Holy cow, am I crazy????

[Grace]

I am searching all over God's green earth for rice wine. Is this the same as sake? If it is, why do CL recipes say to use either rice wine OR sake, as if they are two different things?

Everywhere I call (and have been) people don't even understand what I'm talking about (even in an oriental store). They say what? I say RICE....WINE. They say, "What's that?" I say, "YOU KNOW, WINE MADE OUT OF RICE???!!!" (Can you hear my frustration/aggravation??) My goodness, I live in Chicago, and we have every kind of ethnic food known to man, and people are saying they don't even know what this is....help please!

Just checked the little "glossary" in this month's magazine....it says, "An all purpose cooking wine made from fermented rice. Sake or Japanese rice wines are acceptable substitutes (so apprently, they are NOT the same). The best variety of rice wine is Shaohsing."

Looks like I'll have to go to the big oriental supermarket way out in the suburbs to find this one (unless someone else has a suggestion??!!)

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[emilycat]

Grace,

Rice wine is mirin, and you should be able to find it in ethnic or natural foods grocery stores...maybe they didn't know what you were talking about because they know it only as mirin... Good luck!

[Laura B]

Grace: I feel your pain! While I have not looked as hard as you have, I cannot find it either. All I can find is rice wine vinegar and something tells me that that would not work.

Where would I buy sake, by the way? Would I need to go the liquor store? Because I did not see it at the grocery store...

[Grace]

Laura, indeed, Rice wine vinegar would not work any better than using red wine vinegar in recipes calling for red wine.

I'm going to try Emily's suggestion though - I think if I ask for Mirin, I may have more luck. Good luck to you too. Oh, and thanks, Emily! You have prevented an aneurism tonight!


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[Laura B]

Grace, if you have no luck at the store again, I just checked www.ethnicgrocer.com (http://www.ethnicgrocer.com) and they have it. If you search for Rice Wine you will get 17 matches. Some are rice wine vinegar and some are actually rice wine. Most of the wines say "Chinese Cooking Wine" as well as Rice Wine. Hope that helps you and, even more so, hope it helps those in areas that don't have the resources of Chicago.

** Ok, so I am going to order the wine online. I picked the one called Shao Xing Huadew Rice Cooking Wine because it seems pretty authentic. And the description says "premium Chinese cooking wine."

They also have the Chinese Black Vinegar which, of course, my grocery store doesn't have. But it is currently out of stock. I wonder how good of a substitute Worchestershire sauce actually is for that.
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[sushibones]

There was another discussion about this recently. Here is the link www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/003544.html. (http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/003544.html.) Apparently there are a variety of substitutions that can be made. I think mirin is a sweeter rice wine.

Susan

Well, senility is setting in again. I can't make the link work. Every time I think I've got it figured out, it seems like I have to do something different. I've tried copy and pasting with the http and without, to no avail. Sigh. The post was titled rice wine vinegar?? by BethH on 1-11-01. Basically, people have substituted mirin, sherry, dry vermouth, and even rice wine vinegar. Meanwhile, I'll just go back to remedial link class.

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[laughsandlaughs]

Someone mentioned that rice wine vinegar wouldn't work, and you're right if it's a sizable amount, but like in the Shrimp Fried Rice, it's only a small amount (2 T.). I substituted the rice wine vinegar with a little water added to dilute and you'd have never known. Experiment and see!

[sushibones]

Well the "rice WINE vinegar???" link has now moved to just a little further down this page. I don't think I can bear to add one more "this message has been edited by sushibones 01-14-01" to the last message.

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/003544.html

Just practicing. If it doesn't work, no one will be surprised.

Wow!! Must have been the extra periods I stuck in before. It's the editor in me. End of sentence--must use period. Sheesh!

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[kentgirl]

sushibones, just a suggestion. When you edit your message the first time, the words "your message has been edited by, etc." appear. The second time you edit the same message, however, scroll down to the bottom and delete those words before your submit it. Then when it's posted, a new message will appear, but only ONE will appear since you deleted the first one. You can do this over and over. It works---believe me, I've done this time and time again.

[Ohioan]

Sushibones - Oops, I was posting a suggestion to leave off periods after URLs just as you were posting your realization that periods do bad things to URLs. Two great minds....

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gifCheers,
Phoebe

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[SueK]

I made the stir fry chicken from this month's issue, and I used rice wine vinegar, instead of rice wine, only because our stores around here don't sell rice wine--honestly--I searched! And PA has such archaic liquor laws that I could only get sake at the State Store, which is not open on Sundays! But, it still tasted okay. However, I plan to get Mirin from ethnicgrocer.com for future dishes! I think that web site is a blessing for those of us stuck in towns where there isn't much diversity in the foods that are available at the grocery stores!

[Ralph]

Originally posted by Grace:
I am searching all over God's green earth for rice wine. Is this the same as sake? If it is, why do CL recipes say to use either rice wine OR sake, as if they are two different things?

Grace, as a neighbor Chicagoan (Naperville to be precise), perhaps I can help!
I've ALWAYS been able to find "Aji-Mirin" or sweet cooking rice wine made by Kikkoman at Dominicks, Cub, or Meijer in the Asian section. Right or wrong, this is what I use when the recipe calls for "sake or rice wine." I did find a recipe on Emeril Live that calls for sake & I may try to look for that at Binny's (in the city, you may also try Sam's [not the warehouse club, but the liquor store]).

I found these substitutions at Cook's Thesaurus:
mirin = sweet rice wine = sweet sake Notes: Look for this sweetened sake in Japanese markets. Substitutes: 1 tablespoon dry sherry + ½ teaspoon sugar OR sweet sherry OR heat equal parts sugar and sake until sugar dissolves OR white wine + sugar to taste OR aji no haha (saltier) OR sugar

sake Substitutes: dry sherry OR dry vermouth Ralph's note: this seems too simplistic, though!

Hope this helps!

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[sushibones]

kentgirl and Phoebe--

Thanks for your suggestions. The periods probably explain why sometimes my links work and sometimes don't.

And what a sneaky trick about deleting the edited by.... Of course, it's quite obvious when you think about it, but to those of us in the throes of trying to figure out how to make links work, obvious is not where we're at. (By the way, that's the regal "we," or the editorial "we," or the "I can't be the only one that's having this problem we.")

Oh well, every mistake is an opportunity to learn I always say...and say...and say....

[DeniseB]

Mirin can be found in many grocery store's international food section. It can be used in a variety of Japenese recipes, such as broths or marinades.
Hey, I have a "dumb" question...how do you edit your message? Is it something you can do after it is submitted?

[SusanL]

Sue K- isn't it a bust that living in PA, we can't go to the grocery store to buy wines and can't order wines on-line (in addition to having them closed on Sundays)? Not often but some times it can make me crazed when I need a specific ingredient-type of wine or liquore (sp?) on a Sunday or late at night.
Denise B- on the bar that has the time are small icons. The first identifies the member, the second with the pencil allows you to edit/delete. Right click on that to edit.Then, hit submit. Good luck!

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[Grace]

Ralph,

Thanks for your suggestions. It's a new day, and the subject isn't an earth shattering one anymore (you all don't know how I get when I get an idea to make a CL recipe into my head!!). Anyhow, I will look for Mirin at Dominicks (I didn't see it at my usual one, but there are so many plus Jewel/Cub etc., that I'm sure I will be able to find it.

I did call Binny's (in addition to about 100 other liquor stores) and they had Sake, but not rice wine. I live near O'Hare, and definitely thought about Sam's (the liquor store, not the warehouse club!!), but it is in the city (as you know), and I had no desire to drive that far at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday night.

Anyhow, at the corner of Arlington Heights Rd. and Algonquin Rd., is a HUGE asian supermarket. I'm planning on going there today to pick up a few things. It's wonderful, and worth a trip every so often. It's on the Northeast corner, set back off the street, but again, it's huge, so you wouldn't miss it. It used to be called Yaohan Plaza, but the name changed a while back and I don't know what it is now (sorry). So, the search continues.....(ha ha)

P.S. Laura B: I also checked EthnicGrocer.com, and saw it there too, but I really wanted to make that stuff this week since I have all the other ingredients, and they will be ripping my kitchen out starting Wed (remodeling!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif ). But I will definitely order it there if I have no luck finding it in a store today! Thanks for doing the search for me.



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[Marcie]

Okay, I'm reading this whole thread with great interest because I, too, have not been able to find rice wine. But I do have a bottle of mirin in my fridge. According to Ralph's post, mirin is rice wine, but sweeter, yes? So we should omit some of the other sweetener from the recipe when substituting mirin for rice wine? Am I on the right track here?

[kentgirl]

DeniseB,
Yes-you can edit your messages after you have submitted them. If you decide you want to edit your message, click on the "Edit/Delete Message" icon (the one with a pencil, which can be found to the right of the date and time you posted your message. Then you simple, type in your name and password, make your changes to your message, then submit again.

Also, even though it says "Edit/Delete", you can only edit. I tried to delete a message once, and got the message that I didn't have authority.

[DanaSD]

For those of you who are in search of Asian Ingredients check to see if you have a Ranch 99 market near you (California, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Hawaii). Besides a great seletion of Asian Ingredients they have an excellent selection of fresh fruits and vegetables and fish.
http://www.99ranch.com/tawa_main/frmain.htm

[DanaSD]

just found this in Blue Ginger - East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai

Mirin - referred to sometimes as Japanese sweet sake, mirin is rice wine with added sugar

Shaoxing wine - Chinese rice wine. has a flavor similar to dry sherry, which is a suitable substitute for it.

On one of my trips to the Asian market I didn't know which to pick so I just picked one at random - tonight, I pulled out the bottle to see which one...and it says Cooking Michiu, Distilled Spirits of Rice - sounds like its a cooking Sake? anyone know?

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