How to Be a Gourmet and a Mormon Too

Tired of finding a new recipe for the holidays, only to discard it when you discover that it calls for the use of wine? Gourmet cookery is the delicate blending of foods that makes use of the savors of one’s choice and need not include the use of liquors or wines. In recipes that do call for them, substitutions can be easily made.

Substitutions for Wine and Liquor in Cooking

In Soups and Entrees

Dry (unsweet) red wine:

• Water
• Beef broth bouillon or consommé,
• Tomato juice (plain or diluted)
• Diluted cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
• Liquid drained from canned mushrooms

Dry (unsweet) white wine:

• Water
• Chicken broth, bouillon or consommé
• Ginger ale
• White grape juice
• Diluted cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• Liquid drained from canned mushrooms

In Cheese Dishes (fondue or rarebit)

Beer or ale:

• Chicken broth
• White grape juice
• Ginger ale

In Desserts

Brandy:

• Apple cider, peach or apricot syrup

Rum:

• Pineapple juice or syrup flavored with almond extract

Sherry:

• Orange or pineapple juice

Kirsch:

• Syrup or juice from black cherries, raspberries, boysenberries, currants, or grapes or cherry cider

Cognac:

• Juice from peaches, apricots or pears

Cointreau:

• Orange juice or frozen orange juice concentrate

Creme de menthe:

• Spearmint extract or oil of spearmint diluted with a little water or grapefruit juice

Red burgundy:

• Grape juice

White burgundy:

• White grape juice

Champagne:

• Ginger ale

Claret:

• Grape or currant juice or syrup or cherry cider

Note: To cut the sweetness of the syrups, dilute with water. Also, there are many flavor extracts, such as almond or pineapple, that can be added for interesting flavors.

Flambés or Flaming Desserts

The only substitute that might be used is a sugar cube soaked in lemon extract, then set atop a dessert and burned.

by Winnifred C. Jardine Ensign, Dec. 1976, 47–48