Cooking with Booze: Good Idea or Flavor Bust?

Do you cook or bake and 'add a little something' to the recipe? (By something, I mean a dash of wine or alcohol.)

We have a co-worker here at WRRV who once or twice a year will bring in "Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes" which look like chocolate cupcakes, but then she will put Irish Creme liqueur and Irish Whiskey in the frosting. She always promises that it is not in a quantity that will keep everyone from getting their work done and the cupcakes usually disappear in just a few minutes.

How about when you cook savory foods? Have you found that adding wine to a recipe makes it taste even better? Is there a time when adding too much wine makes that favorite dish not so tasty? Do you think that this whole adding liquor to food movement can be traced back to the samples of Bourbon Chicken that they are always giving away in the food court in the mall?

Is adding liquor or wine while cooking your food a prop or a con? There is a restaurant, with locations in Connecticut, that allegedly serves a 'Spiked Bulleit Burger' that contains Bulliet Bourbon. The press release, even says you have to be 21 or older to order it.

Is this taking it too far or bring on the burger?

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