Well, part of the alcohol evaporates with the cooking. Not all.
And it's the cooking time (not the temperature) that makes the difference. If you cook something with alcohol for an hour or more, it's gonna have much less alcohol. But if you cook it for a just a few minutes you won't be rid of much.

I've heard very often that myth, and anyone who has even drank a queimada knows it's not true.
A queimada (lit: burned) is a typical beverage in my country. It's made with an usually-homemade (and VERY strong) liquor called aguardiente (lit: fire water), sugar and usually a pinch of lemon/orange and coffee.
Then we burn it.
Yes, we burn it. Like this:


The queimada is part of a tradition which includes doing it in the dark, while reciting an incantation to keep the evil spirits away. So it really burns for a while.
The pottery for making it and also for serving must be high-temperature resistant. Yes, it's still burning while it's served!

And know what? After all that burning, it's still an extremely alcoholic beverage.
So, no, cooking for 10 minutes does not get rid of much alcohol. It just gets rid of the aftertaste.



When I visisted Holland I was surprised to find classic liquorice so readily avaliable. We bought it in some market stalls. (I don't love it, I eat a bit and that's it.)
Here it's not easy to find.
Usually you just find the sweet candy one, and not nearly as often as the red one anyway.

Probably not the same one (this is a local tradition, as far as I know there is nothing similar elsewhere) but the effect on the alcohol % will be roughly the same.

Alcohol burning in the night is such a pretty sight.
Flames are mostly blue, so it has some magical feel to it.


I don't drink any alcohol.
I did when I was younger, but I sincerely don't care about it anymore.
As I've grown unused to it I've realized that the taste is no longer interesting for me. So now it's very easy to be an abstainer.

Well, genetics are not supposed to foreordain anything.
They just imply a certain predisposition, which may or may not lead you to a certain path.
If your life had been different, if your circumstances and experiences had been different, your genetics would also display different expressions.

And sometimes what's for worse, might have been for better in other completely different situation.
Like this book, which proposes that some people may be extremely fragile in stressful enviroments but also extremely brilliant in nurturing ones.


I guess it's possible that there is a certain predisposition towards addiction in your family. In mine we have it towards depression.
But it's not like we are doomed, we just are handicaped. We still can do our best!

I agree.

But considering it's a bit of everything (inherited, behaviour) there are some things you simply can't change and others you can.
It's like a cards game. You can't change the cards you're dealt, but you can try different strategies with them.

And I guess there is the luck factor too, just like in cards games.