Sake - the composition and beneficial properties of a Japanese drink; production of rice vodka; how to drink properly; recipe how to make sake at home. Sake - the history of the drink and what it is made of, homemade recipes

how to make sake at home

1. homemade sake
   Making your own sake is very simple and you already have almost everything you need at home. With our recipe, you will be able to taste homemade sake in 3 weeks 🙂
   Equipment:
   Steamer or saucepan;
   Glass jar for canning;
   measuring cup;
   Gauze.
   To make one bottle (jar) of sake, we need:
   1 cup rice;
   1/2 cup koji;
   1 1/2 cups of water;
   1 tsp lemon or lime juice;
   1/2 tsp baker's yeast.
   Leave the rice to soak overnight for the best flavor in the final product. Once the rice has absorbed all the water, you can start cooking it. Steaming rice is best, but you can do it any way you like. Try to cook the rice for as long as possible, this will lead to the strengthening of the walls of the grains and, accordingly, to a longer fermentation. And the longer the sake ferments, the better it tastes.
   Once the rice has cooled, transfer it to a bottle or jar where the future sake will ferment as evenly as possible. Be sure to sterilize the dishes before starting cooking, the quality of the future sake depends on the cleanliness of the bottle / jar more than anything else.
   Add to all remaining ingredients, close the lid and shake to completely mix the contents. Keep jars in a cool, dark place and shake daily, slightly opening the lid for gas exchange.
   After a few days you will notice that the sake has fermented and little bubbles will rise to the top of the jar. This process will end by the third week of confinement, and then sediment will be noticeable at the bottom of the jar, and bubbles will stop appearing.
   Now you need to strain the sake with cheesecloth, while trying to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. The sediment from the bottom of the jar can be used as a fish marinade.
   If you plan to consume all of your sake within a month, you can simply bottle it up and refrigerate it. If you do not count on such a short time, then you need to sterilize sake for 10 minutes at a temperature of 60C. The resulting sake will be cloudy white, but if you want the sake to become clear, let it sit in the refrigerator.
   The resulting sake should be 15-20% ABV, if this is too strong for you, then add a teaspoon of sugar to the bottle. Happy sakepita!
2. Dear Ekaterina!
   In general, sake is a product of the distillation of rice mash. Make rice mash, distill it 1 time, and here you get the required drink. But there is an easier way. You can get something resembling sake like this: take any distillate, carefully pour it into a porcelain flat plate, set it on fire. What remains after "burning out" will turn out to be very tasty. I always demonstrate this trick using the example of "Kosogorov Moonshine" - here, look how it burns (the cover of the book about our drink, I did not find another photo of the burning moonshine at the moment).
   Good luck!
3. Vadim, what an erroneous reasoning! At least read Wikipedia first.
4. Hee hee, put on a kimono, pour vodka into a thimble, here you have sake)))))))))))))))))))))

In cooking, sake is widely used in the preparation of a variety of delicacies. This drink goes well with fish products. In order to remove an unpleasant aftertaste, it is necessary to water the fish before the frying process, only the sake must first be diluted. Sake is also used in the preparation of an exotic fish component, such as fugue.

In addition, this drink is ideally combined with chicken dishes. A real masterpiece is Japanese fries, for cooking this exotic meat dish sake is also used. And the most interesting thing is that magic sake can be prepared at home, and you can find the recipe for making this drink on our website!

How to make sake at home

The sake recipe is quite easy and simple, so even a novice cook can handle it. You can also use homemade sake to prepare exquisite and unusual dishes, and the recipes posted on our website will help you create culinary masterpieces.

All the hostesses have already understood that there is a recipe that will help you prepare sake at home. But you still need to know how to drink sake, right? This drink has its own culture of consumption. It is served in a jug called tokkuri, then the sake is poured into cups - choco. According to Japanese traditions, sake is poured to guests before each toast. And before drinking a drink, the Japanese say - compay, which means - to the bottom.

Sake is drunk warm or cold, with the addition of ice cubes, it all depends on personal preference. Depending on the type of drink, the methods of consumption may vary.

For example, on hot summer days, you need to drink a lighter sake, and in a cold winter, a stronger one, and even warmer. This method of application is called - kanzake. He snacks on sake, Japanese dishes, and nuts, chips and cheese. So, if you decide to make sake at home, then the recipe for making this drink is at your service.

During the cooking process, you may encounter some difficulties. First you have to find the right ingredients: round rice grains, steamed rice, koji rice, yeast. If each of these components can be bought in any store, then kodi-kin seeds will be difficult, this component is difficult to find, but it can be purchased in a Japanese store or on the Internet. First, rice sourdough must be obtained, it is necessary in order for the sake to ferment properly. Everything else is done strictly according to the recipe.

Well, now we give everything into your hands and hope that you will be able to prepare the most delicious and aromatic sake drink!

The Japanese believe that drinking sake is conducive to confidential communication and strengthening of friendship. This is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks, it began to be made about two thousand years ago. We will look at the features of the use of sake and the ceremony of serving it.

Sake(jap. 酒 Sake) - a traditional Japanese alcoholic drink with a strength of 14-16% vol. greenish or yellow-amber in color with a bitter aftertaste, obtained by fermenting coarse-grained rice with a special type of koji yeast. The taste of sake stands out notes of apples, bananas, grapes, cheese, fresh mushrooms and soy sauce. At home, this alcohol is called “nihonshu”, since in Japanese the word “sake” means any alcoholic drink, but due to inaccurate translation, this particular term has entered international use.

The common people consider sake to be rice vodka, but this is fundamentally wrong, since the drink does not undergo distillation or rectification, and in our understanding, it is closest to filtered rice mash. There is also the name “rice wine”, which can only be considered partly correct, since fruit and berry raw materials are used in winemaking. According to organoleptic properties, sake has no analogues.

Sake appeared about two thousand years ago at the court of Japanese emperors and Shinto shrines. In the Middle Ages, the village communities adopted the recipe. The ancient production technology was different from the modern one: at first, rice was chewed in the mouth and spit into fermentation tanks, it was a long and laborious process. Later, the Japanese learned to use the type of mold fungus Aspergillus oryzae - "koji" to start fermentation. In the 17th century, sake began to be exported to other Asian countries.

sake production technology

Sake requires coarse-grained rice with a high starch content. First, the rice is polished to remove the grain shell and germ, which, during fermentation, introduce an unpleasant aroma and flavor into the sake. Ceteris paribus, the higher the degree of polishing of rice, the better the quality of sake, the acceptable range of polishing is 30-70%. This means that for expensive varieties of sake, up to 70% of the grain is turned, using only 30% of the core of the grains in production.

The polished rice is washed, soaked for 2-24 hours (the higher the degree of polishing, the less time is required), then steamed. The rice must be softened, but not overcooked, otherwise the fermentation will be too fast and the sake will not have time to absorb all the flavor notes.

Pre-activated koji molds, water and yeast are added to steamed rice. For successful fermentation, rice in starch needs to be broken down into simple sugars. In the production of whiskey and other grain distillates, malt is used for this - germinated grain, and in sake, starch is processed to sugars by “kozdi”. This is the main difference between sake and other grain-based alcoholic beverages.

Rice must ferments at a temperature of 15-20 ° C (expensive varieties at 10 ° C) for 18-40 days. The longer the fermentation period, the higher the quality of the finished drink. The fermented wort is first filtered, it turns out an elite sake. The wort is then pressed to extract the remaining liquid from it, thus obtaining the usual varieties.

According to Japanese law, sake can only be called a drink that does not contain sediment, so all types are filtered, sometimes activated charcoal is used for this purpose. Also, most sake is pasteurized to kill any leftover yeast that can cause re-fermentation in the bottle. The sake is then placed in special aging tanks for 6-12 months. Ultimately, the strength of sake is 18-20% vol., but before bottling the drink is usually diluted to 14-16%, because the Japanese do not like strong alcohol.

Ways to drink sake

Sake is drunk chilled or heated. The choice of method depends on the quality and price of the drink. Indirectly, the quality of sake is determined by the degree of polishing of rice; for elite varieties, this figure should not be lower than 50-60%. The essence of grinding is that the surface containing essential oils is removed from the rice grain, due to which an unpleasant aftertaste appears in the drink. Quality is ultimately determined by price.

Expensive premium sake is served cold (5°C) in wine glasses. The participants of the feast bring a glass to eye level, without clinking glasses, pronounce the word “kampai” - a universal Japanese toast, literally translated as “Drink to the bottom!”. Then a small sip is taken. As an appetizer, traditional Japanese dishes such as sushi and rolls are served. Good sake should not be served with spicy dishes, as they distort the taste.

Sake of lower quality is drunk warmed from a ceramic jug (tokkuri) and small cups (choco), the capacity of the latter is designed for 2-3 sips. Heating solves two problems at once: it allows you to warm up in the cold and hide the shortcomings of the drink itself.

Sake is heated in a water bath, the optimum serving temperature is 15-30°C. The cup is filled before each toast. It is considered indecent to pour sake to yourself, this should be done by another participant in the feast. Hot sake is eaten with seafood, sandwiches, meat, vegetables and other dishes. The choice of food is not as strict as in the first case.

Every nation in the world has its own national alcoholic drink: the Mexicans have tequila, the Irish and Scots have whiskey, the inhabitants of the island of Barbados once gave the world rum, and in Russia, as we all know, traditional mead and polugar were replaced by vodka, which has become a real brand, the ownership of which we even tried to challenge entrepreneurs from the US and Poland. There is also alcohol in the Land of the Rising Sun - the traditional strong drink of the samurai - sake. It’s a long way for us to fly to Japan, but there is no exotic, and the broad Russian soul will require it. The question arises - is it possible to cook sake at home?

It is foolish to believe that in order to surprise guests with a Japanese drink, it is enough to put on a kimono, re-label Russian vodka and serve it hot! Traditional sake - rice wine - is the product of enzymatic fermentation of ingredients, with an alcohol content of about 15-19%. Sake is not distilled, and the production technology in many ways resembles the production of European beer. Rice vodka, or shochu, whose strength corresponds to 40%, is obtained by distillation of sake itself.

To make our own sake, we need clean water, high quality polished rice and rice malt. Getting rice malt at home will not be any particular problem: this will require 800 gr. rice (you can use both long grains and medium grains). Rice should be washed at least 8 times until the water runs clear. The washed rice is soaked for an hour and a half, and then it is thrown back onto a sieve, allowing the liquid to drain completely. After that, the rice is placed in a double boiler and heated with steam until the grains become translucent. The steamed rice is cooled to 30°C, transferred to a sterilized container (can be enameled or stainless steel) and a teaspoon (3 gr.) of a special mold - koji is added, this yeast provides such a high yield of alcohol. To make the koji more evenly distributed among the rice, they can be mixed with a couple of teaspoons of wheat flour and sifted into the rice through a strainer. The finished mixture must be wrapped and put to ferment at 30 ° C, stirring every ten hours. After 15 hours, the rice acquires a strongly pronounced cheese flavor. Rice malt, or kome-koji, will be ready in 40 hours.

The second important sourdough is Moto. To prepare it, you need to mix 270 ml of purified water, 187.5 gr. steamed rice, 75 gr. kome-koji and 5 grams of lager yeast (brewer's yeast, active at a temperature of about 7-10 ° C). The resulting mixture is kept in a refrigerator at a temperature of 5-10°C. Over the next 10 days, the starter will change its texture from swollen grains to a creamy soup and taste from sweetish to sour and bitter. You need to shake your motorcycle several times a day.

Important rule! To grow exactly the required type of mold, all products must be placed in sterile containers. If the product comes out with a sharply unpleasant odor or incredible forms of mold (koji mushrooms germinate, forming small white fibers on the surface of the rice), do not risk trying such a product so as not to end up in a hospital bed with poisoning. Kome-koji sourdough should always be white or tan in color.

Once we have the right Kome-koji and Moto starters, we can start making sake. Mixing of ingredients is carried out in stages over 4 days. On the first day, you need to take the whole moto, 375gr. steamed rice, 150 gr. rice malt and 450 ml. water purified from impurities of chlorine and iron. Everything is placed in a container with a volume of at least 12 liters and infused at a temperature of 10-15 ° C. After 15 hours, the mass is gently mixed. Also, during the second day, rice is only stirred.

On the third day, another 750 grams of chilled and steamed rice, 1170 ml, will have to be added to the beer mass. water and 225 gr. kome-koji, carefully but carefully, mixing everything. To activate the activity of the yeast, we do not disturb the starter for the first 10 hours, and then we interfere every few hours. The container must be kept at a temperature of 10-15°C.

On the fourth day, we steam another 1125 gr. rice, cool and add to the container with the sourdough, put 335 gr. kome-koji and 2250 ml. purified water. We mix everything again. The mixing order and holding temperature are the same as on the third day.

In the next 3 days, the activity of the yeast should be observed, which will lead to the formation of a large amount of foam. From the eighth to the twentieth day of infusion, the activity of the yeast will decrease, and the degree will increase. When the strength reaches 19%, the mixture is filtered through a silk cloth, pasteurized and bottled in sterilized bottles. Pasteurization is carried out by heating the filtered mass at 55°C for five minutes. The pasteurized drink is stored in a dark, cool place, and the uncorked bottle should only be kept in the refrigerator.

Sake is served both chilled at a temperature of about 5 degrees, and warmed up to 60 degrees. Cold sake warms the body and keeps the mind clear, while hot sake intoxicates very quickly. It is poured into small porcelain cups (choco) from a special jug (tokkuri).

Obtaining sake is not so difficult and costly, but troublesome. Therefore, decide for yourself, gentlemen, moonshiners, whether or not to drink sake prepared on their own.