"Pete C." > wrote:

>
>Jim Elbrecht wrote:
>>
>> My wife picked up a jar at a bazaar. It was ok, IMO, and since my
>> son and wife thought is was even better than 'OK' - I thought I'd make
>> my sauce that way sometime in the future.
>>
>> I'm curious what the vodka adds to it. It doesn't sweeten it- the
>> alcohol is long gone- water would 'loosen it up'.

-snip-
>
>My suspicion is that the alcohol in the vodka serves to bring out some
>of the alcohol soluble flavor compounds in other ingredients in the
>recipe before cooking off. A bit like the alcohol based extracts like
>vanilla.

I'll bet you're right-- at least that *that* is the theory. It
will be fun to see whether they like it better with vodka or the dry
white wine that I usually use. I'll have to make a third batch
with no alcohol to see if I notice a difference in flavor.

Thanks,
Jim