Mussels in white wine for a child?

[Divinespark]

Would you serve mussels in white wine to a nearly 11 year old? Strange question, but the child in question likes mussels, occasionally, the mussels in butter was supposed to be delivered but got the white wine instead lol.

One of my favourite memories was dipping my bread into my mums mussels in white wine in Jersey when I was about 8! (I was definitely too picky to eat the actual mussels back then though :p)

Of course, there’s no alcohol in cooked wine.

@Divinespark
Absolutely fine. And also absolutely fine to ask. We don't all know everything that other people know!

Alcohol doesn't burn off as quickly as people on this thread think. Try Googling "how quickly does alcohol evaporate in cooking" and you'll get page after page of articles saying alcohol takes hours of cooking to evaporate. It seems to have been triggered by an American report published a few years ago.

Try this page from the BBC which references a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

"The study found that adding alcohol to a hot liquid for a short time before serving, as you might with mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce, could leave as much as 85% of the alcohol in the finished dish. With flambéing, though it looks as though the alcohol is burning off, the study found that a surprising75% of it remained in the meal."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/22WcylHV9FMRbYm5Q6WY1ZB/can-you-get-drunk-on-boozy-food

Of course. My kids loved it. Why wouldn't you?

Yep, my DD loves them and has been eating them since she was about 8. I regularly cook with wine, anyway, as most of the alcohol burns off.

Totally fine, mine have been eating them since they were babies. I'm sober and therefore never drink wine for obvious reasons, but I would have no problem with wine in a sauce properly cooked.

I was going to say the same as @Plexie , I'm not convinced the alcohol does all evaporate away - think of a pot of boiling water, it's at 100C but most of it remains as water rather than turning to steam.

Having said that, I can't imagine a white wine sauce would have a huge quantity of wine in it, so I think it's probably fine. Just be aware there will still be alcohol present.

Yes absolutely, never had an issue or a pissed up child from anything like this.

Alcohol absolutely does not all cook off. Especially not in the time it takes to cook mussels.

Whether there was enough alcohol present to be concerned about in the first place is the question.

It is a fallacy that alcohol just cooks out. For this to happen, it needs to cook for a very long time. A lot of chefs don't realise this and misrepresent it in their recipes (looking at you here, Jamie, with your pasta à la vodka, which is supposedly child-friendly). So no, unless you cook it for three hours or so (impossible with mussels), some of the alcohol will be there.

Having said that, for me (European continental background) cooking with a bit of alcohol would not be an issue, considering your child's age and assuming it is not a weekly thing.

Most mussel recipes call for a small amount of wine, which is then diluted with other liquids and cooked out. If the broth tastes like wine with the alcohol in, it’s been cooked badly, it’s also unlikely they are sitting gulping the broth down. So minimal quantities,

last night we had lamb with a red wine sauce. I would have given it to a child. I did not taste like I was drinking a glass of red wine.

I can't ever imagine DD eating mussels by 11 but sure why not! Echo what pp have said about good taste, it's a delicious meal.

I can't stand mussels personally, but all 3 kids have always liked them. Curious creatures

Yes, why wouldn’t you? The alcohol will be mostly cooked off.

I was going to post this same link.

The alcohol doesn't all evaporate. However the amount of alcohol added to the mussels divided by the number of servings won't have a big impact.

Fine. Alcohol evaporated or not. There won't be enough in their meal to cause a problem. Delicious!

Yes, I did - and at a younger age than 11.

Oh god. We have loads of meals with wine in it. DS(2) has been eating them with us since he was 1 😬

@Nosleepforthismum i was just about to type a similar message

my DS has just turned 2 and loves sauces with white wine, red wine etc in them. He just likes things to taste nice and I don’t think any harm done ( hopefully!!)

I would at 11. It's not going to be like serving them a glass of wine and it's a good way to get them introduced to wine

Humblebrag! I can't get mine to eat a feckin sandwich let alone a mussel 😭

Of course, the alcohol would be cooked out.

Back at the dawn of time, my job was to check alcohol content of wine, by distillation. I can confirm alcohol does evaporate when wine is heated. 100ml of wine took about 15mins.

Alcohol's boiling point is 78c not 100c