cooking with alcohol

[lola88]

Can children have anything cooked with alcohol? DS is 18mo and DN is 6 i want to make a gammon joint with cider but I'm not sure about giving the kids it. I did google but didn't see any official guidelines.

It's more DS i'm thinking of as he's so little but DP thinks it should be fine, he usually has one thin slice of the joint and the joint will be cooked in 1 pint of cider in a slow cooker.

Yes it'll be fine. My 11 mo has been eating food in which wine has been cooked for the last few months - she loves it!

I read somewhere (possibly the what to expect toddler book) that it's fine if the alcohol's been simmered vfor an hour or more.

Cooking means that most of the alcohol evaporates anyway, I use wine etc in casseroles etc for the dc (4 & 1)

Essential IMO

I have never not added alcohol to stuff because of the kids, whether that wine to stew or spag bol or rum to rum cake. They've always been fine I take the stance it might make them go to bed earlier ;)

We make steak and ale stew, with extra added ale, in the slow cooker and it's one of ds's (2.5) most fave meals (he cheers when I start prepping it lol). Dd (11 months) loves it too. I asked HV if it's ok she said yes, it's fine as it's nothing more than flavour after having been cooked for so long.

Probably too late now, but for future reference if you're not sure about it then there is always a way to substitute alcohol. I don't use it at all in my cooking for various reasons. Gammon joints are cooked in apple juice

I've done it once they were over 1, it evaporates and hey, a tiny diluted bit never hurt anyone. It does mean, though, that my son keeps blabbing about how much he loves 'ale' (thanks to pie), so he's either going to be thought of as an abused alcoholic child or a lefty hipster.