Beverage
Salted Cooking Shaoxing
C tier
Salted cooking Shaoxing is huangjiu (sometimes only in the Shaoxing style) with salt added so it is sold as a seasoning, not a drink. It is the plastic-capped bottle in every Chinese grocery. The salt lets it sit in a hot kitchen and keeps the duty down. It will season a stir-fry and a velveted marinade; it will wreck a delicate steamed fish if you pour as if it were hua diao. Use it when the wok is already salty and the wine is a background note. For drunken dishes and banquet sauces, buy unsalted hua diao. Taste the bottle—some cooking wines are harsh as well as salty.
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History
Salted cooking huangjiu was packed for home woks and for export as a non-beverage.
Western Chinese groceries made the salted bottle the default "Shaoxing."
Cookbooks began specifying unsalted Shaoxing when the wine flavour had to show.
Salted cooking Shaoxing remained the weeknight bottle; hua diao held the serious pot.