Characteristics of black pepper sauce, cooking options. Calorie content, benefits and harms, recipes.
Black pepper sauce is a dressing of the national cuisine of Southeast Asia, the main ingredients of which are soy sauce and black ground pepper. The aroma is peppery, the taste is spicy, sweetish, with a long-lasting aftertaste, the color depends on additional ingredients, in Chinese cuisine it is maroon, dark brown, almost black, the consistency is thick, viscous. The taste of the adapted European version is softened with cream and butter.
How is black pepper sauce made?
At food factories, black pepper, rice bran oil, shallots, garlic, citric acid, corn starch, soy concentrate, and water are used as ingredients for making the sauce. A high amount of flavoring agents, thickeners, preservatives are introduced. Main additional components: potassium sorbate, monosodium glutamate, sodium benzoate, sugar clare, flavorings.
In small food factories in China and Hong Kong, the raw materials are first dry-blended before soy sauce is added. Onions and garlic are dehydrated. The intermediate product enters the dispersant - a device that can combine even immiscible substances. This helps to avoid further delamination. During the combination of the components, preservatives and flavor enhancers are added. The finished product is pasteurized and sent for hot filling and packaging in glass bottles.
Making black pepper sauce in Thai factories has been simplified. Dry and liquid ingredients are not combined. Each is packaged in foil packages and put into a common bag. The consumer can achieve the desired pungency by himself. If you want a softer taste, skip the entire pepper mixture. You should not expect naturalness from such a product, but the taste is the same as that of an expensive analogue.
How to make black pepper sauce at home:
- Sichuan recipe … Chop a quarter of a medium onion and 5 garlic teeth. Heat butter in a wok, fry the onion until soft, add garlic and leave on fire until a rich aroma is felt. 1, 5 tsp peppercorns are pounded with pestle in a mortar (the mill is not used, the powder structure is not needed), poured into a pan with 1 tbsp. l. dark cane sugar (refined sugar will not give the desired flavor), pour in 1 tbsp. l. light soy sauce and 1.5 cups of pre-cooked broth, bring to a boil. Dilute 1 tsp. corn starch in 2 tbsp. l. water, thicken the contents of the pan, add some salt to taste and evaporate to a jelly consistency. After cooling, it is advisable to use a blender to obtain a homogeneous structure. You should not get carried away with evaporation, it is enough to achieve a viscous oily structure.
- American recipe … A black pepper sauce is prepared, as in the Sichuan version, but the taste is softened not with soy sauce, but with cream. Finely chop the shallots and 3 cloves of garlic, fry in the same way as described, pour in a glass of beef broth and boil until the liquid has evaporated by 1/3. Pour in a glass of cream and continue to evaporate until a creamy consistency, add a little sugar and salt to taste, add 25 g of crushed black pepper. After the seasoning has cooled, let it brew for 15 minutes and rub through a sieve.
- Hong kong recipe … 2 tbsp is heated in a wok. l. sesame oil of the first extraction, fry 2 crushed garlic teeth and 50 g of grated ginger root. As soon as they begin to feel a pungent smell, pour in 3 tbsp. l. dark soy sauce and add 25 g of crushed peppercorns. Stew for 15 minutes over very low heat.
- The oldest recipe … This is how the black pepper sauce was made in the Middle Ages by French chefs who tried Chinese seasoning. An overdried slice of black bread is soaked in sour grape juice or vinegar, boiled with 1 tsp. grated ginger root, add 4 tbsp. l of red wine and the same amount of wine vinegar, evaporated until thickened. Pour 5 tbsp. l. peppercorns, bring to a boil and remove from heat. Interestingly, the desired pungency is achieved with vinegar.
- Pepper sauce with cognac … Melt 60 g of butter in a frying pan and fry finely chopped onion until transparent - 1 large head. Pour in 100 g of brandy, add 25-20 g of black pepper, set the contents on fire with a match in a frying pan. When the flame goes out, muffle the fire under the pan, pour in the cream and evaporate to the consistency of a thick jelly. Salt if necessary.
Japanese or Chinese black pepper sauce recipes include ingredients such as bonito (tuna flakes), oyster, or fish sauce. However, these spices did not gain popularity. The fishy aroma suppresses the smell of spices, and Europeans simply cannot feel the variety of tastes. But products with cream have gained popularity.
If you don't have time to prepare yourself, you can buy a black pepper sauce made in Hong Kong or Taiwan, season with cream, and enjoy the mild flavor. In Ukraine, a 350 g container is offered for 166 hryvnia, in Russia - for 300 rubles.
