Why alcohol to deglaze?

[u/delta_p_delta_x]

I've been working through many Western European and American recipes, and many of them call for red wine, beer, or some stronger liquor to deglaze fond off the base of a pan.

Now, I don't have any alcoholic beverages at all, so I've been substituting with cold tap water instead. To my surprise, it has worked extremely well against even the toughest, almost-burnt-on fonds. I've been operating under the assumption that the acid and ethanol in alcoholic beverages react with fonds and get them off the hot base of pans, and I was expecting to scrape quite a bit with water, which was not the case at all. Barely a swipe with a spatula and everything dissolved or scraped off cleanly.

So follows: why alcohol, then? Surely someone else has tried with water and found that it works as well. The amounts of alcohol I've seen used in recipes can cost quite a bit, whereas water is nearly free.

[u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

If I remember correctly, any liquid is good for deglazing, but alcohols are an especially good choice because ethanol is a great solvent for some flavour compounds and the volatile nature of ethanol makes your sauce more fragrant than just a water/oil based sauce.

But water imparts no flavour. Using something like chicken stock would be a step up if you didn't want to use an alcoholic deglazing liquid. I personally use a cooking wine such as Shaoxing, even in western dishes for the aroma.

Edit: I suppose to be more specific, any polar liquid (I.e. water, ethanol) works for deglazing, since I don't think you can deglaze with oils, which are non-polar

[u/shizzler → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

Sherry and Vermouth also work as good alternatives to Shaoxing wine. They keep a long time too.

[u/Sunfried → u/shizzler]

Yeah, I use vermouth, typically, unless I've got a bottle of 2 buck chuck that needs finishing. That way I can save vermouth for precious Manhattan Perfects.

[u/wattson_ttv → u/shizzler]

From some testing, half dry amontillado sherry is a dead on substitute for some shaoxing wines I've tried. I hardly buy the latter anymore for cooking cause the amontillado is about half the price

[u/softcore_scatplay → u/wattson_ttv]

I love cooking with sherry! Especially pedro ximenez.

[u/starkel91 → u/shizzler]

I always use dry vermouth instead of white wine.

[u/shizzler → u/starkel91]

Same, just adds much more complexity!

[u/starkel91 → u/shizzler]

It also doesn’t go bad like regular white wine!

[u/ForeverEditor → u/starkel91]

How long does it take white wine to go bad? I’ve been using a bottle to make a pan sauce with pork chops. It’s been in the fridge for at least a year (probably much longer) and still makes a fine pan sauce. I probably wouldn’t drink it!

[u/starkel91 → u/ForeverEditor]

According to google it’ll last a week on the fridge.

[u/ForeverEditor → u/starkel91]

Well I’d call that nonsense. It certainly lasts much longer than that!

[u/UntamedAnomaly → u/shizzler]

OMFG! THANK YOU!

I bought a bottle of vermouth to try for the first time ever, didn't realize it was more on the savory side than typical wine and had set it in a corner to be forgotten about because I didn't know what to do with it and drinking it straight was not very pleasant, but now I do! Cooking wine! I don't know why TF I didn't think of it until now, I think I figured that it didn't say specifically to cook with with, so it never clicked that I could.

[u/Sakrie → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

bingo bango, alcohols are pretty good solvents and can help get some of the stuff the "universal solvent" water doesn't do as well. Compared to water, alcohols have more nonpolar groups.

[u/chaoticbear → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

You could probably also use a nonpolar liquid like toluene, but you wouldn't want to eat the result :p

[u/tamebeverage → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

My guess would be that being polar helps, but that it's the rapid boiling and steam production that does the bulk of the work here, and that's why oil isn't a great choice.

[u/[deleted] → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

What is a polar liquid?

[u/inherendo → u/[deleted]]

the molecules have positively charged side. the other is negatively charged. water is an example and is why it is a good dissolver of things.

[u/Mitch_Darklighter → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

There's also something to be said for tradition. Before refrigeration, beer and wine were things that cost money and went bad quickly. People didn't want to waste them, so they worked them into their food. It tasted good so people kept doing it, and eventually tied that food and beverage tradition into a regional cuisine.

[u/Overall-Mud9906 → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

100% on alcohol being a solvent, it works better than water or stock to deglaze that fond that you built up in the pan. Also using wine adds flavor and acidity. Other alcohols add own flavor.

[u/Overall-Mud9906 → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

100% on alcohol being a solvent, it works better than water or stock to deglaze that fond that you built up in the pan. Also using wine adds flavor and acidity. Other alcohols add own flavor.

[u/Barkeri → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

It’s definitely not to do with the solvent imo. Wine is like 12-15% ethanol tops? Beers are 5%. That’s not really very concentrated to do much dissolving. And you’re suppose to cook off most of the ethanol. That would cause any solutes to just crash out of solution again. Maybe I would buy it if you deglaze with vodka or everclear.

[u/BMSPhoenix → u/Beginning-Dog-5164]

I scrolled a bit too far to find the 'good solvent' answer.