Lard, mirin, cooking wine, gelatine: the hidden list

Five ingredients cause most of the surprises on an Asian menu: lard, cooking wine or sake, mirin, gelatine and meat-based stock. They hide in sauces, marinades, desserts and snacks, not only in the main dish. This page puts them in one place, so you can recognise them in eight cuisines.

Where your own line sits is yours to decide. For a fiqh question, ask your own ustaz or your state mufti office.

What am I looking for?

• Lard: pork fat, used to fry, to flavour rice and to make pastry.
• Cooking wine and sake: alcohol added to remove smell and soften meat or fish.
• Mirin: a sweet cooking liquor from Japan, used in glazes and simmered dishes.
• Gelatine: a gel from animal bones or skin, which can be pork-based, used in jellies, sweets and some desserts.
• Meat stock and extract: pork-bone broth or extract powder, used as the base of soups, sauces and noodles.

JNTO warns that cooking sake and mirin are used in Japanese dishes, and that some miso contains alcohol unless it is labelled additive-free¹.

Which ingredient hides where, cuisine by cuisine?

Cuisine	Ingredient to recognise	Where it shows up	Words to look for
Japanese	Mirin, cooking sake, lard, pork extract	Glazes, dipping sauces, ramen broth, curry roux	みりん, 料理酒, ラード
Korean	Mirim, rice wine, lard, meat stock	Marinades, stews, set-course drinks	미림, 술, 라드
Chinese	Shaoxing wine, lard, pork stock	Braises, stir-fries, dumpling fillings	料酒, 绍兴酒, 猪油
Taiwanese	Rice wine, lard, sesame-oil soups	Soups, braised rice, vegetarian braises	米酒, 豬油
Thai	Lard, pork slices in pots, liquor in stir-fries	Fried rice, pot dishes, garnishes	หมู, น้ำมันหมู
Vietnamese	Rice wine, lard, pork-based cold cuts	Marinades, noodle toppings, fermented rice desserts	rượu, mỡ
Indian	Gelatine, rum, shared fat	Desserts, cakes, mixed kitchens	gelatin, rum
Sri Lankan	Arrack, pork curries in mixed menus	Cakes, devilled dishes, bars	arrack

The table is a starting point, not a full list. Each cuisine has more dishes than fit here.

How do I ask without knowing the language?

Use the same four questions in any country. Show them on your phone or build them into one message with the dietary enquiry brief generator.

• “Is any lard, pork fat or pork stock in this dish?”
• “Is any wine, sake, mirin or other alcohol used in the cooking?”
• “Is there gelatine in this dessert or sweet?”
• “Is the stock made from meat?”

What if the answer is unclear?

Treat the dish as unknown, and choose a plain steamed or grilled item with few ingredients. Our five halal claim states give you a way to label each place on your route. A restaurant that is pork-free but unchecked is explained in pork-free versus halal.

Where do the sweets and snacks fit in?

Gelatine and lard also hide in bakeries and packaged snacks. See bakeries and desserts abroad for sweet treats, and vegetarian food and its hidden risks for dishes sold as meat-free.

Your next step

Copy the table into your trip notes for the countries you will visit. Then use the meal-assurance comparison tool to compare tour or hotel meal offers against your own rule. For the rest of the food checks, see the halal food hub.