leaving you smelling nothing but the alcohol instead
of the aromas it is supposed to be carrying. Whiskey
drinkers can tell you that diluting a dram from 40%
ABV (Alcohol Percent by Volume) down to 30% or
20% ABV will also bring out aromatics that are
otherwise hidden.
So does the same really happen to pasta with
vodka sauce?
The Testing
To test out the effects of alcohol concentration and
cooking, I made a huge batch of “Sauced” columnist
Josh Bousel’s Vodka Cream Sauce, leaving out the
vodka. I then divided it into smaller batches.
To one set of batches, I added varying
concentrations of vodka, diluting the alcohol content
to various levels starting at 4% ABV of the total
sauce down to 1%, tasting the sauce immediately
after adding the vodka. For the other set of batches,
I did the same thing but allowed the sauce to simmer
for 7 minutes after adding the vodka before tasting
it.
Of the batches in which I tasted the sauce
immediately after adding the vodka, none were
great. The 4% was downright inedible, with a strong
alcoholic aroma and bitter flavor. I’m not exactly
sure where the bitterness came from. Perhaps
masking the fruitier, sweeter aroma of the tomatoes