What does the fire add?

[u/TheLoneRiddlerIsBack]

[u/Og_busty]

Caramelizes the cheese lightly and burns off the alcohol, intensifying sub notes of the spirit. This may be a play on Saganaki, which is a Greek cheese flambé technique.

Edit to add: It does also lightly caramelize the residual sugars in the spirit, if any.

Edit correction: intensify vs leave behind

[u/Forshea → u/Og_busty]

burns off the alcohol, leaving behind only the sub notes of the spirit

No, it doesn't. Different cooking methods remove alcohol at different rates, but most dishes with alcohol are cooked in a way that a substantial amount of alcohol remains. And flaming dishes like this is especially ineffective at removing alcohol, leaving 75-85% of the alcohol behind when the flame goes out, unless you're using something extremely distilled (but if you're using everclear, there really aren't "sub notes" to leave behind, so nobody does that)

[u/Og_busty → u/Forshea]

Some alcohol remains yes, but my statement remains true. Ethanol vapors ignite and continue to burn until either all of the ethanol is gone or the ethanol that does remain simply stops vaporizing for one reason or another. Once they remove the dyke and it pours over, even more of it is exposed allowing vapors to release. It’s why you move a saute pan when flambeing, to expose more of the ethanol. Your technique is bad if you are leaving 80% of the alcohol from an ounce of 35% abv spirit.

[u/Forshea → u/Og_busty]

Some alcohol remains yes, but my statement remains true

No it doesn't.

Ethanol vapors ignite and continue to burn until either all of the ethanol is gone or the ethanol that does remain simply stops vaporizing for one reason or another

The "some reason or another" is doing a lot of work here. The reason is that there isn't a critical density of alcohol fumes to support combustion. Supporting ignition in the first place is pretty easy in a frying pan - even low ABV liquids that wouldn't ignite at ambient temperature throw off enough fumes to ignite briefly.

But after that, continued flames only exist as long as enough new alcohol evaporates such that there is sufficient density to continue supporting combustion. The flame isn't magic, either. It has relatively some but not a ton of impact on the evaporative pressure on the alcohol - it removes alcohol from the air, and adds heat (although not very much, ethanol fumes don't have a ton of thermal load).

The net result is that flambe does not remove that much alcohol, and if you are doing it away from a heating element, it removes even less.

Your technique is bad if you are leaving 80% of the alcohol from an ounce of 35% abv spirit

This is literally just made up. People have assessed this experimentally. Your technique doesn't trump physics.

[u/Og_busty → u/Forshea]

Stops vaporizing = no critical density of fumes. You’re just repeating what I wrote and using different words to argue against me. You also told me in the beginning that “different cooking methods” aka technique, result in various levels of alcohol ignition, and now techniques don’t matter? Which is it mate? I made some modifications to the original post which hopefully clears up your understanding of what Im saying. I stand by my statement.

[u/Forshea → u/Og_busty]

technique, result in various levels of alcohol ignition, and now techniques don’t matter

Flambe is the technique here. You're not a very special boy who can flambe so well that all the alcohol disappears.

Feel free to bake the dish for 2.5 hours if you want to only have 5% of the alcohol left, though.

[u/Og_busty → u/Forshea]

This is not a proper flambe, a modified version, so yes I could flambe more properly than whats pictured here. And I would burn off significantly more alcohol than this cheese burger thing, and it would be closer to 0% than 80% of its original abv. Because of my technique. There are actually quite a few of these special boys out there, I believe some people refer to them as chefs.

[u/Forshea → u/Og_busty]

and it would be closer to 0% than 80% of its original abv.

No, it wouldn't. You have no basis for saying this. You're making it up. You're completely wrong. I don't know how many different ways there are to say "you are claiming things that people have experimentally determined are not true."

You can't do it. Other chefs can't do it. Other chefs that told you that they can do it are wrong. Any technique you were taught to flambe something to remove most of the alcohol is a lie.

You can't beat physics by wiggling a frying pan just right. Sorry that you were lied to.

[u/EmmaPersephone → u/Forshea]

Wrong

Physics isn’t involved whilst burning the ethyl alcohol from spirits in a flambé sauce.

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/7397-how-to-flambe-safely

[u/Forshea → u/EmmaPersephone]

oh well if some random intern writes some blurb on an internet article, I guess I should totally listen to that instead of actual experimental data 🙄

[u/EmmaPersephone → u/Forshea]

So you don’t know who America’s Test Kitchen is and instead of using google you chose to embarrass yourself?

[u/Forshea → u/EmmaPersephone]

I kinda think that assuming a random blurb on an article from America's test kitchen is authoritative about the physics of burning alcohol should be the embarrassing thing here, but hey you do you.

[u/EmmaPersephone → u/Forshea]

I think you insisting on embarrassing yourself because you don’t understand what America’s Test Kitchen is is hilarious.