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I like to prepare various Asian dishes and one of the important ingredients I use is rice wine; unfortunately, it's become difficult to obtain lately, and sherry, which is sometimes used, never was a beverage available in my country.

So, what else could I substitute for rice wine?

Cascabel
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Pulse
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4 Answers4

8

If you can get it, sherry is usually a good bet but since you can't, I've used just regular white wine before as a substitute when you're cooking a dish but you just need to be a little less liberal as you might be with rice wine as I find the flavour tends to be a little stronger.

Another alternative is Sake, but I'm assuming that if you can't get rice wine, you'll struggle to find Sake.

lomaxx
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    +1 for sherry - several Asian recipes actually call for either sherry or rice wine. BTW, it's spelled *sake*. – Aaronut Jul 13 '10 at 14:05
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    FYI - I think a dry sherry or white (fairly non-oak in flavor, like a Sauvignon Blanc) is usually the way to go. Just "sherry" or "white" leaves open a pretty broad and differing range of possible results. – PoloHoleSet Feb 27 '17 at 19:55
6

White vermouth works well, and it will keep a long time, particularly if you refrigerate it

McKenzieG1
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I've heard that gin is one the closest substitutes in terms of flavor and that regular white wine works as well in a pinch. I haven't had to do this much myself so I'm not sure what kind of ratio you should go with in these substitutions.

Ryan Elkins
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    Naw, see... You use the gin to make martinis, and cook with the vinegar that the olives came packed in... If it doesn't taste right, you didn't drink enough gin while making it. – Shog9 Jul 13 '10 at 17:24
  • I think the problem with gin would be the alcohol content, even though it may be a flavour substitute. – Pulse Jul 14 '10 at 02:06
  • @Knives I'm not big on Martinis but a large G&T would hit the mark :) – Pulse Jul 14 '10 at 02:07
  • I love a good g&t, but.. I hate olives in them! – Shog9 Jul 14 '10 at 02:58
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Gin.... Gin...... Gin. Works great.

user40070
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