What is Shaoxing Wine, and why's it in almost every Chinese recipe?
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2019
- "Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine." I know I say that quite a bit in these recipes, so here, I wanted to explain myself a bit. We'll go over the varieties of Shaoxing wine (plus, the Shaoxing wine-like objects labeled such in English), a bit about the historical background, and why/how it's used when cooking.
Now note that neither of us are brewers or anything, so our knowledge of how to make this rice wine's rather... elementary. We'd be happy to answer any questions, but we probably won't make rice wine on this channel anytime soon. Maybe one day though?
The discussion'll be over on Reddit at the standard time, ~8am EST. In hindsight, I'm not sure how much more ground I'd be able to reasonably cover there, but I know that I was pretty fast and loose with Chinese-language terms here so I know that something written can often be helpful on that front.
As for the Instagram, it's over here if you're curious... lots of pictures from Shaoxing/Yangzhou/Gaoyou, and more should be on the way:
/ chinesecookingdemystified
And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
/ chinesecookingdemystified
Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
/ broke-for-free
ABOUT US
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Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)
We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last nine years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.
This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too! 
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In the US, if a store wants to sell Shaoxing wine, it must have or get a liquor license, whereas if the wine contains so much salt that it's undrinkable, then the wine is considered a cooking ingredient and the store does not need a liquor license to sell it.
thanks captain
Nice info!
Most of the Chinese supermarkets in the us sells the one with salt in it
@@danielge9988 unfortunately
Same here in Singapore. If the wine is unsalted, there's a heavy tax on it ($10 for a 500ml bottle), and if it's the salted version it will only cost $2. Same for all kinds of dual purpose alcohols.
absolutely LOVE videos where y'all discuss topics other than just recipes. getting a background on the base-line principles and culture of Chinese cookery is super helpful and informative for people invested in learning about it. Especially these parts where you go into talking about categories of "unpleasant odors" or flavor-profiles. So interesting and specific "westerners" don't usually get a glimpse of, as opposed to the tenants of French, Italian, etc, which are sort of instinctual/ingrained at this point in the US.
Also lmao Wallace and Grommit a classic! The robbery scene where he's clumsily dodging laser censors is so good.
The big reason why I think the concept of those flavors are sometimes tough to grasp is that I feel like experience buying meat from an open air market really, really helps.
I'm 90% sure a lot of these unpleasant odors are at their core lipid oxidation. If you go to an open air market (i.e. unrefrigerated) and pick up duck in the early afternoon rather than first thing in the morning, you'll definitely see what "ducky smell" means. Is it safe to eat? Yes. But the smell's really obvious, and definitely has to be dealt with.
From there then, you can start to taste things that're 'a little ducky' and so forth. As an interesting aside, historically this rancidication actually used to be considered desirable in Western cuisine in the context of game meat. Wild game would be hung up and aged - ostensibly to tenderize, but then people began to enjoy the taste. It was referred to as haut gout - high taste - in French and was what was the original meaning of "gaminess".
And yeah, Wallace and Grommit actually came up on like mine and Steph's first date haha. As soon as she repeated a line from A Grand Day Out I knew Steph was a keeper lol
I completely agree with this comment and LOVE when you describe food/cooking theory. It helps me understand things and is so much more powerful than just recipes. Thank you!
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. So right, I know that sometimes all the Chinese terminology can sometimes get a touch confusing for those not as familiar with the language. So if that describes you, definitely turn on the CCs in these videos - I put the script under here for easier viewing. That said, a quick re-cap:
- Huangjiu (黄酒): a type of rice wine made with sticky rice and wheat/barley koji (unlike, say, sake which’s made with rice koji). It’s usually a bit sweeter - there’s tons of varieties of Huangjiu though, everywhere from Shandong to North Guangdong.
- Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒): a group of four types of Huangjiu originating from the Shaoxing area outside of Hangzhou.
- Yuanhongjiu (元红): Dry Shaoxing wine
- Jiafanjiu (加饭酒): Semi-Dry Shaoxing wine.
It would be very helpful if you could post some links to get good products, either Amazon or specialty stores accessible from the US. I've tried searching and I still can't decipher the labeling and am also fearful of false or misleading descriptions. Thanks for everything you two do!
Thanks for posting the characters. I came to the comments specifically because I couldn't tell what I was supposed to be looking for on the label at 5:40.
@Scott R We're thinking on it. We're mulling over doing some sort of Amazon storefront, and/or cooperation with stores whose products we think are good.
One of the challenges though is that 95% of the time, you're better off going to a Chinese supermarket than buying things online. I dunno quite why that is, but yeah - they'll generally have a better selection *and* better prices. I think we might end up doing the storefront thing together with the caveat "Don't buy this here on our Amazon store. Take a picture of the product and buy it somewhere else."
(lol I'm an aggressively poor online marketer, huh)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified LOL you'll have an Amazon anti-storefront!!! ;-) "don't buy this!"
@@ChineseCookingDemystified having an Amazon market would be helpful for those of us who love cooking Chinese food but live in a rural area with no access to a Chinese market (ie, me!). I know there are some online stores that sell imported goods at a slightly expensive, but still fair price. Maybe, if any exist for Chinese ingredients, you could create a compendium on reddit as well.
You cannot begin to imagine how precious this information it is to me, a Mexican in Jalapa (where the Jalapeño pepper comes from) who can’t, for all the money in the world, get any Liaojiu, much less Shiaoxing. I’m stuck for the time being with Mirin or Sake for my cooking. I treasure your channel so much. Thank you!
Cheers! I'd go with sake personally. In Steph's family mijiu (Chinese clear rice wine, very similar to sake in taste but higher alcohol content) is actually the go-to cooking wine.
I always think of sake as not a 'substitute' in the sense of a similar taste, but rather an 'option' in the sense that for most dishes it could be used interchangeably.
I've always wondered what you meant by "Liaojiu (pause) Shaoxing wine" in your videos, and this is the perfect explanation! Thank you for this insight into a fundamental ingredient!!
I'd be super interested in a video where you take us shopping at a Chinese supermarket and give us a list of basic ingredients to stock up our pantries. I live in NYC and have access to 3 different Chinatowns here, I'd love to be able to buy the necessary ingredients in one go to make these delicious looking recipes!
This is an amazingly done, comprehensive guide. A slight turn from your traditional cooking recipes, which I love it. Looking forward for more this type of video!
I can't thank the two of you enough in sharing your knowledge of Chinese cooking with us. The home cooked and restaurant food you eat must taste great!
I love these informative videos, they really help understanding proper technique and flavor pairings. Really helpful for cooking without a recipe.
Thank you for delving into this and making sense of something I have always wondered about! This will help tremendously in my journey through Chinese cuisine😘
Oh snap I love when I get to start my day by learning something new. I understood that there was a difference between liaojiu and real shaoxing, but I'd never investigated further to get this much information. You guys are incredible.
While I wish I had something as well thought-out as your videos are, I would just like to add my voice to the chorus of how much I appreciate the fact that you guys get into the finer details of cooking, and routinely do mention the hard-to-get ingredients that are truer to the origin rather than simply going with "close enough" substitutions. The fact that you preserve the traditions inherent in the cooking absolutely sets you apart from the rest, and it's why I keep coming back to just watch in wonder as you prepare genuine traditional dishes.
There is also “nuo mi jio” wine made from glutinous rice. It’s used to cook chicken with ginger for mother during the first month after giving birth. It’s believed to provide full recovery and health to the mother. This type of wine is sweet, thick and taste good, great for cooking too. My grandma used to make it
Thank you for explaining this! I've been raking my head trying to figure this out for some time now
The "Wallace & Gromit" reference was cute. Thanks for the informative video!
I know it was so cute🥺😂
These videos are densely packed with information. Excellent work.
Firstly that chicken looks suspiciously like a penguin with a rubber glove on its head.
Just want to take the opportunity of being so early to this video to tell you guys how amazing your content is. Honestly the best sources of information on cooking authentic Chinese cuisine on the internet. I love how pedantic and in depth you guy are, always giving the correct authentic ingredients, method and information. Might seem a little insane to some people but it makes all the difference to me. I'm a little crazy as well. I get really excited when I can buy some food products while travelling that aren't available in the UK and love to try my best to cook good authentic food even if it takes days of prep. Keep making your amazing content, wish there were more sources of information like you guys, its a pain having to research it myself.
Perhaps you could do some food from Korea, Thailand, India or somewhere else? I'm a bit spoilt by your amazing Chinese content and now information I find from other countries cooking isn't up to your high standard :)
Much love x
LOL, yeah, exactly that "penguin-chicken".
and also an infamous diamond thief
Like the one in Wallace and Grommit
I want to second these remarks. Keep it pedantic! There is so much misinformation out there about "Asian" or "Chinese" cooking that this channel is a godsend.
I just watched that last night. I swear google is spying on me
Excellent and informative. I love this channel! Your video on three basic vegetable stir-fry flavors has been so useful for me, I'd love to see more videos about basic homestyle veggie dishes.
Yours were the first authentic Chinese cooking videos I can remember talking about the name of the rice wine specifically. When it comes to Chinese cooking as opposed to Japanese, I've probably watched more of the straight up technique or fermentation videos than actual recipes that aren't super westernized.
Now I'm hearing about Liaojiu and Shaoxing wine even on channels like Bon Appetit!
First time to ever comment on a RUclips video, after watching yours and thousands of others. Thank you for this channel and all the stuff you're teaching.
Been passively looking for these exact answers for the last couple weeks. Perfect timing!
New to Chinese cooking I’m am bemused and enthralled at the same time - I love your channel and the history and background you give to all your videos ~ I have purchased a “few” of the ingredients necessary for Chinese cooking ~ have a lot to learn but am excited at the same to begin the process- thank you so much for your informative videos
I've learned so much from your videos! seriously, you and Elaine Luo have the best channels on RUclips for Chinese cooking, IMO. thank you for this in-depth explanation; now I want to try the drinkable stuff!
Are there any other actually good, informative, English speaking, Chinese cooking channels?
Elaine's awesome. Stuff like her sharing/adapting her grandmother's Pixian Doubanjiang recipe is why the internet was invented.
You should check out Gao’s chinese cooking (english)/ Magical ingredients (her chinese channel). It’s my go-to chinese cooking channel! Her recipes never fail and she always gives out those little tips that normally chefs gain from years of experience and tend to keep as personal secrets. Definitely check her out!
@@amyrizal2000 Chef Wang, too! He's the real deal, lots of cool little tips
What an important, informative and enjoyable video. Bravo guys.
Quite enjoyed this and other videos on this channel! Keep it up! Reminds me of my visit to China but also helps make it easy to recreate some favourites and understand the nuances of Chinese cooking!
Love your videos and your dedication to authenticity. As a chinese-american, Chinese recipes help me to reconnect with my heritage. Keep them coming!
i have been watching your videos for a bit but since i bought a wok i have dived deeper into your videos and your content and the amount of information is very good. all the places you talk about makes me want to know their history and try their food and talk to the people there
So interesting! Y’all seriously have the best videos on RUclips!!
In a video about Chinese cooking, I would never have expected a Wallace and Gromit reference. Well done.
This video is amazing and very educational...I always see this ingredient in alot of recipes but I never understood how to substitute it coz I never understood what it's for ..thank you soooo much for the knowledge 🙏
Such an informative video! I've learned a lot. Thank you!
every evening, I start my dinner on plate and start to watch ur channel, I have bites looking at ur videos, not to food...becoming addictive...ur videos are very informative and good
Good video! Very neatly put together presentation
excellent to-the-point, informative video... thanks!
Born and raised with these ingredients, but never truly understood the context behind them...thanks so much for this in-depth guide!
Thank you for the explanation. was great to understand some of principle in Chinese recipe.
Thank you for broaching this subject . I've always wondered about Shao Xing wine.
Thanks for the video, more videos focusing on the whys of a particular ingredient would be great! Keep up the good work :)
As a Chinese grown up in China, I am learning so much from this. I am using the salted one all the time without knowing the difference!
I live in a place where shaoxing wine is REALLY difficult to find. I had almost forgotten about the existence of such a liquid but I saw a bottle at the liquor store so I had to buy it. Turns out it is the same one as the one shown in the video at 4:05! I am so happy, I've been wanting to try it for ages!
Thank you for the explanation, it is very helpful!
I really appreciated the discussion of the *philosophy* of Chinese cooking here. Just as it might be a no-brainer in western cooking to sear something for flavor before braising, or to start something with a base of onions and garlic, understanding the role the ingredients play helps one a) better reconstruct the dish over here, and b) when substitutions are made, choose something that fulfills the same role as the original ingredient. I wish more Eastern cooking channels explored this!
Been waiting for this video for awhile! I use it in everything now and.... don't know why!
Great episode! Very informative.
I love y'all's content!
Absolutely love the Aardman reference. If ever there was a reason to keep watching you guys beyond the amazing explanations (there wasn't), this would be it.
Hahaha, I love Wallace and Gromit growing up, watched it many times when I was a kid and still loving it today~ And thought we can sneak in some penguin in disguise since we're drawing something~
the pouring sauce around the wok move also attributes to building up Maillard reactions in Chinese cooking.
thanks for explanation. well done. Most Chinese and Chinese chefs do not know this knowledge. me too.
Thanks for the 101 on this! I’ve often wonder about it, now I know.
I did not know that the wine had so many varieties. It sounds so interesting. I am sure I only get the cheap wine in our asian grocer. But I will be on the lookout for the clay bottles variety. Thanks for sharing, Shoaxing also looked so tranquil in your Instagram pics. 😁
Love this kind of educational videos!
Thank you so much. I was looking for this information
Thank you for this insightful video !!!
I love these principles, history, and culinary philosophy videos. It adds a lot of depth to the recipes.
i learned so much, thank you for the video!
Thanks for writing the words with explanations. Teacher approved. ✅
Great content and I love the channel. One video I would like to see is one that showcases all the 'packaged' products you use and what subs could be found abroad. I see you highlight a product here and there in your videos but it would nice to have a reference in one place. Here in Australia we have quite a large Chinese community so maybe finding that particular bean paste or a certain oil may be possible..
Hope you can oblige.. cheers
Great video - I love you guys!
Ohh very informative! I always wondered about this!
Thank you for making this awesome video, I have been wondering what shaoxing wine for in my cooking
Awesome video. I was wondering about these things, because i got back to Europe and crave some chinese food. When i look up recipes online i realize that all of them contain stuff like shaoxing cooking wine, or oyster sauce (watched your video on oyster sauce too), and these things are hard to find here. So i wanted to get all of the info on these topics and you answered all of my questions.
Great information! I was wondering why my cooking wine was salty (and even bitter). The Japanese sake labeled for cooking is the same way. It sure makes it undrinkable, and makes me question adding it in my dishes.
excellent info keep it going wish you 2 the very best from germany
I'm a baller on a budget. Typically, when you call for shiaoxing wine in a recipe, I just use mirin. I typically stick to fidelity on your videos, but I can't even order Shiaoxing wine where I live online. I might often make up for that with a dose of more robust flavors like balsamic vinegar, black vinegar, or more MSG. I love your recipes and try to be as near as I can, but I live in the American Midwest. Some things just aren't possible. I make every attempt to make do with your AMAZING content, and even if I have to squeeze, y'all have introduced me to Chinese cooking that I would neve have imagined. Y'all have introduced me to food I never could've tasted in one hundred years. Sending thanks and love.
Thank you. This is so informative. I am trying to master Chinese stirfries and need to know these things.
Best English Channel of Chinese cuisine ever!!!
Oh my Gosh.... I'm in love with the bottle that the real Shoaxing wine comes in!!!!
Always learns so much from your cooking knowledge videos! BTW drinking that cooking wine !!! WOW, that stuff is really salty!
Wow did not expect this much information.
I'm mostly just enjoying your pronunciation of Chinese words xD
Damn very interesting, i got a big bottle of this at home and it’s very handy when cooking. (Got it at 99 ranch (a Chinese grocery store here in California.)
I like how your gestures of the video footage match the voiceover. Neat idea!
I love short, informative videos that pack a ton info. These are easy to catalog and use as a quick reference for later. I see these as modern-day versions of books such as the great Le répertoire de la cuisine (1914).
Looks to me like you posted this on the wrong channel. Go to Serpentza's channel and vent. I'm not a fan of his either.
@@randomjane With respect, read my comment again! I was not insulting the guy. I think the video was great and compared it to one of the most well-known reference manuals in French cuisine.
I think you have completely misread my comment.
Fantastic video - thanks so much!!!
Absolutely fascinating. I had certainly discovered that the cooking wine is salty as heck and assumed there was good stuff that we never see in the US. Now i know! I envy you guys drinking the fine wines and eating the great food of Shaoxing!
Steph~now that's dedication! Drinking that salty wine just for us! Respect! Big time!
As usual, a wonderful, informative, intelligent with perfect vidoe/audio. You've definitely become a pro Chris
Jenn 💖
Thanks Jenn~ Well, Chris drank it once before and now we're even, lol.
@@thisissteph9834
HA!! I love it. My mum bought cooking wine ~ once. Never, ever again, lol.
JENN 💖
oh good, I'm glad Chinese cuisine also recognizes that eggs sometimes have a weird smell when used in a dish.
So interesting and good to know. Thanks.
wish you two and your family happy new year 2020
Cool video. Thanks for the explanation!
I'd love to see more on all of the Chinese wines. I've been especially fascinated by Kuei Hua Chen Chiew (osmanthus) after tasting it, but I can hardly find anything on it besides the ingredients.
Or if anyone has a good resource on it, that'd be amazing! 😁
Finally, i know how to substitue it. It is nearly impossible to get one where i live. Thank you!
Very informative. Thank you!
Amazing. As always.
Excellent work. Keep it up.
shaoxing wine or Huang Jiu is extremely nutrition food out of all the wine.. The amino acid content of Huang Jiu is 6-8 times that of beer and 3-5 times that of wine. this is why it is used wildly in Chinese medicine and health care cooking in China. love the video...
Thanks! That was so informative, I'm a Singaporean Chinese but most of what I learnt from your video was a revelation to me. Could you do something similar on Chinese vinegars?
Thanks for the explanation. I love cooking chinese style
Finally here where I live a new and very large Asian market opened up that carried a variety of the non salted drinking Shaoxing wine. I use it exclusively when required and would miss it if it wasn't used. Most of the time I use Chef John's technique of "necklacing" the dish in the wok just prior to dishing it up. I use a high BTU burner and wok station so it flares up which is kind of cool.
Even in Asian grocery stores here in Canada, I have trouble finding the non-salted version. The only place I've consistently found the non-salted wine is in liquor stores (Zhejiang Pagoda brand). It's definitely more expensive (~$17/bottle), but since I only use a tablespoon or so of it at a time in cooking, the price doesn't bother me too much, and I have better control over the saltiness!
I wish I would have seen your videos while I lived in Shanghai...
Would have made a big difference on finding these great tastes and ingredients
Love the fact that at 2:06 the bottle used for the Jiafanjiu is actually a beer bottle for Flensburger Pilsener, which is a north German beer and also quite tasty ;)
Wow - fantastically clear, informative and enjoyable!
Questions - Moon Lake is the no-salt brand of Hua Diao rice wine at my Asian market:
1. Is it the "Jiafanjiu Semi-Dry Shaoxing" variety you mention as preferred for cooking? 2. In relation to the Jiafanjiu variety, how does it rate for cooking, in your view? 3. Once opened, how long will it last for cooking, refrigerated?
Brings back memories of visting relatives in Shaoxing. The restaurant in the opening scene about 0:55 along the canal could almost be behind their home. You can smell the stinky tofu everywhere. I never acquired a taste but thx for the tip about pairing it w the wine. Hope to get there after this virus thing passes.
This was the video I needed to view. As a American who is trying to understand Asian culinary principles not know these basics has been taxing.
I always feel like western "Shaoxing wine" should jsut be called "Shaoxing Cooking Wine" or "Cooking Shaoxing" because it's kinda analogous to Cooking Sherry in that #1. Don't use it if you have other options and #2. It's just an inferior salty version of the true product.
Chinese cooking wines sell in western countries usually have very high salt content in it, the reason is because local governments think it can stop alcoholics from buying it. Do you really think it works?
@@ottawahker > Do you really think it works?
Err… yes? Salted alcohol is essentially impossible to drink. It is actually damn effective.
Chinese shaoxing is the shittiest wine. The problem is not salt,vbut the caramel color they add as an additive.
American, not western. "Cooking sherry" is not a thing in most of the western world, we just use normal Sherry.
@@ottawahker Alcoholics drink hand sanitizers to get a buzz so no....
Very informative, thanks.
I live in a small town, & someone recently opened an Asian Market here. Gonna check out their groceries soon, & look for this wine plus 5 Spice.
In Vancouver, BC, I can buy several varieties of unsalted, quite drinkable, Shaoxing wine--at liquor stores, and for about the same price as a bottle of western wine. The stuff at the grocery store is all salted so as not to be drinkable (because you can't see drinkable liquor in a grocery store). Oddly one can buy, ahem, "fermented rice" that hasn't been salted but that is probably because the regulators don't understand what it is.
The nice Shaoxing wine tastes surprisingly like dry sherry -- so much so that I would drink it with tapas in a pinch and vice versa. If you live somewhere where local liquor laws make ordering Shaoxing wine impossible, I would really recommend substituting dry sherry (not cream sherry!!!). It tastes much more similar than sake.
That's awesome that you can get it! I guess I'm going to agree to disagree about the dry sherry sub - it's totally cool though, most people seem to agree with you and not me :)
Re sake, just to clarify... it's not that's it's a Shaoxing sub, but rather a sub for mijiu - the clear Chinese rice wine. It certainly depends on the cuisine, but at times in Guangdong mijiu is used interchangeably with Shaoxing. Sake is *very* very similar to Cantonese mijiu - the only real difference is that sake is ~16% ABV while Cantonese Mijiu is 25-30%.
Thanks for the informative video. I make a lot of Asian foods and use either a dry wine such as Pinot Grigio for a marinade or sweet sherry for a stir fry. I did get a bottle of cooking wine from our local Asian grocer but found it too salty to use. I try to limit the amount of sodium in the food I make since my wife doesn't like the taste so I found that using light soy sauce gives just the right amount of flavor to the dish without making it over salty. Potable Shaoxing wine isn't available in the liquor stores in our area so I have had to make do with the wines I mentioned. The only other recourse I have is to make rice wine myself which to tell the truth isn't that difficult. Just have to choose the correct yeast.
Ah On one hand I am happy to learn more about this wine. I have been trying to adapt a lot of Chinese cooking to my diet and your channel had been a huge boon. On the other hand I am so sad to learn it has wheat/barely ingredients 🥺 I am glad that I was never able to find it in my rural community as of yet so I didn't have unexplained reactions. I will stick to subbing mirin!
Try a good, dry Sherry..