Where can I buy Chinese takeout sweet and sour sauce?

[MossRoad]

OK, here's the interim results. I tried a variety of sweet and sour sauces and none of them were the pink sauce from the Chinese (actually Thai) restaurant I like. It has clean restrooms. So I decided to get lunch takeout from that place today and since the beautiful hostess there speaks very little English (OK, none) and I speak zero of her language it was a tortured conversation. Basically, I think there are three popular sauces in a Thai/Chinese restaurant. Sweet and sour, spring roll and duck sauce. I ordered all three and sampled them. Duck sauce is what I was looking for.

Duck sauce is a light orange-pink kind of thing and works with fried rice and egg rolls. It's citrus-ey tasting with minor chunks of something citrus in it. Sweet and sour sauce is darker and thinner and the taste was noticeably different from the duck sauce. Spring roll sauce was also different with a sesame taste and sesame seeds in it. After figuring out what it was I asked her what the brand name was and we were stumped for a translation. Turns out they make all the sauces on the premises. She said many people get sauce to go and often sell that all by itself. I ordered a pint to go for $4.00.

Ahh, that's the taste. I put some on my General Tso's chicken, some on the fried rice and some on the lo mien just because I could. While I didn't buy any duck sauce over the weekend, I might. But I have learned there is a wide variation in regional taste and the really good stuff is home made. Let me suggest going to a great Thai place (with clean rest rooms) that makes it's own sauces and try them all. Store bought, up to this point can't hold a candle to home made. Another point here--I also believe many people put duck sauce on sweet and sour chicken in error and that's part of the confusion. They mean sweet and sour but say duck and have come to prefer that over sweet and sour.

As a side note, I went into a CAM International Asian grocery store in my search and the place was absolutely spectacular. Every kind of every food or ingredient was in the place. I'd equate it to one of us walking through the Farm Extravaganza thing coming up in Kentucky. Where do you begin? It was so great I'd suggest going through a big Asian grocery store that is clean and well stocked just for a lookee-see.

Don't expect this kind of quality reporting when the weather warms up.

Oh, well... duck sauce.... now that's a different animal. :laughing:

 

[forestcreature1]

For "duck sauce" Try this ... Buy a jar of apricot preserves. The no-name or house brand is better. The expensive brands have more chunks of apricot, but I don't like chunks in the sauce. Mix the preserves with white distilled vinegar.... to taste. :licking: If it's too thick add a little water to thin it.

Out here in the forest, we just squeeze the duck.... Although, I will speculate that a duck who has been eating apricots will have a lot more sauce than one who hasn't.

 

[MossRoad]

I thought duck sauce was plum sauce.

 

[dmccarty]

Out here in the forest, we just squeeze the duck.... Although, I will speculate that a duck who has been eating apricots will have a lot more sauce than one who hasn't.

Now, if you are going to squeeze a duck for juice, you need a duck press. The French have been doing this for danged near forever. :laughing::laughing::laughing:



From https://blog.foodservicewarehouse.com/weird-kitchen-gadget-duck-press/

It has been a long time since we've put up a weird kitchen gadget, but we are bringing it back, in a limited capacity. Rather than focusing on several weird kitchen gadgets, we are only going to focus on one per post. For our first time back into the realm of weird kitchen gadgets, I will talk about a gadget that has been on the FSW site for a long time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the duck press or poultry press. It has also been referred to as a duck crusher or duck juicer.

Each of the names used to describe the duck press is more barbaric than the last, and you may think, "That is quite a macabre-sounding name for an innocent product." nothing innocent about a duck press.

So What Is It, And What Does It Do?

A duck press is used to make a French delicacy called canard au sang (duck in its blood), also called pressed duck. The press is made of brass or another heavy metal. It has a small bucket with spigot and a heavy metal disk that attaches to a turning screw. Based on that description and the name of the dish, you can probably figure out what the duck press is used for, but just to make sure, here is a brief description of how pressed duck is made.

A duck is strangled so very little blood is lost in the slaughtering process then roasted to medium rare. The legs are removed and grilled, the breast is cut into thin slices and the liver is removed and liquefied in a blender. The remaining duck carcass goes into the press, and the server cranks the screw down. All of the blood, bone marrow and cooking juices are squeezed out of the duck. The liquefied liver and a little cognac are added to the duck juice, and everything is heated. The resulting sauce is drizzled over the breast slices and served, along with the grilled legs, to the diner.

Oh, everything after the initial roasting process takes place at the dinner table, too, so diners get a firsthand look at how pressed duck is made. You can also watch this Youtube video to see a duck press in action. WARNING: The video might not be for the faint-of-heart, so consider yourself probably warned. Bon Appetit!

You can go to the page and follow the link to watch the Youtube video of a duck press in action.... I figure TBN is a family site and watching a duck press, pressing the goo out of duck, might be too much. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[forestcreature1]

That just quacks me up
[new meds come tomorrow...]

 

[sixdogs]

Update on this--I'm the OP and learned that egg roll sauce is very frequently used for all sorts of things at the Thai restaurant I go to. What I thought was duck sauce or something else was really egg roll sauce. Luckily, they sell a 12 ? oz container-- to go --for $4 so my problem is solved. Try egg roll sauce if you are looking for any of the above sauces we discussed. It's very confusing.

 

[Dftodd]

You can always make your own

2 Tbsp corn starch
5 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp ketchup
5 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp soy sauce
1tsp salt
1 cup water

Mix in sauce pan, and heat till boils. Stir often

 

[Larry Caldwell]

You can always make your own

2 Tbsp corn starch
5 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp ketchup
5 Tbsp vinegar
2 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp soy sauce
1tsp salt
1 cup water

Mix in sauce pan, and heat till boils. Stir often

I have found that the best sweet and sour is just sweet and sour. Plums are the key to Chinese sweet and sour. I make my own plum sauce with wild plums and sugar, then add rice vinegar. Bingo, sweet and sour.

You can also buy sweet and sour sauce in any supermarket Chinese section. Even Kraft makes sweet and sour. I don't think it's as good as the simple sweet and sour I make.