Rice Vinegar

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Addie

Chef Extraordinaire
Joined
Nov 9, 2011
Messages
22,295
Location
East Boston, MA
Can someone give me an explanation for the following. I have had a bottle of Maruchan (Yellow Top) Seasoned Rice Vinegar in my pantry. When I bought it, it was clear. Now it is dark brown. I have the feeling it has turned into Saki. And is it safe to use? If it is Saki, I will be showing it the door very quickly. :angel:
 
Can someone give me an explanation for the following. I have had a bottle of Maruchan (Yellow Top) Seasoned Rice Vinegar in my pantry. When I bought it, it was clear. Now it is dark brown. I have the feeling it has turned into Saki. And is it safe to use? If it is Saki, I will be showing it the door very quickly. :angel:

I think the "wine" (saki) came before the vinegar. I'd show it the door um, err circular file either way.
 
I think the "wine" (saki) came before the vinegar. I'd show it the door um, err circular file either way.

Thanks. That is all I needed. Just one person telling me to toss it. I am on my way to my counter to do it right now. But first it will go down the sink drain. :angel:
 
Well my curiosity got the better of me. So of course I had to Google it. And this came up.

Seasoned rice vinegar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the brand that I usually buy. But I normally get the green capped one. It is not seasoned for salads. It seems that Saki is one of the ingredients. The reason I like the rice vinegar is because it is not as strong as our regular vinegars. Although I am partial sometimes to Cider vinegar. Will do some more research. If all Chinese vinegars contain Saki, I will go with the cider vinegar. Will get back to you all on this. It pays to know your ingredients. :angel:
 
Addie, the plain (unseasoned) rice vinegar is just vinegar. No sake.

I buy the unseasoned as it's more versatile.
 
Okay, it seems that there is a black Chinese vinegar. Also Red. But not being sure if mine had turned into black vinegar or just gone bad, I sent it down the drain and the bottle in the trash. Unseasoned has just water added to it. No sake, sugar or any other ingredient. That I can live with. Under Additional Specifications it stated that, "No, there are no batteries in this product." Good to know.

But in my research, I saw a great recipe for Chinese Potato Salad. For those who like some heat with their food, this would be right up your alley. You can find the recipe at the Marukan site under their recipes. I will pass on the chili paste, but saw some other additions that I will be putting in mine from here on in.

I learned a lot about Chinese Rice Vinegar today along with the difference between Rice Wine and Rice Vinegar. :angel:
 
Addie, the plain (unseasoned) rice vinegar is just vinegar. No sake.

I buy the unseasoned as it's more versatile.

Thanks Andy. I have already put it on my grocery list for next month's shopping. I have always assumed that Saki was an alcoholic Asian drink. I may be wrong and am probably so. So it did dismay me when I saw that it is included in the Seasoned Vinegar along with sugar. The fewer ingredients, the better. If I want to take up drinking Saki, I will do it on my own.

Will have to Google Saki now. :angel:
 
Addie, as far as I know, they are the same thing.

Not according to the Marukan Site. I too was surprised to find that statement. It started out with "Let's make this clear. Rice wine is not rice vinegar." Or something to that effect. :angel:
 
Not according to the Marukan Site. I too was surprised to find that statement. It started out with "Let's make this clear. Rice wine is not rice vinegar." Or something to that effect. :angel:


If fermented rice or rice wine is the starting point, you still end up with vinegar - acetic acid.
 
If fermented rice or rice wine is the starting point, you still end up with vinegar - acetic acid.



The difference is that in just simple rice vinegar, there is no sugar. And that is what turns the vinegar to yeast that makes the wine. :angel:
 
The difference is that in just simple rice vinegar, there is no sugar. And that is what turns the vinegar to yeast that makes the wine. :angel:

To make vinegar, you first need wine or other fermented liquid - in this case rice wine. The bacteria that turn wine into vinegar (acetobacter) consume alcohol - not sugar - and metabolize it into acetic acid as a byproduct. That's why there's no alcohol in vinegar.

Side note: the word vinegar comes from the latin phrase vinum acer meaning "sour wine."
 
Last edited:
To make vinegar, you first need wine or other fermented liquid - in this case rice wine. The bacteria that turn wine into vinegar (acetobacter) consume alcohol - not sugar - and metabolize it into acetic acid as a byproduct. That's why there's no alcohol in vinegar.

Side note: the word vinegar comes from a latin phrase meaning "sour wine."

Thank you Steve. I am getting quite an education today. And all because my seasoned rice vinegar went to black on me. :angel:
 
Well my curiosity got the better of me. So of course I had to Google it. And this came up.

Seasoned rice vinegar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the brand that I usually buy. But I normally get the green capped one. It is not seasoned for salads. It seems that Saki is one of the ingredients. The reason I like the rice vinegar is because it is not as strong as our regular vinegars. Although I am partial sometimes to Cider vinegar. Will do some more research. If all Chinese vinegars contain Saki, I will go with the cider vinegar. Will get back to you all on this. It pays to know your ingredients. :angel:
Umm, sorry, Addie, cider vinegar is made with cider which is an alcoholic drink. ALL vinegars are made from alcohol. However, in the manufacturing process the alcohol dissipates.

Originally, vinegars were made from wine that had gone "off".
 
Last edited:
Thanks Andy. I have already put it on my grocery list for next month's shopping. I have always assumed that Saki was an alcoholic Asian drink. I may be wrong and am probably so. So it did dismay me when I saw that it is included in the Seasoned Vinegar along with sugar. The fewer ingredients, the better. If I want to take up drinking Saki, I will do it on my own.

Will have to Google Saki now. :angel:
Saki IS an alcoholic drink but by the time it becomes rice vinegar it no longer has any alcohol in it.

Please, on all your meds do NOT take to strong "likker" .:LOL:
 
Umm, sorry, Addie, cider vinegar is made with cider which is an alcoholic drink. ALL vinegars are made from alcohol. However, in the manufacturing process the alcohol largely dissipates.

Originally, vinegars were made from wine that had gone "off".

Not here. We can send our child to the store to buy cider. If there were alcohol in it, they would have to be 21 y.o. and show proof of age. What you are talking about for us would be hard cider. I have yet to ever see a place that sells it legally. But then I am not looking for it.

And as a footnote, the bottle of the seasoned rice vinegar I tossed, spelled Saki with an "I", and the Japanese spell it with an "E". :angel:
 
What you are talking about for us would be hard cider. I have yet to ever see a place that sells it legally. But then I am not looking for it.

Hard cider can be sold at any establishment that sells beer, wine or liquor. It's more of a specialty product, so you probably won't find it at a regular grocery store, but it's available at Total Wine and I've bought it from small wine shops.
 
Not here. We can send our child to the store to buy cider. If there were alcohol in it, they would have to be 21 y.o. and show proof of age. What you are talking about for us would be hard cider. I have yet to ever see a place that sells it legally. But then I am not looking for it.

And as a footnote, the bottle of the seasoned rice vinegar I tossed, spelled Saki with an "I", and the Japanese spell it with an "E". :angel:
Let's clear up a little misinformation. ;)

Technically speaking "cider" is fermented apple juice. That's been the name for hundreds of years, and it was the most popular alcoholic drink in the US for a long time. During prohibition, some cider houses, fearing that they would lose their livelihood, sold unfermented juice to the public and continued calling it cider. Who knows why... maybe they had a glut of labels to use up. In any case, when prohibition ended and it was legal to make the fermented beverage again, some began referring to it as "hard cider" to differentiate it from the unfermented beverage, which they also continued to sell as "apple cider" because it was popular.

Life would be so much simpler if we would just call the unfermented stuff "apple juice" and the fermented stuff "cider," the way it originally was. We are the only country in the world where "hard cider" has any meaning at all.

Cider (the fermented beverage) is available for sale at lots of places. There's nothing illegal about it. We have several cider houses between here and Wisconsin that make and sell it.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom