The market · Wine, vermouth and sherry · East Asia

Sake

Japan's brewed rice wine: polished rice turned to sugar by koji and fermented at the same time, to about 15% — clean, savoury and fruity, closer to beer in how it's made than to wine.

rice · fruity · savoury

Kinds

Junmai
Nothing but rice, koji, yeast and water: fuller and savoury.
Ginjo / daiginjo
Rice polished to 60% or 50% of the grain: fruity, floral, delicate.
Honjozo
A little distilled alcohol added: lighter and drier.
Nigori
Coarsely filtered and cloudy.
Namazake
Unpasteurised: fresh and lively, and needs the fridge.

If you can't find it

Japanese grocers and wine shops; a dry, cheap one is right for cooking.

  1. 1Fino sherry
    The same
    You lose sake's clean, rice note.

Goes with

london dry ginyuzucucumbersashimi

Knowing it

Where to buy
Check the production date, buy from a shop that keeps it cold, and drink it within months. Cooking sake (ryorishu) often has salt added — buy cheap junmai to cook with instead.
Worth knowing
It stands in for dry vermouth: three parts gin to one of ginjo sake, stirred. Like vermouth, keep it in the fridge once open and finish it within a week or two.

Kitchens that keep it in

JapanJapaneseA cooking of restraint and season, built on dashi — and on letting one ingredient taste as much of itself as it can.10 classics · 2 cooked here

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