Mirin: What Is It? Types, Uses and Substitutes

What does mirin taste like and what does it do?

Mirin tastes sweet, with a light note of rice and a little alcohol. Its sweetness feels softer than that of table sugar. In cooking it does three things:

• Shine: The sugar caramelizes and coats meat or fish with a glossy layer. This is where the typical look of teriyaki comes from.
• Balance: It softens the salt of soy sauce and covers fishy smells.
• Firmness: In braises, mirin helps potatoes and vegetables fall apart less quickly as they simmer.

How it is made and where it comes from

For real mirin, in Japanese 味醂 or みりん, producers mix steamed glutinous rice with koji, which is rice grown with the noble mold Aspergillus oryzae, and with shochu, a Japanese distilled spirit. The mixture matures for several weeks to months. During that time the enzymes of the koji turn the starch of the rice into sugar. So mirin contains no added sugar, and the sweetness comes from the rice.

Originally the Japanese drank mirin as a sweet liqueur. Only later did it take hold as a seasoning.

Types: hon-mirin and mirin-style seasoning

• Hon-mirin (本みりん): real mirin made by the process described. It contains about as much alcohol as a strong wine and tastes the fullest.
• Mirin-style seasoning (みりん風調味料, mirin-fū chōmiryō): a mixture of glucose syrup, water, rice or rice flavoring and seasoning, with hardly any alcohol. It is cheaper and tastes flatter and sweeter. Many bottles in German supermarkets fall into this group.
• Fermented seasoning (発酵調味料): brewed with alcohol but with salt added so that it does not count as a drink. Count the salt in when you taste.

The ingredient list tells you which type you have in front of you. If glucose syrup comes first there, you are holding a seasoning and not hon-mirin.

Uses: from teriyaki to nikujaga

Anyone searching for "mirin sauce" usually means a sauce in which mirin plays the main role. The best known is teriyaki: soy sauce, mirin and sake in equal parts, reduce, done. The recipe for making teriyaki sauce yourself shows the steps, and the teriyaki chicken shows how to use it in the pan.

1. Glazes: For yakitori skewers or fish, you reduce mirin with soy sauce to a syrup. The reduced tsume for unagi and nigiri works on the same principle.
2. Braises: Nikujaga and sukiyaki warishita are built on dashi, soy sauce and mirin.
3. Ramen tare: A splash of mirin rounds off a shoyu tare. How tare, broth and oil work together is explained in the guide ramen tare.
4. Egg dishes: In tamagoyaki, mirin provides the light sweetness and a nice color.

For dressings and cold dips, bring the mirin briefly to a boil first so the alcohol evaporates. In Japan this is called nikiri-mirin. In cooked dishes a large part of the alcohol evaporates while simmering, but it does not disappear entirely.

Mirin, sake and rice vinegar: the difference

All three come from rice but taste different. Sake is dry and alcoholic, and it adds aroma without sweetness. Rice vinegar is sour and belongs in sushi rice and dressings. Mirin is sweet. If a recipe calls for mirin, rice vinegar does not replace it.

Substitutes for mirin

• Sake with sugar: Stir 3 tbsp sake with 1 tbsp sugar until it dissolves. This replaces 3 to 4 tbsp mirin.
• Dry white wine or dry sherry with sugar in the same ratio, if you have no sake.
• Without alcohol: Water with sugar or a little honey and a splash of rice vinegar. This matches the sweetness, not the aroma.

Buying and storing

You find mirin-style seasonings in many supermarkets in the Asian aisle. Hon-mirin is more likely at an Asian grocery store with a Japanese range or online. Pay attention to the name on the label.

Store hon-mirin cool and dark in the cupboard after opening. In the fridge the sugar can crystallize. Mirin-style seasonings with little alcohol belong in the fridge after opening. Both keep for several months, and the package gives the exact period.