Hi all. I promise is the last time I post these Shaoxing liquor photos.
Today, I decided to get some Shaoxing liquor, and spent a little more than usual. I got this “Red Daughter (女兒紅)” a subtype of Shaoxing liquor. It is not the those >$50, but it is more than the usual $5-10. This Shanxi rice liquor is behind the counter, so I have to ask for it. It isn’t too expensive. $15, but it is a smaller 500 mL bottle instead of the usual 750 mL or larger.
If you’re looking for a rice wine to use in cooking or for drinking purposes, it’s best to opt for one without added salt. While salted rice wine exists, it is typically used for specific purposes in cooking, such as marinating or pickling.
You mean how there are different grade of the same type of liquor? I am guess the ingredients, the controls for the liquors and also the aging. I am not an expert in these liquors. Yeah, I thought the ceramic bottle looks a bit cooler than a glass bottle. I was thinking about what I can use the bottle later for too.
I meant the type of wine called “nu er hong” (red daughter). I thought it was a different type of wine, meaning distilled from a different grain or perhaps with additives for a different taste.
Maybe boring, but that bottle would even make for a fun vase once it’s emptied.
As far as I know, Red Daughter (女兒紅) is a type/brand within Shaoxing wine. You can see the description in wikipedia and other Chinese alcohol websites.
" Shaoxing wine has different variations, and one is called nu’er hong (女兒紅). Nu’er means “daughter” in Chinese and hong means “red.”" What Is Shaoxing Wine? (thespruceeats.com)
This is slightly off topic. This one is a Chinese rose liquor - rose-flavored sorghum liquor (photo on the left) I haven’t had one forever. Not that I bought it and drank, I kind of remember that I don’t particular fancy it.
Below is the shaoxing rice wine I use, bought at a Chinese grocery store. It’s from Taiwan. Its ingredients are water, rice, and wheat.
Apparently, salt is sometimes being added to rice wine in the USA so it can be sold in stores where selling alcohol is not permitted. According to the text.
I only use shaoxing rice wine as an ingredient for marinades, so it doesn’t make sense for me to spend a fortune.
I agree with you. No need to spend a fortune for cooking liquor. I am glad yours do not have caramel added. That being said even the somewhat better Shaoxing/Shaohing wines are in the price range of $20-30, not too expensive. Not like these $2000-4000 Moutai.
Would rather have a few sips of these expensive ones instead!
My shaoxing wine isn’t the cheapest one though.
The thing with cooking with shaoxing rice wine is that there are almost always stronger flavours accompanying it. Typically, at least light soy sauce, but also quite often dark soy sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce. These sauces all contain salt and often sugar. And then one would also put sugar and salt in a marinade.
This is why one would rather get shaoxing without caramel (i.e. sugar) or salt imho. The shaoxing then gives the marinade an alcoholic acidity which nicely balances the saltiness from soy sauces.
I recently bought some hamburgers. In one occasion, I cooked and finished the beef patty with some Shaoxing wine and afterward added a few more drops. The final hamburger was weird.
It’s through failure we learn how to win. Did you finish the burger, or was it too much?
Whenever I stir fry I make a sauce in a coffee cup, to be reduced for the gran finale. I need wine in there top break up the hoisin and soy. I like some sambal in there, for heat. Fish and oyster sauces go a long way in most of my wok offerings. I’ve used vermouth to good affect. As long as it’s a dry wine, I think I’d be okay. Nit going to buy a bottle of Asahi to use a tiny bit, though. That is one dry ass brew.
Yes, recipe from Recipe Tin Eats, I add more green onions, more garlic, and some rinsed, fermented black beans. Fresh Shanghai noodles from Chinese Market.
Ceramic bottle could make a nice vase, maybe? I found one real-deal Shao Xing (Pagoda brand) once in the Seattle/Tacoma area and brought it home to Indiana, where obtaining unsalted Chinese cooking wine on a shelf seems to be literally impossible. The one I got came in a rotund, brown, and frankly not especially attractive glazed ceramic jug with a real cork. Cost about $18 as I recall, but maybe a chip or two more. (For me it was such a rare option that I was not very price conscious.)
It definitely was a different thing to the under-$8.00 salted things in every Asian grocer near me. Tasted rather like dry aged sherry, most reminiscent to me of Spanish Amontillado, which would be my go-to sub in a pinch… A good wine place would have Amontillado.
