Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine, and cooking methods common to Eurasia. Sweet and sour sauce has remained popular in Asian and Western cuisines since the Middle Ages.
By region
East Asia
Chinese cuisine
Sweet and sour dishes, sauces, and cooking methods have a long history in China. One of the earliest recordings of sweet and sour may come from
Shaowei Yanshi Dan (),
a menu of the food served in
Tang dynasty (618–907) "Shaowei banquet
" festivals written in 708. It included many sweet and sour adjacent dishes and recorded that they were invented by Chancellor
Wei Juyuan under Emperor Zhongzong of Tang when he hosted the Emperor at his house. Some authors say that the original sweet and sour sauce () came from the Chinese province of
Henan,
but the sauce in this area is a light
vinegar and sugar mixture not resembling what most people, including the Chinese, would call sweet and sour. Many places in China use a sweet and sour sauce as a dipping sauce for fish and meat rather than in cooking, as is common in Westernized Chinese cuisine.
This style of using sauces is popular amongst Chinese who tie certain sauces to particular meats such as chili and soy for shrimp and vinegar and
garlic for goose. There are, however, some dishes, such as the Cantonese sweet and sour pork or loong har kow (sweet and sour lobster balls), in which the meat is cooked and a sauce added to the
wok before serving.
Not all dishes are cooked; some, such as "sweet and sour fruit and vegetable" salad from the eastern regions of China, also find their way in Chinese cuisine.
In China, the sauces are traditionally made by mixing sugar or honey with a sour liquid such as rice vinegar or soy sauce and spices such as ginger and cloves. Sometimes a paste made from tomatoes is used, but this is rare and normally restricted to Western cooking.
Cantonese sweet and sour sauce is the direct ancestor of the sauce of the same name in the West and was originally developed for sweet and sour pork. The late Hong Kong chef Leung King included the following as his sweet and sour sauce recipe: white rice vinegar, salt, Chinese brown candy, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and dark soy sauce. Hong Kong's gourmet Willie Mark Yiu-Tong (better known as Wei Ling|唯靈), a longtime friend of Leung, suggests to contemporary eateries not to resort to cheap bulk manufactured versions of vinegar, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, or the sauce will risk being too sharp in taste and might break the balance of flavors. He suggests the more acidic white rice vinegar could be replaced with apple cider vinegar and that ketchup and Worcestershire sauce should be of renowned gourmet brands.
Hong Kong/Cantonese
The original Cantonese sweet and sour pork (l=rumbling meat) is made with vinegar, preserved plums and hawthorn candy for an almost scarlet color and sweet-sour taste.
[CNN Go 40 Hong Kong foods we can't live without 13 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-09] A related
Hong Kong/Cantonese-based dish is sweet and sour spare ribs (links=no). The methods used are identical, with spareribs used instead of pork loin.
Guo bao rou
Guo bao rou ( links=no) is a classic dish from
Northeast China originating in
Harbin,
Heilongjiang Province.
It consists of large thinly sliced pieces of pork tenderloin in
potato starch batter, deep-fried twice until crispy. They are then lightly coated in a variation of a sweet and sour sauce, made from freshly prepared
syrup and rice vinegar, and flavored with ginger and garlic. The batter absorbs the sauce and softens. A Beijing variant has the sauce thin and watery, while the dish as prepared in Liaoning Province often has a thicker sauce made with ketchup (tomato sauce). However, the true or original version of guō bāo ròu served in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, is made with an amber-colored sauce due to the fact that it uses caramelized sugar.
A similar dish is gu lao rou or sweet and sour pork.
Squirrel fish
Originating in Suzhou,
Jiangsu province, the
Squirrel fish () has a crisp skin but soft center. The fish body of
Siniperca chuatsi is scored such that it fans out when cooked, similar in appearance to a bushy squirrel tail. The fish is served with a sweet and sour sauce drizzled on top and garnished with a little shrimp meat and dried bamboo shoots.
Sweet and sour Yellow River carp
A specialty of
Shandong province, in particular the city of
Jinan,
the Yellow River carp is prepared by making diagonal slices partway through its flesh. It is next coated in corn flour, then deep-fried, causing the fish to curl and the slices to open out. Finally, a sweet and sour sauce is poured over the cooked fish. This is one of the distinctive dishes typical of
Shandong cuisine.
Sweet and sour spare ribs
A popular dish in
Shanghai cuisine, sweet and sour spare ribs () are made using pork ribs that are lightly coated in cornstarch and seasoned before being fried and served in a sweet and sour sauce.
Korean cuisine
In
South Korea, a sweet and sour meat dish known as
tangsuyuk () is one of the most popular Korean Chinese dishes. Made with either
Pork loin or
beef, the bite-sized pieces are usually coated with
Potato starch/sweet potato starch/
cornstarch or glutinous rice flour and double-fried in oil.
The dish is served with sweet and sour sauce, typically made by boiling
vinegar,
sugar, and water with a variety of fruits and vegetables like
carrot,
cucumber,
onion, wood ear mushroom, and
pineapple. Starch slurry is used to thicken the sauce.
Europe
English cuisine
Sweet and sour sauces have been used in
English cuisine since the
Middle Ages, with recipes for sweet and sour meat and fish in the 1390 cookery book
The Forme of Cury.
French cuisine
In
French cuisine, a sweet and sour sauce base made from sugar and vinegar is a
gastrique. Aigre-doux is a sweet and sour sauce in general.
[Sarah Labensky, Alan Hause (1999) On Cooking 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, New Jersey ]
Italian cuisine
Agrodolce () is a traditional sweet and sour
sauce in
Italian cuisine. Its name comes from
agro () and
dolce (). Agrodolce is made by reducing sour and sweet elements, traditionally
vinegar and
white sugar. Sometimes, additional flavorings are added, such as
wine,
fruit, or even
chocolate. One recipe for lamb agrodolce is served over
rigatoni or wide noodles, such as
pappardelle.
Some agrodolce recipes can be used as pickling brine for preserving fruit.
Southeast Asia
Filipino cuisine
In
Filipino cuisine, sweet and sour sauces are known as
agre dulce or
Filipino sweet and sour sauce. They are made by mixing
cornstarch with water, salt, sugar, and a tangy ingredient (typically
tomato ketchup,
banana ketchup, or
). The mixture is brought to a boil then simmered until it thickens.
may also be added.
The name means "sour-sweet" in Philippine Spanish, from
Spanish language agrio ("sour") and
dulce ("sweet"). It is also known as
agri dulci in
Chavacano and the phrase can refer to dishes cooked with the sauce.
is commonly used as a dipping sauce for appetizers like
lumpia or
okoy.
Fusion cuisine
Sweet and sour chicken is a dish frequently served in Chinese restaurants in various countries in Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America and available at some restaurants in East Asia and Southeast Asia in an essentially identical version. The dish generally comprises cubes of white meat chicken deep-fried in batter and served with sweet and sour sauce. Sometimes it is topped with pineapple, green pepper, carrot, or sweet pickles.
Sweet and sour pork is a Chinese dish particularly popular in Westernized Cantonese cuisine and may be found worldwide. Several provinces in China produce various dishes that claim to be the ancestor, including a traditional Jiangsu dish called "pork in a sugar and vinegar sauce" (糖醋里脊; pinyin: táng cù lǐjǐ). The dish consists of deep-fried pork cut into bite-sized pieces and subsequently stir frying in a more customized version of sweet and sour sauce made of sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce and additional ingredients including pineapple, bell pepper (capsicum), and onion. In more elaborate preparations, the dish's tartness is controlled by requiring that Chinese white rice vinegar be used sparingly and using ketchups with less vinegary tastes, while some restaurants use unripe kiwifruits and HP sauce in place of vinegar. [pg 27, Issue 758, Eat and Travel Weekly, Eat and Travel Weekly Company Ltd, Hong Kong, 2 August 2006]
Western cultures use sweet and sour sauce in two different ways. Dishes can either include the sauce as an ingredient in cooking or use the sauce as a pour-over or dipping sauce for the meal.
Chinese restaurants in Western countries commonly serve battered and deep-fried chicken, pork, or shrimp with a sweet and sour sauce poured on top. It is also common to find the sweet and sour sauce cooked with sliced green peppers, onions, and pineapple before it is poured over the meat.
Many Western dishes involve cooking the meat with a variety of ingredients to make a complete sweet and sour dish in the manner of gu lo yuk. The most popular dishes are those of pork and shrimp. In French cuisine, it has been developed contrary to traditional French cooking practices, and the preparation of sweet and sour sauce (Aigre-douce) often involves immersing the food in a plentiful amount of sauce.
Common in Western sweet and sour sauce is the addition of fruits such as pineapple and vegetables such as sweet pepper and scallion. Traditional rice vinegar is becoming more readily available due to the increase in Asian food stores but a mixture of vinegar and dry sherry is often still used in sweet and sour dishes. Also common is the use of cornstarch as a thickener for the sauce and tomato ketchup to give a stronger red color to the dish and to add a Western taste. Most supermarkets across Europe and North America carry a range of prepared sweet and sour sauces for adding to stir-fry or dipping.
Primarily in North America, sweet and sour sauce is available as a dipping sauce at Chinese takeout establishments in small plastic packets or containers.
In Britain, Thai cuisine-style sweet chili sauce has recently overtaken the previous popularity of Chinese-style sweet and sour sauce to the extent it can often be found at non-Asian establishments for a wide variety of Western-style snacks from to fries and seafood such as calamari and prawns.
A number of variations are used in barbecue cuisine, either homemade or prepared from a number of common brands.
Besides American Chinese restaurants, popular fast food restaurants such as McDonald's,
See also
External links
