Hoisin sauce

Hoisin sauce
Jiaozi with hoisin sauce
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	海鮮醬
Simplified Chinese	海鲜酱
Literal meaning	seafood sauce
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin hǎixiānjiàng IPA [xàɪɕjɛ́ntɕɑ̂ŋ] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping hoi2 sin1 zoeng3 IPA [hɔ̌ːi ɕíːn tsœ̌ːŋ] Yale Romanization hoi2 sin1 jeung3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ hái-sian-chiùⁿ
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese	tương đen
Literal meaning	black sauce

Hoisin sauce is a thick, pungent sauce commonly used in Chinese cuisine as a glaze for meat, an addition to stir fries, or as dipping sauce. It is darkly colored in appearance and sweet and salty in taste. Although regional variants exist, hoisin sauce usually includes soy beans, red chillies and garlic. Vinegar, Chinese five spice and sugar are also commonly added. The word hoisin is from the Chinese word for seafood (海鮮, Cantonese: hoi2 sin1 Mandarin: hǎixiān), but the sauce does not contain any seafood ingredients.

Ingredients

Peking-style hoisin sauce ingredients include starches such as sweet potato, wheat or rice, and water, sugar, soybeans, sesame seeds, white distilled vinegar, salt, garlic, red chili peppers, and sometimes preservatives or coloring agents. Traditionally, hoisin sauce is made using toasted mashed soy beans. Despite the literal meaning, hoisin sauce does not contain seafood, nor is it typically used with it. This sauce does not contain plums, even though it is frequently misidentified as plum sauce in the United Kingdom. It also contains no raisins, even though it is occasionally misidentified as raisin sauce.

Regional

Chinese cuisine

Hoisin sauce on a Peking duck wrap

A number of Chinese cuisine dishes such as spring rolls, mu shu pork, popiah, Peking duck and barbecued pork use the sauce. It is especially common in Cantonese cuisine flavoring.^[1]

Vietnamese cuisine

In Vietnamese, hoisin sauce is called "tương đen". It is a popular condiment for phở, a Vietnamese noodle soup. However, as a condiment, it is primarily used in Southern style phở. Hoisin sauce is not served alongside Northern style phở. The sauce can be directly added into a bowl of phở at the table, or can be used as a side dip for the meat of phở dishes. In phở, hoisin is typically accompanied by Sriracha sauce or "tương đỏ". The hoisin sauce is also used to make dipping sauce for Vietnamese spring rolls and other dishes similar to spring/summer rolls. In cooking, it can be used for glazing broiled chicken.

See also

• Duck sauce
• List of dips
• List of sauces
• Plum sauce
• Siu haau sauce, primary Chinese BBQ sauce
• Soy sauce
• Sweet and sour sauce

References

External links

• More about hoisin sauce and recipes