XO sauce
Condiment
Top 10 pairings
XO sauce is a luxurious, spicy seafood relish invented in 1980s Hong Kong, built from finely chopped dried scallops, dried shrimp, cured ham and chilli fried in oil. Despite the name it contains no Cognac — "XO" was borrowed from the brandy grade as shorthand for top quality and prestige.
Picking a good onedrag
Clear oil, shreddy, deep-savouryRancid, fizzing, fuzzy
Open and in useEveryday bestStir from the bottom so each spoonful catches oil and shreds together. It is very salty, so add it by the spoonful and salt the dish afterwards.
Smell at the open jarStill deeply savoury but quieter, the scallop showing only once you stir the jar up from the bottom
The oil cap and the lidOil and solids fully parted after standing - ordinary settling, and one stir folds the two back together
What the spoon liftsSofter and more paste-like, but the seafood still pulls into strands rather than smearing flat on the spoon
Read the labelScallop present but further down, shrimp and chilli leading: a hotter, cheaper jar that still tastes of the sea