Hoisin sauce

Sauce hoisin

What it is

Hoisin is haixian, sea-fresh, though the sauce holds no seafood at all — the early Lingnan versions did include fermented fish, and the name outlived the ingredient once seafood grew expensive. What remains is fermented soybean sweetened and spiced, used in China for dipping and glazing rather than as the duck-pancake sauce it became abroad, where the traditional choice is often tianmianjiang.

In the kitchen

Its sugar burns: brush it on in the last five minutes of roasting, or under a low grill, never at the start. For a dip, thin it with water and rice vinegar at roughly three parts sauce to one of each, or it simply coats the tongue.

Goes with

Duck Pork Cucumber Spring onion Star anise Sesame

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd

Also used with

Pekin duck Chinese rose wine

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