Shaoxing wine

Amber rice wine from Zhejiang, fermented with a wheat-based qu starter that gives it an aged, sherry-like character quite unlike clear rice wines. Around 15 percent alcohol. Its job in a hot pan is solvent: it dissolves aroma compounds that neither fat nor water reaches and lifts the fond, then evaporates. Add it to a genuinely hot dry pan and let it hiss completely away. Raw or half-cooked it reads harsh and boozy. The supermarket bottles labelled as cooking wine are usually salted, which shifts the seasoning of the dish.