Black bean sauce
Condiment
Top 10 pairings
Black bean sauce is a pungent, intensely savoury Cantonese condiment built on douchi — fermented, salted black soybeans — mashed or left whole and bound with garlic, oil and often a little sugar, soy and starch. Deeply funky, salty and umami-rich with a winey, almost wine-cellar depth, it is the backbone of stir-fries such as beef in black bean sauce, clams in black bean sauce and steamed spare ribs.
Picking a good onedrag
Sealed, glossy, sharply funkyFizzing, fuzzy, rancid
Open and in useEveryday bestStir the risen oil back under before each spoonful. Always cook it, never spoon it on raw, and taste the dish before you reach for any more salt.
Smell at the open jarStill funky and savoury, a shade quieter, the garlic showing only once you stir the jar
The paste and its surfaceA layer of oil risen on top and a darker rim - stir it under and the gloss comes straight back
The jar and its lidLid flat and the seal sound, a little dried sauce crusted on the thread from earlier spoonfuls
Read the labelDouchi and garlic lead, with sugar, soy, salt and a little starch behind them to bind it