Beverage
Cooking Sake
C tier
Cooking sake (ryorishu) is sake—or a sake-like rice alcohol—salted or otherwise denatured so it can be sold cheaply for the pot and not drunk as wine. It seasons as well as deglazes. That salt is the whole point and the whole problem: a recipe written for drinking sake plus a pinch of salt will be over-seasoned if you pour ryorishu with a free hand. Use it in robust marinades and everyday stir-fries. For a clear broth or a delicate steam, buy drinking junmai and salt the dish yourself. The bottle is a pantry tool, not a table sake.
Track this ingredient
Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
History
Salted ryorishu was packed so households could keep a cheap pot sake separate from drinking bottles.
Japanese groceries abroad stocked cooking sake as the default "sake" for Western kitchens.
Recipe writers began warning that cooking sake is already salted.
Some cooks returned to cheap drinking junmai for cleaner control of salt.