

Oh my!!

 

[Hannathy]

A bottle of beer is not going to hurt a pregnancy in any way not even a high risk one!
What do you think it is going to do? How would it hurt the pregnancy?

 

[sugarmagnolia22]

A bottle of beer is not going to hurt a pregnancy in any way not even a high risk one!
What do you think it is going to do? How would it hurt the pregnancy?

As mentioned, it is more about my peace of mind.....so I'm choosing to substitute it out. It has been a pretty stressful few weeks, and I would rather not have any additional worries, even if they might be irrational.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

Most of the flavor extracts are alcohol based also. I know standard Vanilla extract is 40% minimum.

 

[usnuzuloose]

If you are using it for flavor maybe just use a little bit and it won't be so much to worry about. When I was pregnant I had one little glass of sherry. But you could also ask your dr.

 

[bcla]

Most of the flavor extracts are alcohol based also. I know standard Vanilla extract is 40% minimum.

A bottle of vanilla extract is maybe 1-2 oz and you're not likely to use more than a teaspoon for any reasonable recipe. I honestly think the OP shouldn't really worry about something as insignificant as a single beer in a large recipe, but sometimes peace on mind comes from avoiding even the hint of anything that is thought to contribute to miscarriages or birth defects.

My wife was freaked out about everything, including my driving (especially over speed bumps), alcohol, and air travel. We actually gave up a trip to visit my brother-in-law because she was worried that it might increase risk of miscarriage. And that would have included a visit to her sister-in-law, who actually flew to Las Vegas for some fun in her third trimester.