The Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe That You Can Make With 5 Ingredients (2024)

FAQs

What is traditional sweet and sour sauce made of? ›

While sweet and sour can be found in diverse forms in China, the American version builds upon the simple mixture of sugar, vinegar, and spices with the addition of fruit juice—most commonly pineapple—and ketchup, giving the sauce both its red hue and uniquely Western flavor.

The dish consists of deep fried pork in bite sized pieces, and subsequently stir-fried in a more customized version of sweet and sour sauce made of sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce, and additional ingredients including pineapple, green pepper (capsicum), and onion.

Alternative Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 cup pineapple juice. 1/3 cup water. 3 tablespoons vinegar. 1 tablespoon soy sauce.

If the sauce isn't thick enough, you can add one more tablespoon of cornstarch and whisk it in. But remember, the sauce will thicken even more as it cools down. So only add more cornstarch if the sauce is way too thin.

Sweet and Sour Sauce is a sauce made by combining a sweet component and a sour component with cornstarch as the thickening agent. Some of the common sweet components are brown sugar, granulated white sugar, and honey.

Lemon or lime juice are the two most common substitutes for white vinegar. You can also use rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar or malt vinegar but the taste of your sauce might be a tad different. Soy Sauce – I used low sodium. Ketchup – I used store bought.

Sweet and Sour Triple (dinner)

Shrimp, chicken and pork with sweet sour sauce.

The Chinese have long known the delights of marrying sweet and sour. Using sour flavours like yoghurts and pickles with sweet bites like candied nuts, you can create one tasty bite. Turn a double delight into a triple by adding spicy chilli jam for a taste triumph.

Sweet Bean Sauce/Sweet Flour Sauce (甜面酱, Tiánmiànjiàng)

Just look for the Chinese characters on the bottle, can, or tub. It is sweet and similar to hoisin sauce, so the two can largely be used interchangeably.

Transfer sauce to a heatproof dish. If not using immediately, allow the sauce to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate, in an airtight container, until ready to use. Sweet and Sour Sauce will keep up to two weeks.

What is sweet and sour sauce supposed to taste like? ›

Sweet and sour sauce tastes just like it sounds. A little bit sweet and a little bit sour at the same time. You will also have notes from whatever you flavour it with. The sweet and sour tastes can be made with a simple sugar and vinegar mix.

From personal experience of not having canned/fresh pineapples in the kitchen, I just used a bit of lemon juice and an orange cut into large chunks. Chinese plum sweet & sour mix is one of my favorites. You can find recipes online. Also mango with a dose of red cane rum in it, but made about the same as plum.

If you're using it to thicken a sauce you can substitute just about any type of fine flour made into a slurry and whisked into the sauce. You will need to cook it for several minutes to get rid of the taste of raw flour.

Combine 2 tablespoons flour with every 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until smooth. Add the mixture to your sauce over medium heat, and continue to stir and cook until you've reached your desired consistency. Test with a spoon.

1. All-purpose flour: You can thicken sauces with all-purpose wheat flour. For every tablespoon of cornstarch, use three tablespoons of flour. Combine raw flour with cold water in a small bowl to form a paste, then add it into the sauce as it's simmering.

Ingredients: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Apricot Puree Concentrate And/or Peach Puree Concentrate, Distilled Vinegar, Contains 2% Or Less: Soy Sauce (water, Soybeans, Wheat, Salt), Salt, Modified Food Starch, Sherry Wine Powder, Dextrose, Soybean Oil, Xanthan Gum, Spices, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), Natural ...

At its core, a base sweet and sour sauce is made with a balance of sugar and vinegar, and to get the bright red color, most restaurants will use red food coloring.

Sweet and sour chicken, one of the most popular Chinese takeout dishes, is made of puffy, golden brown pieces of fried chicken nuggets with pineapple chunks, onion, bell pepper, carrot, and a side of iconic red, sweet and sour sauce.

History of Sweet and Sour Sauce

While originating from China in the 1700s, sweet and sour sauce developed into the popular sauce it is today in America during the late 19th century.