Chinese cooking wine varieties
I have access to a lot of Asian and specifically Chinese grocery products where I live (Austin). However, a thing that's never been made clear to me by anything I've read or watched is whether the commonly-used "cooking wines" are really intended to be obtained as "cooking wine".
In Western cooking, "cooking wine" is generally considered unusable; if I'm making a European wine sauce I'll of course use "real" wine, like wine that I'd be willing to drink.
Is that the case for Chinese "cooking wine"? Should I look for drinkable wine, or are recipes designed around the "cooking" versions that generally have a lot of added salt?
Best Answer
That depends on the wine.
Generic "rice wine" usually means something like sake. Chinese recipes often use Shaoxing wine, which is a drinkable dark/sweet rice wine. If it's a Chinese recipe, and it calls for just "rice wine", you may need to guess at the flavor expected. If the sauce should dark & sweet, then Shaoxing, if it's supposed to be light or acidic, sake. Chinese, Japanese and Korean folks also cook with Plum Wine, which should be called for specifically.
All of these wines are drinking wines, and you'd no more substitute the cooking variety than you would with wine made from grapes. As with grape wine, "cooking" rice wines are really just poor quality wine that's been salted to make it undrinkable.
Except there is one cooking wine that you should use specifically: Mirin. Mirin is a sugary sake made for cooking, and recipes that call for it expect that sweetness. If you have to substitute regular sake, you'll need to add sugar to the recipe.
Pictures about "Chinese cooking wine varieties"
Quick Answer about "Chinese cooking wine varieties"
- Pagoda Shaoxing Huadiao Cooking Wine (No Salt) ...
- Gold Plum Shaoxing Nuerhong Cooking Wine. ...
- Shaoxing Cooking Wines. ...
- Chinese Cooking Huangjius. ...
- Fujian Qinghong 3-Year Aged Rice Wine. ...
- Chinese White Cooking Wines Without Salt. ...
- Chinese Rose Cooking Wine (????) ...
- Taiwan Cooking Michius.
What is Chinese wine for cooking?
Shaoxing wine, or sh\xe0ox\u012bng ji\u01d4 (\u7ecd\u5174\u9152), is a type of Chinese rice wine that hails from Shaoxing, a city in China's Zhejiang Province famous for rice wine production. It's a key ingredient in many dishes and will create that authentic restaurant flavor you may have found difficult to replicate at home.Is Chinese cooking wine the same as rice wine?
Cooking wines, sold in local supermarkets, are overly salted and have a different flavor than a Chinese rice wine. And don't confuse Chinese rice-wine vinegar with Chinese rice wine\u2014it is a vinegar, not a wine, and will add an acidic flavor.What can I use as a substitute for Shaoxing wine?
If you don't have Shaoxing Wine you can substitute:- Use equal amounts of Dry Sherry - which is our top choice for a substitute for several reasons. ...
- OR - Dry Vermouth can also be substituted, but in general, it is less versatile for other uses unless you use it for cocktails.
What is the difference between Shaoxing wine and rice wine?
One is \u201crice wine\u201d (\u7c73\u9152) which has no colour and looks like water. We use it in most of our Chinese and Taiwanese dishes. It's made by normal rice while the other is \u201cShaoxing rice wine\u201d (\u7d39\u8208\u9152) which usually has brown colour. It's made by glutinous rice.What is Shaoxing Wine, and why's it in almost every Chinese recipe?
More answers regarding chinese cooking wine varieties
Answer 2
Shaoxing is the wine normally used in Chinese cooking. I don't think anybody drinks Shaoxing but that doesn't mean that certain brands are not better than others. Look for the one with the blue label with a golden pagoda.
Answer 3
- Huadiao wine
- Shaoxing wine
- Erwotou
- Sorghum wine
- rosolio ?rose, sorghum, and sticky rice)
There are many more.
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Images: Vidal Balielo Jr., Mikhail Nilov, Mikhail Nilov, Mikhail Nilov