Is It OK for Kids to Eat Things Cooked in Alcohol?

If it is from a grocery store there is no way enough alcohol remains to be a danger. Just watch out for old ladies bearing rum balls because those can get an adult drunk

I think it is ok for kids to have a small drink of wine on special occasions, so I don't see a problem with food cooked in alcohol. I cook with wine all of the time.

In my research I learned that the alcohol remaining is less than 1%. I suggest that the hype about remaining alcohol is just that. We have become overly zealous about health issues. There really isn't a possibility to be perfect in health issues. I suggest that much of this concern for having a perfect life is fueled by fear.

I suggest that the way to decide is to use common sense. Ask how this affects life. Know what is likely to happen if he has a bit of alcohol in this cake. Will it affect his health? I've not heard of anyone becoming an alcoholic because they've had a bit of alcohol in cooked foods. I have not read anything that tells us what the effect of eating foods that were cooked with some alcohol are. If there are side effects what is the likelihood that this will affect my child?

Remember when scientists said we should only drink 1-2 cups of coffee because drinking more causes health concerns? Now the scientists say drink several cups. What the? We need to focus more on healtby diet than follow the current view on a specific food. Ask the question is there evidence that this latest focus on one specific food will endanger our health.

My husband is a recovering alcoholic, and he doesn't eat anything cooked with alcohol. This is something he chooses, because he doesn't want to taste or to have it have any effect (however minor) on him. That being said, many of the people he knows from AA will eat things, even if they were prepared with alcohol.

It is true that not all the alcohol cooks away. That never happens. A percentage of the alcohol goes away but not all.

The real question is, is it ok for a 5 year old to have small amounts of alcohol. Remember that in some countries wine is served to everyone, including kids, at meals. This is fairly common in many European countries. I don't think I would be drinking a few beers with my kids, but the small amount of rum in a rumcake or using some cooking sherry in a dish is just fine.

It's ok for kids to have small amounts of alcohol now and then. Heck, we go to a Catholic church, and our 8 year old will soon be getting a sip of wine every Sunday. I'm ok with that.

I think you are fine serving it to him. I wouldn't bring it as his birthday cake for the Kindergarten class (ha ha).

I wouldn't be giving a kid liquor cordial candies but alcohol evaporates pretty well from baked goods.
Still, if it bothers you then I'm sure if they're selling rum cakes then cookies might be available as something else to buy instead.
Alcohol is in a lot of things - mouthwash, vanilla extract - the tiny amounts you get exposed to are usually not a problem.

If it concerns you, perhaps you would be relieved of worries if you did the math.

I don't know the size of a serving of this treat you are considering forbidding, nor the amount of alcohol used in the entirety of the recipe. Generally speaking, I'd assume the amount was small, and some cooks away, so the amount remaining per serving is probably miniscule. I'd probably not have a problem with it on occasion.

Perhaps ask the local farmer who produces the rum cake how much alcohol is used in the recipe?

whatever alcohol lingers is a tiny, tiny residue.
certainly not enough to forbid it.
we tend to overthink things in this country sometimes.
khairete
S.

Is there alcohol in the cake batter or are the cakes soaked in rum? There is a big difference. I've had rum cakes that are saturated in rum and can be pretty potent. It probably wouldn't be bad for a kid to eat a small amount of it. But, if the cakes are soaked in rum they will have a higher alcohol content than if the rum is in the batter.

Most recipes call for a very small amount of rum. This recipe used 1/4 cup for the entire cake.

http://www.lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/1089

But if it worries you, maybe encourage him to try a new different treat from the market every time?

:)

I cook with beer and wine regularly and add vodka instead of water to my pie crusts. I don't worry about it; you are right not all the alcohol cooks out, but most does and I don't worry about the rest.

Let's say I make a pie crust with 4T of vodka, by the time I have rested the dough, blind baked the crust, then filled and baked it again, and served an eighth of the pie to each kid, well, the amount they are consumming is really minimal.

If I were you I would let my son enjoy his cake.

Kids in other countries even drink wine at meals, if not every meal at least special ones. It seems to me that America is a country focused on the don't do this and don't do that instead of it's okay occasionally.

My father in law makes Fruit Cake he bakes a bunch of them. Then he mists them with Rum then lets them age for a couple of months in a cool space. Then he unwraps each one and mists it again and then wraps it up to mail it.

The kids eat loaf after loaf of it and they aren't drunk or anything.

As JB said, it depends on if it was cooked with alcohol (long enough and hot enough to cook it off) or soaked with alcohol (not atypical for a rum cake). Frankly, a small amount of alcohol in a food product wouldn't concern me. But the rum cakes in my experience were soaked with rum. No way I'd feed one of those to a kiddo.

The rum in a rum cake doesn't burn off in cooking because the baked cake is soaked in rum. I've had some rum cakes that were very mild, where the rum was just brushed over the cake. I've had others where there was enough rum to make me tipsy. So it depends on the cake. If you can taste and smell the rum in the cake, and if you can squeeze a chunk and liquid drips out of the cake, I wouldn't serve it to a little kid. Some recipes call for maybe 1/2 a cup of rum in the batter and another 1/2 cup or more to brush on (soak) the cooked cake. That's a lot of rum. Other recipes call for no rum in the batter and only a tablespoon or two of rum to be brushed on the cakes.

If you cook with beer or wine, that does burn off - it's the soaking in rum that makes a rum cake different. If you're concerned, ask the bakery how much rum is used on the baked cake - if it's a spoonful or two, it's fine. If they're soaking in a 1/2 cup, perhaps not.

I cook with wine and vodka all the time.

If the rum cakes are soaked in rum, I might hold a bit, but it depends on how they are made.

I'm Italian. I grew up being offered (and drinking) a little wine mixed with soda at Sunday dinners. My now 84 year old father drinks maybe 2-4 ounces of wine just about every day (unless he is on a medication it won't mix well with). Neither my sisters or I have grown up into what would even be considered social drinkers. I can't think of one family gathering where any relative of mine got even a little tipsy. We have no alcoholics in our very large family. It was always just part of our every day lives and it was never forbidden. I've literally never been drunk in my life.

I'm a big believer in not making alcohol forbidden. Wev'e allowed our now 15 year old DD a sip or two of wine once in a while. Sometimes she takes it, sometimes she doesn't. As far as the cake it concerned, I might not let the kids over do it since it sounds like it may be soaked in alcohol, but I wouldn't forbid it.

I agree with Erica. If something has alcohol in the ingredients, then a lot of the alcohol does burn away. A former boss's wife made rum cake. She made the cake and then soaked a paper towel in rum and put it over the cake to soak it. Then again a bakery I once went to literally soaked their cakes in a half inch of rum. One was a lot more potent than the other. I would see how they add the rum.

There is a big difference in the alcohol content of wine or beer vs rum.

For the sake of fact, I will first say that most of the alcohol in baked goods does not get 'cooked out'. It does not evaporate either. Alcohol can also be used in uncooked frosting.

A lot of rum cakes are made with rum flavoring, and not actual drinking rum. You should probably check on that. Run flavoring, just like vanilla like you use at home, is also mostly alcohol too but used in much smaller quantities.

Now all that said, I honestly wouldn't worry about it unless he's eating whole cakes. A piece once a week at market isn't going to hurt him.

I am sure its fine.

I think this is your choice as a parent and sounds as if it is not okay. We do not allow our daughter to eat food prepared with alcohol. We don't have proof (haha), but we do so because of the alcohol content, even though we have been told it all cooks out of the food.

We also assume the heat cooks away all bacteria, or at least we hope so.

My dad always cooked with alcohol. I don't think it made me drunk by any means.