Kitchen facts

One fallacy of cooking is that it involves very simple science. If you think you understand all the reactions, you most likely got them wrong.

Take the flambe. You pour some spirits (Beverages with high percentage of alcohol) and then you set it on fire.

You could even let the fire burn out on its own. And if you are like most people, you would assume that the fire ignited most of the alcohol in the dish.

Except that it did not. There is still pretty of alcohol left in the dish. You won't be able to get that shot of spirits back but there will enough alcohol in the dish to be tasted.

You would not pour beer over a dish and expect to set it on fire. You did expect the water in the beer to make things less combustible.

The fact is that the alcoholic vapour is ignited. The higher temperature may cause more alcohol to be vaporized but there is a limit. When there is too little alcoholic vapour, the flames die out. At that point, there is still alcohol mixed with water (from the food or spirit).

Sure the alcohol is going to evaporate first but even then, there is a limit to how much alcohol can be evaporated. I learnt this fact when I studied distillation. 

And yet I believe that the fire will burn out all the alcohol.