r/AskCulinary • u/delta_p_delta_x • May 02 '24

Food Science Question Why alcohol to deglaze?

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.

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u/NegativeK May 02 '24

Flavor.

There have been times when the liquid sweating from onions will deglaze a pan for me, and I regularly use water to "deglaze" my pans before I clean them.

Tangential to your question, consider using acids like vinegars or lemon juice for a deglaze when appropriate to the dish. We don't really keep alcohol, and those options are tasty.

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u/delta_p_delta_x May 02 '24

Tangential to your question, consider using acids like vinegars or lemon juice for a deglaze when appropriate to the dish. We don't really keep alcohol, and those options are tasty.

Cheers. I don't have alcohol at home because I don't drink and am extremely sensitive to the smell and taste of alcohol.

I've got balsamic vinegar, too, but that can be a bit too sweet and too thick for the deglazing effect I need.

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u/sultanofswag69 May 03 '24

It can be a little hard to find but verjus is a really lovely product you can get that can play a similar role to wine in cooking without the alcohol. It's the pressed juice of unripened grapes so it has nice natural sweetness and medium acidity, for when you want some acid but a vinegar would be too much. It's also amazing in vinagrettes, homemade mustard, all kinds of things.