These substances that hide from us… Oyster sauce

In Asia, there are a large number of sauces to season and enhance dishes. Focus today on a sweet-salty condiment, with a slight marine taste and rich in umami: oyster sauce or ‘Oyster Sauce’…

Let’s take a close look at the composition of oyster sauce: in fact, the recipes will really vary depending on the brand. Here’s what to pay attention to.

Oyster sauce? Oyster sauces, rather

What is oyster sauce?

Oyster sauce is a condiment, initially made from salt water and… oystersas its name indicates. It is sometimes nicknamed “milk of the sea” (海底牛奶).

In cooking, we use oyster sauce for once, most of the time in hot dishes, in particular to highlight umami, the 5th taste, that of meat. In principle, you should not heat it too much so that it retains its nutrients.

It is used a lot in China, but also in other Asian countries, particularly in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Oysters and oysters

First clarification: oyster cultivation will really vary depending on location. Sometimes they are wild oysters, sometimes farmed and the packaging will not necessarily be precise on this subject. They are generally produced in Fujian and Guangdong, on the coast. The northern oyster is rich in phosphorus (180mg per 100g undried versus 10) while the southern oyster will be richer in calcium (165 mg versus 118) and vitamin A (500 AU versus 133).

Oyster sauce is made at the same time as cooked dried oysters (蚝豉) are made. We collect the cooking juices, reduce them and add them to the oyster sauce. We get a condiment.

Nutritional Analysis of Oyster Sauce

The original recipe oyster sauce is rich in:

• 22 essential amino acids (glutamic acid, nucleic acid, leucine, valine, lysine)
• trace elements (particularly zinc) and
• taurine.

It is recommended for its richness in zinc.

What is oyster sauce made of?

The easy homemade recipe

To make it at home, or according to tradition, we make caramelize an oyster brothand that’s it!

You can imagine that the recipe has been modified on an industrial scale, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about it.

What Oyster Sauce Bottle Labels Say

We can examine the composition of several brands. We have grouped different scenarios.

Oyster sauce without oysters!

Yes! Among the oyster sauces found commercially, some replace the oyster with another sauce derived from fish:

• eau
• sucre
• soy sauce
• corn starch
• fructose
• sel
• sauce poisson
• sesame oil
• flavor enhancers
• colorants

We also sometimes find caramel and vinegar.

This recipe includes a “ sauce poisson » not clearly defined, often derived from anchovies.

In the same way that we find nuoc-mâm chay, vegetarian nuoc-mâm, we find on the other hand a vegetarian oyster saucemade from mushrooms and not oysters.

Oyster sauce is most often used to enhance dishes… with umami flavors © Chaded Panichsri

Other ingredients to watch out for

Found on packaging and should be avoided:

The glutamate Monosodium is used as a thickener and flavor enhancer.

All the flavor enhancersTHE colorants and the preservatives of course.

Article updated