Sake: Japanese Rice Wine, Types, Serving Temperature and Cooking
Sake is a Japanese alcoholic drink made from rice, water, koji and yeast, usually called rice wine in English. It generally has around 15 percent alcohol, tastes dry to slightly sweet depending on the type, and in Japan serves as a drink and as a seasoning for marinades, sauces and braises.
Fact sheet
- Also known as
- Nihonshu (日本酒), Seishu (清酒), japanischer Reiswein; Kochsake: Ryōrishu (料理酒)
- Origin
- Japan
- Taste
- je nach Sorte trocken bis leicht süßlich, reisig, bei Ginjō fruchtig und blumig; rund 15 % Alkohol
- Substitute
- trockener Sherry, trockener Weißwein, Shaoxing-Wein; alkoholfrei Brühe oder Wasser mit etwas Reisessig
- Storage
- ungeöffnet kühl und dunkel, Namazake im Kühlschrank; geöffnet verschlossen im Kühlschrank, einige Wochen
- Where to buy
- Asialaden, Weinhandel, gut sortierte Supermärkte, online; Kochsake im Asia-Regal
Name and origin
In Japanese, sake (酒) generally means alcohol. The Japanese call rice wine nihonshu (日本酒), Japanese alcohol, or seishu (清酒), clear alcohol. Japanese breweries are called kura, the master brewer tōji.
The name rice wine only half fits. Brewers make sake like beer from grain whose starch they first convert to sugar. In alcohol content and in drinking, it is closer to wine.
How sake is made
First the brewers polish the rice. The outer layers of the grain contain fat and protein that make the taste rougher. On the label the remaining share appears as seimai buai (精米歩合): at 60 percent, the brewers have polished away 40 percent of the grain.
Then they wash, soak and steam the rice. They inoculate part of it with koji, the mold Aspergillus oryzae, which breaks the starch into sugar. In the same tank yeast ferments this sugar to alcohol. Both processes run in parallel, which is why the mash reaches around 18 to 20 percent alcohol without distillation. After a few weeks the brewers press the sake, filter it, usually pasteurize it twice and dilute it with water to drinking strength. Japanese cooks use the press residue, sake kasu (酒粕), for soups and for pickling fish.
Types of sake on the label
Japan classifies premium sake by two features: added alcohol or not, and the polishing grade of the rice.
| Type | Feature | Flavor |
|---|---|---|
| Junmai (純米) | only rice, water, koji and yeast | full-bodied, ricey, strong acidity |
| Honjōzō (本醸造) | some added alcohol, rice polished to 70% at most | lighter, drier |
| Ginjō (吟醸) | rice polished to 60% at most | fruity, floral |
| Daiginjō (大吟醸) | rice polished to 50% at most | fine, fragrant, more expensive |
| Futsūshu (普通酒) | table sake without these requirements | simple, often drunk warm |
If junmai comes before ginjō or daiginjō, the brewery added no alcohol. You also meet nigori, coarsely filtered, milky cloudy sake; namazake, which is unpasteurized and belongs in the refrigerator; and genshu, undiluted sake with more alcohol.
Serving temperature: cold, room temperature or warm
- Chilled (reishu), about 5 to 10 °C: ginjō, daiginjō and namazake. The cold preserves their fruity aromas.
- Room temperature (hiya): junmai and honjōzō show their full rice flavor this way.
- Warmed (kanzake), about 40 to 50 °C: junmai, honjōzō and table sake. Stand the small carafe (tokkuri) in a pot of hot, not boiling, water until it feels warm outside.
Don't heat premium sake strongly, or the delicate aromas vanish.
Cooking sake and drinking sake
At an Asian grocery store two kinds sit side by side. Ryōrishu (料理酒), cooking sake, often contains salt, sometimes sugar or seasoning too. Japanese producers salt it so the state doesn't tax it as a beverage. So read the label: if it contains salt, use less salt and soy sauce in the recipe.
Plain dry drinking sake works for cooking just as well and tastes cleaner. You don't need expensive ginjō for it; its aromas cook away.
- Marinades: Sake softens fishy smells and keeps meat juicy. For Karaage you marinate chicken in sake, soy sauce and ginger, for Kyuri asazuke cucumbers in a soy and sake marinade.
- Sauces and glazes: With soy sauce and mirin, sake forms the base of Teriyaki sauce and the Warishita for sukiyaki. Mirin explains the difference from the sweet seasoning wine.
- Braises and steaming: In Nikujaga a splash of sake rounds off the sweet and salty broth. For sakamushi you cook clams or fish, covered, in a little sake.
Add sake early to the pot or let it boil briefly so the sharpness of the alcohol cooks off. Part of the alcohol stays in the dish, depending on cooking time. For children, pregnant women and anyone who doesn't drink alcohol, use a substitute.
Substituting sake
| Substitute | Amount instead of 1 tbsp sake | Note |
|---|---|---|
| dry sherry (fino) | 1 tbsp | closest in flavor |
| dry white wine | 1 tbsp | a little more sour |
| Shaoxing wine | 1 tbsp | more savory and darker |
| Mirin | ½ tbsp | sweet, reduce the sugar in the recipe |
| Broth or water with a splash of rice vinegar | 1 tbsp | alcohol-free, milder |
You find more substitution amounts for Japanese and Chinese ingredients under Substituting Asian ingredients.
Buying and storing
You can get drinking sake at an Asian grocery store, from wine merchants, in well-stocked supermarkets and online. Cooking sake usually sits in the Asian aisle next to mirin and rice vinegar. On the back label you find the type, polishing grade and often the bottling date.
Sake hardly matures in the bottle. Drink most types within a year of bottling. Store it unopened cool, dark and upright, namazake in the refrigerator. Close opened bottles and put them in the refrigerator. Drinking sake then tastes good for a few weeks; ginjō and namazake lose their aroma faster. For cooking, opened sake is still fine after that.