chinese red rice vinegar

Dark Chinese Vinegar! In this video we wanted to give an introduction to the main types of aged Chinese vinegars, compare them a bit with Balsamic, and do a taste test of sorts to see how well different types of vinegars - Chinese and Western - can work as a dumpling dip.

0:00 - What are the "big four" Chinese aged vinegars?
1:22 - Zhenjiang (Chinkiang) Vinegar
2:20 - Chencu (Shanxi Mature) Vinegar
3:24 - Sichuan Baoning Vinegar
4:15 - Fermentation method for Zhenjiang, Chencu, and Baoning
5:10 - Fujiang Yongchun Vinegar
6:49 - Is Balsamic the same?
7:51 - Vinegar Dumpling Taste Test
16:09 - How to substitute Chinese Dark Vinegars?

HOW TO BUY

Of the four vinegars, three seem to be around in the west - Zhenjiang (Chinkiang), Chencu (Shanxi Mature), and to a lesser extent Baoning. Zhenjiang and Chencu should be very available at your local Chinese supermarket. The brand that we used in the video is on Weee but is sold out, though there's also cheaper options:

sayweee.com/en/product/GoldPlum-Chinkiang-Vinegar/70806
sayweee.com/en/product/Zhengjiang-6-Year-Aged-Vinegar/12906

Zhenjiang is also available on Amazon (there are also cheaper options but this is the one we used in the video):

amazon.com/Chinkiang-Zhenjiang-Vinegar-Yr-Aged/dp/B00VPL24NE/

Chencu is a little harder to find, and is not on Weee, but is available on Amazon:

amazon.com/Golden-PLum-Chinkiang-Dong-Hu/dp/B079ZL2CLV?th=1

Baoning vinegar is available at Mala Market, but is sold out as of the time of writing this:

themalamarket.com/products/handmade-baoning-vinegar

As for Yongchun vinegar, there have been reports of people seeing them at Chinese grocers (one blog online said that they were able to purchase it from Sungiven Foods in Vancouver), but does not seem to be purchasable online.

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Huge thank you to the channels "Miss Dou's Fireworks" and "Qian Power Food" for the footage of the Suanlafen and making of the Yongchun vinegar, respectively.

Qian Power Food has a number of absolutely fantastic videos on his channel, me and Steph have been binging some of his content as of late. Lots of excellent Fujian content. Definitely check out the full video of Yongchun vinegar making here (in Chinese):
youtube.com/watch?v=ecuSCBegJd0

Miss Dou's Fireworks unfortunately stopped posting late last year, but has a number of wonderfully shot food videos. This Suanlafen looks fantastic:
youtube.com/watch?v=pkhn_06oAds

And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
patreon.com/ChineseCookingDemystified

Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): youtu.be/GHaL5H-VYRg