Baijiu, a throat-burning beverage and a key ingredient for Chinese cured meats, isn’t popular or recognized in the U.S., but its ubiquity in China makes it the best-selling liquor in the world.
What is Baijiu?
Baijiu is very popular in China, and it has a distinctive taste and smell that makes it a key ingredient in specific dishes and in Chinese cured meats.
For connoisseurs, there are many types and varieties classified by their different “fragrances,” or aromas/flavor profiles. These include strong fragrance, light fragrance, sauce fragrance, and rice fragrance. There are a bunch of other classes of fragrance, but those four are the major ones. Some, such as those of the “sauce fragrance” type, are savory in character, with flavors reminiscent of fermented soybean paste or soy sauce.
As you can see in the photos below, you may also find baijiu packaged as gifts, in fancy boxes with bright colors in patterns.
What is Baijiu Chinese Liquor made of?
Baijiu (白酒, literally: white liquor) is a type of Chinese liquor made from whole grain. It’s generally made from sorghum, though it can also be made from peas, rice, barley, wheat, or millet. It is colorless, clear, and can range in alcohol content from 40-60%. (Yes, it’s fiery, usually sipped from very small cups!)
As you can see from the label below, this Xinghua Cun Fen Chiew Baijiu (a local liquor store in Chinatown recommended it to us as a variety good for cooking and curing) was distilled from mostly sorghum, but also pea, rice, and wheat.
How To Use Baijiu In Cooking
People generally consume Baijiu as a beverage, but it can also be used in cooking. We use it for curing and preserving meats, like our Chinese Cured Pork Belly.
It also plays a primary role in preserving salted duck eggs, which can be cooked and enjoyed on their own, or prized for their yolks, which we use in mooncakes, zongzi, and even stir-fries and other desserts.
We have also had it as a flavoring in sautéed green vegetables, where the baijiu gives the delicate leafy greens a pungent and unique flavor. You can see an example of such a use in our edible clover recipe.
Buying & Storing
You can purchase baijiu from well-stocked liquor stores. Look for stores offering a wide assortment of international products––or Chinese liquor stores.
Mao Tai (茅台) is a type of baijiu first made known to the West and in the U.S. after the Chinese government served it to President Nixon on his first visit to China. It eventually became the liquor of choice for the Chinese government when serving foreign dignitaries.
A bottle of Mao Tai can run up to and over 300 USD per bottle. There are also less expensive copycat brands available that are relatively close in taste. The choice for Beijingers (where we lived temporarily back in 2012-2014) is Er Guo Tou (二锅头). It is relatively inexpensive at around $15/bottle. Generally, that’s what we buy when it’s available. In China, the amount of choice is dizzying!
Recently, we went looking in a local Chinatown liquor store for a new bottle. The store clerk recommended this Xinghua Cun Fen Chiew baijiu from Shanxi Province. He cited the fact that Chinatown chefs prefer it for lap yuk and other cooking applications, which was evidence enough for us! It was about $20 for a 750ml bottle.
Substitutions for Baijiu
If you cannot find baijiu, substitutions vary depending upon the application. For example, a good close substitute for baijiu when making cured meats is whiskey. The flavor is different, but whiskey does add a nice flavor.
Bill’s grandmother, when making her Cantonese cured meats, regularly used whiskey instead of baijiu, which is more readily available in the U.S.
Our Favorite Recipes with This Ingredient
If you have further questions about baijiu, let us know in the comments––we try to answer every single one.
