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« True Chicken Teriyaki Recipe |Main| VWK Leftovers: September 2013 »
September 24, 2013Homemade Mirin RecipeLast week was a wipe out because I was in Denver to tape anonline class for Craftsy. (More on that very cool new project in the weeks tocome!) I was somewhat brain dead from the long work days so I didn’t tune intosome of the comments on the teriyaki chicken recipe until today. There were several pointsmade about mirin, how the typical stuff sold at many markets is basicallyfructose, glucose and a little alcohol. It’s also expensive, given the amountof mirin that many Japanese recipes call for. “Can you make your own mirin?” Gina asked.
While I’ve had to come upwith mirin substitutes in a pinch, I’d never thought of making my own. Mirinseemed like such a mystery, kind of sacred. Gina put me to the task so I lookedat the glossary of several Japanese cookbooks and the best source ofinformation came from Hiroko Shimbo’s The Japanese Kitchen. Hirokogave the best low down on mirin and as usual, her insights were illuminating:
Real, honestmirin is golden yellow and sweet, with a rich mouthfeel. The alcohol content isroughly 14 percent, and it’s made from glutinous rice, distilled alcohol, and koji-culturedrice (koji refers to Aspergillus oryzae,a fungus used to produce liquor, vinegar, and to inoculate soybeans).Mirin wasoriginally used as a sugar substitute in Japan because sugar was scarce andexpensive. Mirin came out of the production of rice wine, during which starchesare converted to sugars (i.e., glucose and maltose). You can drinkwell-made mirin. For example, toso isa mirin infused with various Chinese medicinal herbs. It used to be a new yearlibation.Synthetic mirinis the go-to these days so it’s not fit for drinking. The popularity of modern,synthetic mirin dates to the post World War II, when Japan’s tax on the authentic,boozy version of mirin rose to 230 percent; it was due to the severe riceshortage. People were forced to rely on the cheaper synthetic stuff and fewpeople looked back.I’ve made and eaten Chineseand Vietnamese fermented rice, so I had a sense of what the flavor of real mirinwas like. It’s winey, sweet and thick. The difference is that there’s a higheralcohol content in mirin, due to the distilled liquor involved.
Hiroko suggested a mirin subin her book: for 1 tablespoon of mirin, combine 1 tablespoon sake and 2teaspoons sugar.
I wanted that rich roundflavor so instead of white granulated sugar, I used organic sugar, which has amore complex flavor; organic sugar is a tad more intensely sweet than whitesugar and weighs a bit more too. I also cooked the sake and sugar up – sort oflike a simple syrup.
To give things a slightroundness, I also tinkered with combining sake with pure cane syrup, an oldfashioned sweetener that’s popular in the American South. The color was darkbut the flavor lovely. Then, I added a touch of the cane syrup to my blend oforganic sugar and sake, which gave the mirin a bit more depth without darkeningit too much. I had to taste all thevariations and got a bit light headed with the boozy sweetness. The purchasedbottled stuff seemed so flat and blah by comparison. While my homemade mirin is not a true, authentic version, it has more character than the synthetic stuff. I'm going to try it out on a new batch of teriyaki sauce.
What can you do? You havethese options if you want to use DIY mirin instead of the synthetic stuff:
1) Swap out the quantity ofmirin called for in a recipe with a mixture of 2:3 sugar and sake. If you useorganic sugar like I did, back off the sugar in the rest of the recipe as themirin will be more intensely sweet than commercially made mirin. 2) Make your own and keep thejar in the fridge. Below is a recipe to play with. If you have golden syrup(a light treacle), that would work in lieu of the cane syrup and/or granulatedsugar. Try another kind of sugar, like turbinado. Halve the recipe, if you wantto mess around with it without wasting ingredients. Do report your findings!RECIPE
Homemade Mirin
Yield:generous 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons (65g) sugar, such as organic cane sugar1/2 cup (120 ml)sake1 1/2 teaspoons purecane syrup, such as Steen’s(optional)Instructions:
Combine theingredients in a very small saucepan, such as butter warmer/melter. Bring toboil over medium heat, give things a stir to ensure the sugar has dissolved. Remove from theheat and set aside to cool. Taste and add the cane syrup for depth, if you like.Several VWK recipes that use mirin:
True Chicken TeriyakiDashi Carnitas TacosKorean Fried Chicken (sub mirin for the corn syrup or Korean syrup)Posted in Asian Ingredients, Cooking Tips & Tools, Recipes: All, Recipes: Basic Sauces, Stocks and Garnishes, Recipes: Japanese | Permalink | |
| Comments Homemade Mirin Recipe Last week was a wipe out because I was in Denver to tape anonline class for Craftsy. (More on that very cool new project in the weeks tocome!) I was somewhat brain dead from the long work days so I didn’t tune intosome of the comments on the teriyaki chicken recipe until today. There were several pointsmade about mirin, how the typical stuff sold at many markets is basicallyfructose, glucose and a little alcohol. It’s also expensive, given the amountof mirin that many Japanese recipes call for. “Can you make your own mirin?” Gina asked.
While I’ve had to come upwith mirin substitutes in a pinch, I’d never thought of making my own. Mirinseemed like such a mystery, kind of sacred. Gina put me to the task so I lookedat the glossary of several Japanese cookbooks and the best source ofinformation came from Hiroko Shimbo’s The Japanese Kitchen. Hirokogave the best low down on mirin and as usual, her insights were illuminating:
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