用英语介绍为什么几乎所有的食谱中都有酒呀?1

If you’ve done any Chinese cooking, you’ve probably heard of Shaoxing wine. So, let’s get something

out of the way first. This is a bottle of proper Shaoxing wine that we picked up in Shaoxing, which is

a small city in the Zhejiang province outside of Hangzhou. It’s basically the Chinese equivalent of

Burgundy—delicious to drink, delicious to cook with.

如果你曾做过中国菜，你也许听到过绍兴酒。所以让我们先拿出一些东西。这是我们从绍兴买来的一瓶正宗绍兴酒，

绍兴是浙江省的一个小城市，位于杭州城外。绍兴酒基本上相当于中国的白兰地，很好喝，用来做菜也很美味。

This, meanwhile, is Liaojiu-Chinese cooking wine. For the most part, if you’ve been buying stuff

labeled ‘Shaoxing wine’ in English in the West, this is what you’re actually buying. While it is

roughly based of actual Shaoxing wine, it’s salted, spiced, and while usually totally fine to cook

with. It is decidedly not for drinking.

同时，这是料酒，是中国做菜用的酒。大多数情况下，如果你在西方买了用英文标注“绍兴酒”的东西，你实际上买

到的东西会是这种料酒。虽然它基本上是以绍兴酒为原料，它是加盐的，加香辛料的，通常用它煮饭会很好吃，但这

酒绝对不是用来喝的。

So, in our recipe videos, I know that we should probably just call Liaojiu Shaoxing, because that’s

what everyone else seems to do in English. But we stubbornly make the distinction, because Shaoxing is

a city that’s proud of its alcohol. The culture there runs deep. Wandering around the city you’ll find

that going out to eat there is often as conjoined with wine drinking as something like Spanish tapas

might be. The city is the epicenter of the rice wine that bears its name. It’s a much beloved drink

there, and you can trace its popularity all the way back to the Song dynasty.

所以，在我们的烹饪视频里，我知道我们也许应该称它为绍兴料酒。因为在英语中，其他人好像都这样说。但我们固

执地去区分两者，因为绍兴是一个因酒而自豪的城市，那里的文化源远流长，徜徉在城中，你会发现在那里外出就餐

经常与喝酒联系在一起，就像西班牙餐前小吃一样。这座城市是以其名字命名的米酒的中心，在这里，米酒是很受欢

迎的饮品，它的流行可以一直追溯到宋朝。

So then, what is Shaoxing wine?

那么，绍兴酒是什么呢？

History and Varieties

历史及种类

Shaoxing wine is a sub-category of Huangjiu rice wine. Compared to clear rice wines like Chinese Mijiu

or Japanese sake, Huangjiu’s generally a bit sweeter and made using a mix of wheat and barley Koji

rather than purely rice Koji. Shaoxing wine, meanwhile, can really refer four different types of

Huangjiu that all originated from that area.

绍兴酒是黄酒（米酒）的一个子类，与中国米酒或日本清酒等清米酒相比，黄酒一般更甜一点，用小麦曲和大麦曲混

合制成，而不是用纯大米曲。绍兴酒实际上可以同时指四种不同的黄酒，这些酒都发源于那个地区。

First sort is Yuanhongjiu, which’s dry, and generally the cheapest, most basic form of Shaoxing wine.

Second is Jiafanjiu, semi-dry, which uses Yuanhongjiu as part of its base, adds more rice, and has a

slightly higher sugar content. The third kind is Shanniangjiu, semi-sweet, which uses aged Jiafanjiu

as a base; and finally, Xiangxuejiu, which’s the sweetest of the four. While these last two are

sometimes called for in old school Imperial cuisine, what really interests us as cooks is the second

one, Jiafanjiu. This specific kind of wine became popular to cook with and drink with in Zhejiang

cuisine.

第一类是元红酒，这是一种干酒，通常是最便宜最基本的绍兴酒。第二种是加饭酒，半干，以元红酒为基础，加了更

多米并且含糖量稍高一点。第三种是善酿酒，半甜，它以陈年加饭酒作为基酒。最后是香雪酒，四种酒中最甜的酒，

虽然后两种酒有时在旧式的皇家菜肴中佐餐。作为厨师，真正让我们感兴趣的是第二种。加饭酒，这种酒在浙菜中烧

菜及佐餐都很受欢迎。

In a restaurant in ShaoXing, it’s generally this Jiafanjiu that they’ve got on the table and next to

their wok for cooking. Now just like how Parma became known for Ham and San Marzano for Tomatoes,

chefs tend to seek out the places that make the best stuff. The whole region around Hangzhou was

historically renowned for rice production, and Shaoxing’s position along the old grand canal allowed

this specific rice wine -the Jiafanjiu - to spread. Culminating in the old saying "Yuejiu xing

Tianxia", Shaoxing wine reaches everywhere under heaven.

在绍兴的一家餐馆，他们放在餐桌及做饭的炒锅边上的通常都是这种加饭酒。就像帕尔马如何因火腿而闻名，以及圣

马尔扎诺如何因西红柿而闻名一样。厨师们往往喜欢寻找出产最佳食材的地方，杭州周围的整个地区历史上因盛产大

米而闻名，以及绍兴比邻大运河的位置，让这种特殊的米酒——加饭酒——传播开来。随着一句俗语“越酒行太下”

，绍兴酒达到鼎盛，行销至天南海北。

Expensive aged varieties would get packed in specific jars for shipping, and called “Huadiao”, the

name referring the artful engravings on the jugs. Nowadays though, basically any kind of Shaoxing -

style Jiafanjiu is referred to in China as Huadiao, and abroad as Shaoxing. Among cooking wines in

China, it’s generally the nicer sort and what we’ve grown to usually use.

名贵的陈年老酒会被装进特定的坛子里运输，并被称作“花雕”。这名字是指坛子上的艺术雕刻，然而现在基本上任

何一种绍兴风格的加饭酒在中国都被称作花雕酒，在国外则称作绍兴酒。在中国的烹饪用酒中，它通常是较好的酒类

，并且我们已习惯用它。

Liaojiu, meanwhile, ferments huangjiu for only twenty days or so, then adds ethanol, and of course a

whole bunch of salt. And while that might sound damning, it honestly usually works just fine. And, you

know, you can’t argue with the price. But regardless which wine you choose, why do they seem to be

used so often?

同时，料酒只将黄酒发酵20天左右，然后加入酒精，当然还有一大堆盐。尽管这听起来可能很糟糕，但老实说，效果

还真不差，你懂的。不能考虑价格的话，为什么无论你选用哪种酒，这些酒会这么频繁地被用到呢？

Uses When Cooking

做饭时使用

So right, use number one—balancing funk.

使用方法一：去除异味。

See, there’s three categories of ‘unpleasant odors’ in Chinese cooking: shanwei, which’s sort of like

gaminess; xingwei, or fishiness; and saowei, which’s the poultry equivalent. Unlike in English though

where ‘gamey’ is thought of as kind of a binary thing ‘Shanwei’ can encompass things that’re very

shan like mutton to things that’re a little shan like pork. Ditto with the other flavors, fish

that’ve been caught and killed via suffocation can get pretty fishy, but in China, an egg is also

sometimes conceptualized as a little fishy. So Chinese cooking’s often a game of counteracting and

balancing those flavors.

比如在中餐烹饪中，有三种讨厌的味道：膻味，有点像肉腐败的臭味。腥味或鱼腥味还有骚味，相当于家禽的味道。

尽管不像在英语里那样，“膻味”被认为是有两种味道，膻味可包含非常膻的东西，比如羊肉，到有点膻的东西，比

如猪肉，其他口味也是一样被捕获。窒息而死的鱼会变得很有鱼腥味。但在中国，鸡蛋有时也被认为有点鱼腥味，所

以中国烹饪通常是一种抵消平衡这些味道的游戏。

And for whatever reason, this kind of wine seems to do a really good job with funk in general. Ever

wonder how some people can enjoy straight up unfried stinky tofu? Try chasing that stinky tofu with a

good Shaoxing wine. I don’t know why, but the flavors really really work together. So that’s why

you’ll see Shaoxing wine so much in Chinese marinades. It’s less for texture, and more for taste. So,

while any of these Huangjiu rice wines are often preferred, you can swap for Mijiu rice wine, a

Japanese sake, a cheap bourbon some dry white wine, just use your own judgment.

不管什么原因，总的来说，这种酒似乎对臭味很有效。有没有想过，有些人怎么能直接享用未经油炸的臭豆腐? 试着

在臭豆腐后喝一口上好的绍兴酒，我不知道什么原因，但是味道真的很搭，这就是为什么绍兴酒在中国腌渍食品中会

很常见，不是为了口感，而更是为了味道。因此，虽然这些黄酒通常都是首选，但你仍可以用米酒、日本清酒、便宜

的波旁威士忌和某些干白来代替，自己根据自己的判断来就好。