Mirin substitutes
A sweetened Japanese rice wine made for cooking, roughly 40% sugars and about 14% alcohol, and it is that sugar which makes teriyaki and simmered dishes glossy, lightly sweet and browned.
Sake + Sugar
1 tbsp sake + 1 tsp sugar
Per tablespoon of mirin, use 1 tablespoon of sake plus 1 teaspoon of sugar, stirred until the sugar dissolves. The sugar is the part people get wrong: mirin is roughly 40% sugar, and that sugar is what lets a teriyaki glaze thicken, gloss and brown. Sake alone gives you a thin, pale sauce.
At a glance
| # | Substitute | Instead of mirin, use | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sake + Sugar | 1 tbsp sake + 1 tsp sugar | Needs a tweak |
| 2 | Dry Sherry + Sugar | 1 tbsp sherry + 1 tsp sugar | Needs a tweak |
| 3 | Water + Sugar (alcohol-free) | 1 tbsp water + 1 tsp sugar | You'll taste it |
| 4 | Dry White Wine + Sugar | 1 tbsp wine + 1 tsp sugar | You'll taste it |
| 5 | Shaoxing Wine + Sugar | 1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar | You'll taste it |
Every mirin substitute
Substitutes for Mirin with ratios
1. Sake + Sugar
Needs a tweak1 tbsp sake + 1 tsp sugar
The closest swap there is, because sake is the same drink mirin is made from - it just has almost no sugar in it, so you add the sugar back yourself.
What changes
vegandairy-freegluten-free- Covers
- Sweetness
- Umami & savoury depth
- Aroma & flavour identity
- Browning & colour
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
2. Dry Sherry + Sugar
Needs a tweak1 tbsp sherry + 1 tsp sugar
A fortified wine with an oxidised, faintly nutty aroma that stands in well once you sweeten it, and it is a bottle far more Western kitchens already own than sake.
What changes
vegandairy-free- Covers
- Sweetness
- Aroma & flavour identity
- Browning & colour
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Umami & savoury depth — not covered
3. Water + Sugar (alcohol-free)
You'll taste it1 tbsp water + 1 tsp sugar
The honest alcohol-free answer, and the one to use if you are cooking for someone avoiding alcohol entirely.
What changes
Likely in your cupboardveganvegetariangluten-free- Covers
- Sweetness
- Browning & colour
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Umami & savoury depth — not covered
- Aroma & flavour identity — not covered
4. Dry White Wine + Sugar
You'll taste it1 tbsp wine + 1 tsp sugar
Works because it is alcoholic and you are adding the sugar back, but grape and rice taste different, and white wine is noticeably more acidic than mirin.
What changes
Likely in your cupboarddairy-freegluten-free- Covers
- Sweetness
- Aroma & flavour identity
- Browning & colour
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
- Umami & savoury depth — not covered
5. Shaoxing Wine + Sugar
You'll taste it1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
A Chinese fermented rice wine with a much darker, sherry-like aroma than sake.
What changes
Special tripdairy-free- Covers
- Sweetness
- Umami & savoury depth
- Aroma & flavour identity
- Browning & colour
- Misses
- Acid — not covered
Don’t use these
- Rice Vinegar On Its OwnNot for this
Which one for your recipe?
You are making a teriyaki, yakitori or nimono glaze that simmers down and has to gloss.
Sugar is the whole job here, so get the sugar right and the wine is almost interchangeable. Use 1 tbsp sake or dry sherry plus 1 tsp sugar per tablespoon of mirin, and simmer until the sauce has lost about a third of its volume and sheets off the back of a spoon. There is a step-by-step version at teriyaki sauce.
You are avoiding alcohol for religious, recovery, pregnancy or medical reasons.
Do not use sake, sherry, wine or a mirin-style seasoning, all of which contain alcohol. Use 1 tbsp water plus 1 tsp sugar and a few drops of rice vinegar per tablespoon of mirin: you lose the aroma but keep the glaze. See non alcoholic and halal.
The mirin is never heated - a cold dipping sauce, a sunomono dressing, a marinade you do not cook out.
This is the case where a straight wine swap tastes raw and boozy, because nothing burns the alcohol off. Mix your sake-and-sugar and simmer it 30 seconds, then cool it before using, or use the alcohol-free mix instead.
You are marinating oily fish - mackerel, salmon, saba - and mirin is there to take the smell down.
You need something alcoholic. Sake is the closest, Shaoxing wine works but reads Chinese rather than Japanese, and dry sherry is fine. A sugar-and-water mix cannot do this part of the job at all.
Do not start from what tastes most like mirin. Start from the sugar: mirin is roughly 40% sugar, and in most recipes that sugar is doing the visible work - the thickening, the shine, the brown. Get 1 tsp of sugar per tablespoon into whatever liquid you use and the swap holds up. Then ask two questions: is the sauce cooked (if not, simmer your mixture first), and is alcohol allowed (if not, use water and sugar rather than a mirin-style bottle).
Don’t substitute mirin here
You are about to pour vinegar into a teriyaki, yakitori, nimono or any sauce that gets simmered down.
Mirin is sweet and only faintly acidic. Rice vinegar is roughly 4 to 4.5% acetic acid, so a spoon-for-spoon swap does not approximate mirin, it acidifies the dish - and with no sugar in it, the sauce never thickens or glosses either.
The mirin goes into something served cold and never cooked - a dipping sauce, a sunomono dressing, a chilled marinade.
Mirin's alcohol is low and mellow; sake, sherry and wine taste raw and harsh when they are not cooked. Nothing in a cold sauce drives the alcohol off.
The recipe is a tested pickling, canning, fermenting or curing recipe.
In those recipes the acidity and the salt concentration are the safety controls, not seasoning choices. Swapping mirin for vinegar (or vinegar for mirin) changes the acid load, and under-acidified home-canned food can support Clostridium botulinum.
You are avoiding alcohol and thinking of buying a mirin-style seasoning instead.
Bottles labelled aji-mirin or mirin-style seasoning are not alcohol-free - most list alcohol among the first few ingredients, along with corn syrup and salt.
What mirin does in a recipe
Mirin is roughly 40% sugar, and that sugar is what makes a glaze thicken, gloss and brown. Its 14% alcohol carries aroma and takes the fishy smell off seafood as it evaporates. It is barely sour.
Tips for substituting mirin
- Mirin is roughly 40% sugar. If you remember one thing about substituting it, remember to add sugar - 1 tsp per tablespoon of whatever liquid you use.
- The shine on a teriyaki is concentrated sugar, not starch. Simmer the sauce until about a third of the volume has gone and it sheets off the back of a spoon.
- Mirin goes into fish dishes partly to kill the fishy smell: alcohol carries those compounds off as it evaporates. A sugar-and-water swap cannot do this, so rinse and dry the fish well instead.
- Add mirin early enough to simmer. Stirred in at the last second and taken off the heat, most of its alcohol stays in the sauce and tastes raw.
- Hon-mirin has no added salt; bottles labelled aji-mirin or mirin-style seasoning usually do. If you are using one of those, taste before you add the recipe's soy sauce.
- Once opened, keep hon-mirin in a cool cupboard and use it within a few months - the aroma fades long before it spoils. Mirin-style seasonings, which are lower in alcohol, do better in the fridge.