7 Substitutes for Rice Vinegar + 3 Tips
Diana Barkley
(Senior Editor)
What if you can’t find rice vinegar in your local shops, or you’re just about to start cooking your favorite dish only to find you’ve run out? In this article, we’ll explore what rice vinegar is, how it tastes, and how you can best replicate its flavors and function if you haven’t got it at hand.
Rice vinegar has been used for over 4,000 years as a seasoning and ingredient in East Asian cooking. It’s popular in Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia, and has since found its way into the West as well, as an important addition to Asian dishes.
If you love Asian food, rice vinegar is something you’ll have seen referenced in plenty of recipes.
Facts about Rice Vinegar
Facts about Rice Vinegar
Perhaps the most interesting facts surrounding rice vinegar regard the differences between the different countries’ interpretations. For example, Japanese rice vinegar isn’t as strong as Chinese variants.
Most Asian rice vinegars are, in fact, less acidic and even slightly sweeter than those used in the West.
There are also many different color variations of rice vinegar, ranging from transparent white vinegar to pale yellow, red, brown, and even black.
Black rice vinegar is typically made using something known as ‘sweet rice’, which is a black sticky rice. Red rice vinegar is made using red kojic rice or red yeast rice.
Black rice vinegar is particularly highly prized in China, where it is considered an essential ingredient in many traditional dishes. It has a deeper, richer flavor compared to other colors of rice vinegar.
Each of the colors and fermentation levels has a different flavor. Some are used as seasoning, others as ingredients, and a few are even enjoyed as drinks.
Japanese kurozu, which is a sort of lighter black vinegar, is marketed as a health drink or tonic, which is said to contain plenty of amino acids and may even help fight cancer, according to a recent study.
Lastly, rice vinegar is sometimes used as a beauty product. Some people like to use it as a natural toner for the skin. This special ingredient’s antimicrobial properties may help maintain the health of your skin and can even promote healing and help prevent infections.
Here you’ll learn everything about japanese food.
What Rice Vinegar Is
Rice vinegar is simply vinegar that’s been made by fermenting rice wine. It’s long been used to season Asian dishes, as an addition to dressings and dipping sauces, and in popular foods such as sushi, banchans, and jiaozi (dumplings).
What Rice Vinegar Is Good For
What Rice Vinegar Is Good For
Rice vinegar is great for a lot of different issues. You can simply mix it up with a little bit of sugar and salt and use it in marinades and salad dressings.
It’s used to make sticky sushi rice, and in delicious stir fry dishes. In Japanese cooking, rice vinegar is used to add a touch of acidity to cooked dishes. It’s also a great additive to help tenderize seafood and meat.
Is Rice Vinegar Healthy?
Is Rice Vinegar Healthy?
Rice vinegar is probably as good for you as the very popular apple cider vinegars. Rice vinegar is filled with healthy antioxidants that can help protect your body against damage caused by free radicals.
It promotes better heart health, may reduce your risk of heart disease, and could lower your blood pressure. There have also been studies on black kurozu rice vinegar that suggest it may help fight cancer.
Reasons for Substituting Rice Vinegar
Reasons for Substituting Rice Vinegar
As we’ve mentioned above, rice vinegar is incredibly good for you and offers plenty of benefits. However, there are several reasons why you might wish to substitute it for something similar. Here are a few of the most common ones.
Availability
Rice vinegar might be out of stock or hard to get at your local shops. In some regions it could be generally hard to find, meaning you have to pick a substitute whether you’d like to or not.
Interestingly some people actually make rice vinegar at home, though it takes at least a week to ferment. If you find the process intimidating, a suitable substitute is a better idea.
Dietary Restrictions
Some rice vinegars contain gluten, so those with a gluten intolerance or celiac disease may require a gluten-free substitute. While it is rare, some people may be allergic to certain ingredients in rice vinegar,
too.
Flavor Preferences
Flavor Preferences
You may just not like the flavor of rice vinegar, and while other rice vinegars are available they may not be easily accessible to you locally.
Rice vinegar can taste slightly sweet as well, and you may prefer a more acidic vinegar instead.
Remember, everyone’s taste is different. Experimenting with substitutes can be a fun and effective way to figure out what works for you.
Recipe Requirements
Certain recipes might call for a specific type of vinegar to achieve an authentic taste. Different vinegars have varying levels of acidity which can affect the outcome of your recipe.
At the end of the day, you may just wish to experiment with different flavors and profiles to create your own unique dishes, but it’s best to know which substitutes work well first.
Best Substitutes for Rice Vinegar
Best Substitutes for Rice Vinegar
If you can’t use rice vinegar for any of the above reasons, you’ll want to find a substitute that tastes and works as close to the real deal as possible. Below are some of our top suggestions for alternatives to rice vinegar.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar
If you ask most amateur chefs, they’ll likely recommend substituting rice vinegar with apple cider vinegar. That’s because apple cider vinegar can have a similarly pleasing ratio of sweet to sour.
It offers many of the same health benefits, so it’s a great alternative that’s also good for you. Bear in mind that not all apple cider vinegars are created equal.
Opt for a more fruity, apple-flavored one that isn’t too tart, and you’ll have an excellent substitute.
White Wine Vinegar
White Wine Vinegar
Good quality white wine vinegar tends to have a similarly mild flavor and isn’t too overpowering. The translucent white coloring also means it won’t turn your favorite sauces and marinades an unwanted color.
White wine vinegar does tend to be a lot more acidic than rice vinegar, but you can counteract this by adding a little bit of sugar or honey to your recipe.
Top tip: distilled white vinegar tends to be the cheapest you can get, but it’s not the same as white wine vinegar. White vinegar is made from distilled grain alcohol and lacks the fruitiness and more delicate flavors of white wine vinegar.
When in doubt, opt for white wine vinegar, and use white vinegar for cleaning rather than cooking.
Sherry Vinegar
Sherry Vinegar
Sherry vinegar is another great alternative as it offers plenty of interesting flavors that aren’t present in other substitutes. There’s a subtle nuttiness, a slight sweetness, and an overall more complex flavor than the likes of apple cider vinegar.
This makes sherry vinegar a good addition to salad dressings and sauces, though we’d probably skip it in marinades. It’s simply too pricey for that and the complexity is easily lost in the cooking process.
Balsamic Vinegar
Balsamic Vinegar
Here’s one rice vinegar alternative you won’t find on any other list. That’s because balsamic vinegar looks nothing like regular rice vinegar. It’s darker, sometimes thicker, and significantly sweeter.
We still think it’s a good alternative, particularly when it comes to marinades.
You wouldn’t want to use it in sushi or for dressings that call for a more subtle vinegar flavor, but it’s an excellent substitute in marinades. Bear in mind, balsamic vinegar is aged in a similar way to wine and can be pricey.
Top tip: if your recipe calls for brown or black rice vinegar, this is the substitute to go for.
Mirin
Mirin
Mirin is a type of rice wine which is similar to sake, but contains less alcohol than the latter. Rice vinegar is essentially fermented rice wine, so they’re made from the same ingredients to start with.
Mirin is much sweeter than rice vinegar and also contains alcohol, while rice vinegar contains no alcohol or just trace amounts.
You can substitute mirin for rice vinegar, but it’ll add quite a bit of sweetness to your dish as it lacks the added acidity.
If your dish calls for rice vinegar and some type of sugar, use mirin and omit the extra sweetness. Alternatively, add a little bit of lemon or lime juice or a touch of apple cider vinegar alongside the mirin.
Healthiest Substitutes for Rice Vinegar
Healthiest Substitutes for Rice Vinegar
Many types of vinegar are actually healthy in and of themselves. Darker vinegars tend to contain more antioxidants as they’ve gone through a less intensive refinement process.
All vinegars are made acidic due to the presence of acetic acid, which is one of the key components that provide health benefits such as helping with weight loss, killing harmful bacteria in the gut, and more.
Nevertheless, some substitutes are healthier than others, and here are our top two.
Lime or Lemon Juice
Lime or Lemon Juice
As far as flavor is concerned, lemon or lime juice can easily replace the acidity found in rice vinegar. Neither adds any kind of sweetness, however, and there isn’t any of that pleasant fermented complexity present in vinegar.
Therefore, lemon or lime juice may work well in marinades or salad dressings, but you probably wouldn’t want to use it in sushi.
Health-wise, lemons and limes are excellent for maintaining the flexibility of blood vessels, reducing blood pressure, and improving the health of your nervous system thanks to the presence of potassium. Lemons are also especially high in healthy vitamin C and folate.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar
We’ve already mentioned apple cider vinegar as an excellent substitute above, but it deserves to be repeated here: ACV is incredibly popular for its health benefits and is a versatile ingredient in many recipes.
Apple cider vinegar may help you lose weight, promote healthy blood sugar levels and heart health, and even improve the health of your hair and skin.
This makes it one of the healthiest substitutes for rice vinegar, and a great staple to keep at home for all kinds of cooking.
Tips for Substituting Rice Vinegar
Tips for Substituting Rice Vinegar
It’s obvious that there are plenty of great alternatives for rice vinegar. From healthy substitutes and easy-to-buy varieties you can get at just about any shop, to ‘aged’ vinegars that add even more complexity and flavor, they’re all good in their own way.
Here are some final tips so you can get the most out of your rice vinegar substitutes, no matter which one you choose.
Choose the Right Kind of Flavor Profile
Choose the Right Kind of Flavor Profile
Depending on your recipe, you may wish to use a more acidic vinegar such as a simple white wine vinegar or something fruitier like an apple cider vinegar.
Alternatively, you may like the addition of a sweet mirin that adds a boozy kick to your dishes while keeping the base flavors of rice vinegar but not the acidity.
What we’re trying to say is that each of the substitutes mentioned above are good in their own way, but some work better for certain recipes than others.
Pay Attention to Nutritional Values
Pay Attention to Nutritional Values
Where vinegar is concerned, nearly everything is healthy, but you may still wish to take a closer look at nutritional values before deciding on a suitable substitute for rice vinegar.
For example, rice vinegar contains around 4 to 5 percent of acetic acid, while apple cider vinegar contains between 4-8% of acetic acid.
Lemon juice is made up of approximately 5-8% citric acid, as well as containing ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Lemon juice contains a negligible number of calories, but rice vinegar has just about none.
Acidic marinades, for example, are said to help meat tenderize more quickly and effectively. So you may wish to choose a substitute with a higher percentage of acid when whipping up your next marinade.
Experiment with Different Flavors and Ingredients
Experiment with Different Flavors and Ingredients
At the end of the day, you’re best of experimenting with different flavors to see which suits your cooking and personal tastes the most.
Some may love the more complex flavors of balsamic and sherry vinegars, while others prefer the simplicity of white wine vinegar or even lemon juice.
There is no wrong answer here. Enjoy the process of experimenting with different flavors and ingredients, and see what works best for your palette.
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