Japanese Cooking: Mirin and Sake?

Question:

I love Japanese food and try to buy the proper ingredients for every dish. A lot of the recipes I have call for mirin, sake and sugar. However I am having trouble finding a place to purchase good sake.

My question is, would I throw the taste of dishes completely off if I used extra mirin for the lack of sake?... And possibly less sugar since mirin is 40-50% sugar.

Answer:

If you can find mirin, you should be able to find cooking sake at the same shop too as along with soy sauce and dashi, are essential Japanese cooking ingredients.

In the event that you are unable to find cooking sake, it can be replaced with a normal drinking sake. However, you have to make sure that you get a very dry sake if you use it for cooking.

As a last resort, you can use other alcoholic drinks. Dry sherry is a good option as is dry Vermouth. As a very last resort, you could dry a dry white wine.

I would recommend that you try and find some cooking sake if you cook Japanese food on a regular basis. There are many online shops, including Amazon that sell cooking sake online. Otherwise, try one of the substitutes and see how it tastes.

Hope this helps.