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Chef Classic Black

September 3rd, 2010 admin No comments

Chef Classic Black

What makes chow mien dark?

My boyfriend is a beef chow mien lover and has spent countless hours trying to recreate the one he gets from the takeaways. He has come up with a theory that they don’t use the classic oyster sauce,soy sauce,rice wine etc, instead they use chinese brown sauce which is a mixture of hoisin sauce,black bean sauce,molasses etc. Can any body preferably a chinese takeaway chef enlighten him to what is this mysterious dark sauce used in chow mien? Thank you.
Hi, Yes he has tried both types of soy sauce light for beginning of cooking and dark used towards the end. He tried a thick soy sauce which gave him some darkness but he is still adamant its some sort of dark gravy type sauce

The chinese have what are called Master Sauces. They are a basic sauce that you make up beforehand and then add to it to adjust flavor, color texture etc. And the remainder is put back into the master sauce pot an then back into the fridge. Sort of like a sourdough starter. There are legendary master sauces said to be over 100 years old in some restaurants. How do you make one? You start by getting a good chinese cookbook and going from there or finding a chinese food site online.