Is mirin halal? Alcohol content and halal substitutes.

• Hon-mirin (true mirin) — not halal. Brewed from glutinous rice, rice koji and distilled alcohol, ending at roughly 14% alcohol by volume. It is an intoxicating rice wine sold for cooking.
• Aji-mirin / mirin-style seasoning — check the label. A cheaper syrup of corn syrup, water, salt and flavouring that usually contains 1% alcohol or less. Some brands are alcohol-free; many still add alcohol.
• Mirin-flavoured alcohol-free seasoning — halal. Sold in Malaysia, Indonesia and halal grocers, sometimes with JAKIM or MUI certification.

The prohibition of khamr covers every intoxicating drink, and the well-known principle is that what intoxicates in large amounts is forbidden in small amounts. Hon-mirin is produced as an alcoholic beverage-grade liquid and retains its alcohol in the bottle, so the majority of scholars across the four Sunni madhabs treat buying, cooking with and consuming it as impermissible.

This is the opposite of the vinegar case. When wine fully ferments into vinegar, the intoxicant is gone — a transformation called istihalah — which is why most scholars permit wine vinegar. Mirin never undergoes that change; it is used precisely because the alcohol is still there, carrying aroma and sweetness.

Only partly. Simmering reduces alcohol but does not remove it, and mirin is frequently added at the end of cooking or stirred into cold sauces, glazes and sushi rice where no heat is applied at all. More importantly, the mainstream scholarly position rules on the ingredient itself rather than on how much survives the pan, so "it burns off" is not a basis for permissibility.

• Rice vinegar + sugar (best all-round). Three tablespoons rice vinegar to one tablespoon sugar and a pinch of salt, warmed until dissolved. Use one-for-one in place of mirin.
• White grape or apple juice + vinegar. Three parts juice to one part rice vinegar gives the sweetness and gloss for teriyaki and glazes.
• Sugar syrup + lemon. Equal parts sugar and water with a squeeze of lemon works in marinades where you want shine without a strong tang.
• Alcohol-free mirin seasoning. Halal-certified bottles are widely available online and in Asian halal grocers.

For sushi rice, skip mirin altogether: rice vinegar, sugar and salt is the traditional seasoning and is halal.

Watch for mirin, hon-mirin, rice wine, sake, cooking wine and shaoxing wine in teriyaki sauce, eel (unagi) sauce, ponzu, sukiyaki broth, katsu marinades, bottled ramen bases and many packaged Japanese meal kits. Restaurant teriyaki very often contains mirin even when the dish itself is chicken or salmon.