Duck sauce

Duck sauce
Packets of duck sauce
Traditional Chinese	酸梅醬
Simplified Chinese	酸梅酱
Literal meaning	sour prune sauce
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin suan1 mei1 jiang4 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping syun1 mui4 zoeng3

Duck sauce is an orange-hued Chinese American condiment used in Chinese American cuisine as a dip for deep-fried dishes, such as spring rolls, egg rolls, noodles, and deep-fried chicken balls. Duck Sauce is suspected to be an American invention, as it is virtually unknown in authentic Chinese cuisine. It is possible however, that Duck Sauce is a Chinese-American invention, but no details exist to confirm such claims. It is made from sweet plums or other fruit such as peach or apricot, sugar, vinegar, ginger, and chili pepper.

Origins of the name

There is no duck in duck sauce. The name "duck sauce" comes from Chinese restaurants in the U.S. It is sometimes mistakenly served with the crepes that go with Peking Duck, as opposed to serving it with sweet noodle sauce, which is the authentic practice. It is commonly eaten with Spare ribs, noodles, and just about any Chinese dish. It is usually offered in packets or small containers. It is also commonly referred to as plum sauce and is likely to be a refining of original Chinese cuisine for the American palate. Duck sauce is thought by many to be a natural laxative.

See also

• Plum sauce
• Sweet and sour sauce
• Hoisin sauce