However, these mirin substitute options will lack that pleasurable umami taste. You can always buy mirin online, but if you're really in a crunch, you can sub in a dry sherry or a sweet marsala wine. The next best mirin substitute is white wine vinegar or rice vinegar. Despite their similar names, they have many differences. You could also mix 1/2 teaspoon sugar into one tablespoon of rice wine vinegar to mimic mirin's flavor. Since red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar often have mustier, sharper flavor (think of old red wine, Smith says), they may be too intense to swap in for more-subdued rice wine vinegar. Use one tablespoon vinegar and a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar for every one tablespoon of Mirin in the recipe. If you don't cook Asian food frequently at home, you probably don't have mirin on hand. Rice Wine Vinegar Substitutes Don’t have sherry? After treating yourself to a drink, use an equal amount of vermouth, dry sherry, or marsala wine in place of mirin. It doesn’t just flavor food. Or if you're a person who happens to have rice wine vinegar on hand, add some sugar (about 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar to 1 tablespoon sugar), and then replace one for one in a recipe. Apart from these, another popular rice vinegar is the seasoned rice wine vinegar, which is made from sake, sugar, salt, and sometimes mirin. Rice wine and rice vinegar are popular ingredients in Asian cooking. Related recipes. White wine vinegar or rice vinegar + sugar. This vinegar is the darkest of all the three varieties, and is noted for its distinctive smoky flavor. If you would prefer using a non-alcoholic substitute, you can use vinegar. Yet, you may still wonder … Some sake with sugar added to taste will work better than any type of vinegar. A. It has a stronger taste, and is widely used in Japan to make sushi rice. Both are very acidic, so you’ll need to account for the sweetness of the mirin by adding 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of vinegar. Ready to get cooking? Although it sometimes gets confused with rice wine vinegar, mirin actually is a sweet rice wine used in Japanese cooking. No problem. Rice wine vinegar has a similar taste as Mirin, but any white wine vinegar will work. When I can’t find mirin that is not designated as “cooking” mirin, I use the sake-sugar substitute. It has a bit of alcohol in it, which makes it similar to sake, the traditional Japanese alcoholic beverage. However, mirin contains much less alcohol and more sugar content. 2. Add between 1 and 2 tablespoons of sugar to 1/2 cup of white wine, vermouth, or dry sherry to replace 1/2 cup of mirin. Rice Wine vinegar VS Mirin. Well, they don’t taste remotely the same … so you *can* substitute the one for the other, but the result in the finished recipe will be quite different. 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