Rice vinegar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rice vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented rice or rice wine in China, Korea, and Japan. Japanese rice vinegar (米酢 or simply 酢 (lit. vinegar)) is very mild and mellow and ranges in colour from colourless to pale yellow.
[edit] Japanese Rice Vinegars
There are two distinct types of Japanese vinegar: one is made from fermented rice and the other, known as Seasoned Rice Vinegar is made by adding sake.
Seasoned rice vinegar is used in sushi and in salad dressing varieties popular in the west, such as ginger or sesame dressing.
[edit] Chinese Rice Vinegars
Chinese rice vinegars are stronger than Japanese ones, and range in colour from clear to various shades of red and brown. Chinese and especially Japanese vinegars are very mild and sweet compared to distilled and more acidic Western vinegars which, for that reason, are not appropriate substitutes for rice vinegars.
White rice vinegar is colorless to pale yellow liquid, higher in vinegar content and more similar to Western vinegars, but still less acidic and milder in flavour.
Black rice vinegar is very popular in southern China. Chinkiang vinegar, which originated in the city of Zhenjiang in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu, China, is considered the best of the black rice vinegars. Normally black rice vinegar is made with glutinous rice (also called "sweet rice"), although millet or sorghum may be used instead. It is dark in colour, and has a deep, almost smoky flavour. In addition to Zhenjiang, it is also produced in Hong Kong.
Red rice vinegar is darker than white rice vinegar, and paler than black rice vinegar, with a distinctive red colour from Red yeast rice (红曲米), which is cultivated with the mold Monascus purpureus. This vinegar has a distinctive flavour of its own due to the red mold.
In Chinese cookbooks, ½ tablespoon of Western white vinegar is equivalent in strength to 1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar. Many Chinese people who grow up with rice vinegars take time to grow accustomed to the strength of Western vinegars when they start to encounter them.
Rice vinegar is used to make sushi.
