The surprising complexity of a classic Chinese condiment

[Jilly_in_VA]

Oyster sauce is a much-loved ingredient of the Chinese dinner table. How is it made, and why is it so irresistible?

Of all the intriguing condiments in Chinese cooking, there is one whose moniker probably raises more questions than it answers: that is, oyster sauce. How, you might wonder idly, can such a pale, briny food item as the oyster, rarely cooked, produce something so deeply brown and velvety?

Even if you've never used it yourself, you've almost certainly had oyster sauce many times, in a wide variety of familiar Chinese dishes. The comforting savouriness of beef with broccoli owes much to this glossy brown sauce, and chow mein, likewise. Oyster sauce is salty and sweet, with a kiss of ginger and a strong umami punch. It has a long history, one that runs in parallel with that of other delicious brown gooey sauces from around the world.

Oyster sauce gets its colour from a source known to everyone who's browned bacon or onions: the Maillard reaction, in which heat causes proteins and sugars to react together, deepening in hue as they become even more delicious. The sauce is made from the liquid oysters have been poached in, boiled until it's caramelised and dark and then enriched with soy sauce and spices. It is not, like a fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce, usually a product of fermentation. In one charming video, a couple in Shenzhen, China, demonstrate the traditional method with many hours of simmering in a wok (a bottle of beer appears part way through – the perfect accompaniment to some fishy hijinks).

Interestingly, while it has likely been made for ages, oyster sauce as a marketable concept is not terribly old. It was in 1888 that the founder of the most prominent oyster sauce brand, Lee Kum Kee, began to package and sell what company legend describes as an overboiled oyster soup turned to briny, savoury goo. Since its founding in Zhuhai, China, the company has become a global condiment behemoth. It's not the only sauce on the market, but it is everywhere, and chances are, if you've had oyster sauce, you've had Lee Kum Kee.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220426-the-surprising-complexity-of-a-classic-chinese-condiment
__________________________________________________________________________________
This made me hungry for dinner, and I haven't even had lunch yet......

[BlueGreenLady]

1. Yum

I'll have to put it on the shopping list.

[justhanginon]

2. When I make fried rice I use a mix of soy and oyster sauce, 2/3 soy to 1/3 oyster sauce.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. I have been using

kimchi and a gochujang sauce that I pick up at our local market for that. I'm thinking in terms of beef with broccoli and mushrooms in oyster sauce tonight though.......

[Paper Roses]

4. Great Info. Now can you explain Lobster Sauce?

I've been told there is no lobster in it. True?

[Warpy]

5. It was a mild flavored sauce developed to flavor lobster

in Cantonese restaurants from the mid Atlantic to New England. As lobster became less a trash fish and more an overpriced delicacy, most restaurants switched to stir frying shrimp with it, hence the "shrimp in lobster sauce" on the menu.

I disliked it wholeheartedly the only time I ever had it, thought it ruined the flavor of the shrimp. YMMV.

I agree with the poster above about the use of oyster sauce in fried rice. Fermented oysters do lovely things to it.

[trof]

6. Just used some in a dip for gyoza.

I love it.
Great in/on scrambled eggs.