Guidance on sauces please!

QUESTION:

I’d love some guidance when choosing Asian cuisine sauces – for example fish sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, miso paste, hoisin sauce, sweet chilli sauce, chilli sauce, plum sauce, rice wine vinegar etc. I know I have mentioned a lot of things but just feel like there is such a gap when it comes to these sauces – we know the sub’s for soy sauce (ie coconut aminos or tamari) Vit the others I’ve never seen healthy options for.

ANSWER:

There are a LOT of questions here. I will try and address these broadly. I will start by saying that most of these options are very high in natural glutamates and high in sugar.

If you are following an additive free diet, generally speaking these are usually kept low. Coconut aminos and Tamari are also very high in natural glutamates and should be used sparingly.

It may be more appropriate to pick a few sauces as the subject of a future product review.

Let’s take a look at the some of the sauces you have mentioned and their typical ingredients:

Oyster sauce

Typical ingredients include oyster extract, preservatives, thickeners, flavour enhancers, yeast extract, flavours – its an additive nightmare really! So when you see recipes that are calling for oyster sauce, what they are really calling for is a dose of flavour enhancers.

I haven’t used this product since I went additive free (as it is very high in glutamates and flavour enhancers).

You could make your own. My understanding is that you cook oysters in water for a prolonged period of time with salt, sugar and perhaps soy sauce. For those that are sensitive to glutamates, this is likely to be very high.

Miso paste

It is possible to get cleaner versions of miso paste. I am not particularly a fan of miso as it is made by fermenting soybeans with salt and a mould. If you are sensitive to glutamates, you will want to avoid this product.

Hoisin sauce

Typical ingredients include sugar, soy beans, thickeners (ie tapioca starch), colours, citric acids.

Even if you remove the additional additives, I avoid products with soy as much as possible as it is an endocrine disruptor. Soy is also very high in natural glutamates, so if you react to flavour enhancers you would want to limit your soy intake.

I haven’t reviewed the market recently for hoisin sauces to know if there are any clean ones.

Fish sauce

You can find cleaner versions of fish sauce. You will want to look out for all-natural, first press, “extra virgin” fish sauce that doesn’t contain preservatives or MSG.

The traditional method is to salt black anchovies then slow age them in wooden barrels.

Again, this is would be very high in natural glutamates, so you would want to watch your intake levels if you are sensitive to glutamates.

Sesame oil

With most oils, it is important to find out if the oil has been further refined through solvent extractions, neutralisation or bleaching. This is often done to improve its aesthetic appearance.

Sesame oil can be derived from quality seeds and doesn’t need further purification. You would want to look out for cold pressed sesame oil.

Sweet chilli sauce, chilli sauce, plum sauce

Plum sauce will often contain thickeners, gums and flavour enhancers. This is one likely to be a little harder to find an additive free version.

You should be able to find cleaner versions of sweet chilli sauce and chilli sauces.

I haven’t recently reviewed all the products on the market across these categories. I often make my own for these.

Rice wine vinegar

Usually rice wine vinegar is made from a sticky rice. Once rice is cooked, yeast is added into the rice to form a mixture. This is then transferred to a container to increase the temperature which then quickens the process. After a few days or weeks, the by product of the fermentation process is rice wine. The fermentation converts the sugars found in rice to alcohol.

The next step to create the vinegar is to oxidate the wine by introducing oxygen, which converts it to acetic acid. Usually you need an enzyme (acetobacter) to facilitate this conversion process. This is usually used in commercialised operations to speed up the process as traditionally it takes a long time to ferment.

Once again, due to the fermenting process, this is likely to have high natural glutamates and should be used sparingly if you react to flavour enhancers.