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Oyster sauce is a viscous dark brown sauce
Sauce

In cooking, a sauce is liquid or sometimes semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish....
 commonly used in Chinese
Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine originated from the various regions of China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world ? from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa....
, Filipino, Thai and Khmer cuisine. It is especially common in Cantonese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong in Southern China, or specifically from Guangzhou . Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the best known outside China; most "Chinese restaurants" in Western countries serve Cantonese cuisine and dishes based on it....
.

er sauce is prepared from oyster
Oyster

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
s, brine
Brine

File:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848.JPGFile:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848-2.JPGBrine is water Saturation or nearly saturated with a Salt .It is used to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining ....
, umami
Umami

is one of the five Taste#Basic taste sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue. Umami is a loanword from Japanese language meaning roughly "delicious flavor", although "brothy", "meaty", or "savory" have been proposed as alternate translations....
 flavour enhancers such as MSG
Monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a sodium salt of the non-essential amino glutamic acid. It is used as a food additive and is commonly marketed as a flavour enhancer....
, and typically contains preservative
Preservative

A preservative is a natural or synthetic chemical compound that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc....
s to increase its shelf life. The sauce was invented in 1888 by Mr. Lee Kam Sheung, in Nam Shui Village in Guangdong
Guangdong

Guangdong is a political divisions of China on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province is also known by an alternative English language name, the Canton Province....
 Province, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. His company, Lee Kum Kee
Lee Kum Kee

Lee Kum Kee International Holdings Ltd. is a food company which specialized in manufacturing oyster sauce and a wide range of authentic Chinese and Asian sauces founded by Mr....
, continues to produce oyster sauce to this day, along with a wide variety of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
n condiment
Condiment

In the United Kingdom, a condiment used to be confined to salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar. Use of the term condiment has broadened and now is generally considered to be any prepared edible Chemical substance or mixture, often Food preservation or Fermentation , that is added in relatively small quantities, most often at the table...
s.

rue" oyster sauce of good quality should be made by condensing oyster extracts, the white broth produced by boiling oysters in water.






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Encyclopedia


Oyster sauce is a viscous dark brown sauce
Sauce

In cooking, a sauce is liquid or sometimes semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish....
 commonly used in Chinese
Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine originated from the various regions of China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world ? from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa....
, Filipino, Thai and Khmer cuisine. It is especially common in Cantonese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong in Southern China, or specifically from Guangzhou . Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the best known outside China; most "Chinese restaurants" in Western countries serve Cantonese cuisine and dishes based on it....
.

Origin

Oyster sauce is prepared from oyster
Oyster

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
s, brine
Brine

File:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848.JPGFile:Kissingen-Solepumpe-1848-2.JPGBrine is water Saturation or nearly saturated with a Salt .It is used to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining ....
, umami
Umami

is one of the five Taste#Basic taste sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue. Umami is a loanword from Japanese language meaning roughly "delicious flavor", although "brothy", "meaty", or "savory" have been proposed as alternate translations....
 flavour enhancers such as MSG
Monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a sodium salt of the non-essential amino glutamic acid. It is used as a food additive and is commonly marketed as a flavour enhancer....
, and typically contains preservative
Preservative

A preservative is a natural or synthetic chemical compound that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc....
s to increase its shelf life. The sauce was invented in 1888 by Mr. Lee Kam Sheung, in Nam Shui Village in Guangdong
Guangdong

Guangdong is a political divisions of China on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province is also known by an alternative English language name, the Canton Province....
 Province, China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. His company, Lee Kum Kee
Lee Kum Kee

Lee Kum Kee International Holdings Ltd. is a food company which specialized in manufacturing oyster sauce and a wide range of authentic Chinese and Asian sauces founded by Mr....
, continues to produce oyster sauce to this day, along with a wide variety of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
n condiment
Condiment

In the United Kingdom, a condiment used to be confined to salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar. Use of the term condiment has broadened and now is generally considered to be any prepared edible Chemical substance or mixture, often Food preservation or Fermentation , that is added in relatively small quantities, most often at the table...
s.

Production


Traditional

A "true" oyster sauce of good quality should be made by condensing oyster extracts, the white broth produced by boiling oysters in water. This opaque broth is then reduce
Reduction (cooking)

In cooking, reduction is the process of thickening or intensifying the flavor of a liquid mixture such as a soup, sauce, wine, or juice by evaporation....
d until a desired viscosity
Viscosity

Viscosity is a measure of the Drag of a fluid which is being deformed by either shear stress or extensional stress. In everyday terms , viscosity is "thickness"....
 has been reached and the liquid has caramelized to a brown colour. No other additives, not even salt
Salt

A salt, in chemistry, is defined as the product formed from the neutralisation reaction of acids and base . Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically electric charge ....
, should be added to the sauce, since the oysters should provide all the savory flavour.

Modern artificial

Many oyster sauces are actually diluted
Concentration

In chemistry, concentration is the measure of how much of a given chemical substance there is mixed with another substance. This can apply to any sort of chemical mixture, but most frequently the concept is limited to homogeneous solutions, where it refers to the amount of solute in the solvent....
 solutions thickened with starch
Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
, colored with caramel coloring (E150), with oyster extracts and synthetic preservatives. In some countries, including the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, the oyster content in some sauces is lower than its Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
n counterparts of the same brand due to laws regulating the import of seafood. The use of synthetics and hydrolyzed soy protein produces carcinogens similar to artificial soy sauces, see Health section below.

Varieties


Vegetarian oyster sauce

Vegetarian oyster sauce is prepared from mushroom
Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem , a cap , and gills on the unde...
s, often oyster mushrooms, is also popular and generally lower in price. It may contain more taste enhancer
Flavour enhancer

Flavour enhancers are commonly added to commercially produced food products to make them taste more 'savoury'.The commonly used flavour enhancers are:...
s if less mushroom extract is used to reduce costs.

Non MSG

Most of the oyster sauces available on the market contain added monosodium glutamate
Monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a sodium salt of the non-essential amino glutamic acid. It is used as a food additive and is commonly marketed as a flavour enhancer....
 (MSG). Though in recent years MSG-free varieties can also be found. The taste of MSG and non-MSG variants is similar.

Use

Oyster sauce is used to enhance the flavour of many savory foods. It is also often used as a topping for steamed vegetables, and in stir-fries.

Dishes for which oyster sauce is commonly used include:

  • Stir-fried kailan
    Kai-lan

    Kai-lan, also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale, is a slightly bitter leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli....
  • Bamboo steamed broccoli
    Broccoli

    Broccoli is a plant of the cabbage family Brassicaceae .It is classified as the Italica cultivar group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli possesses abundant arboreal, luscious, fleshy, flower heads, usually green in color, arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible, sturdy, meaty stalk....
  • Steamed cabbage
    Cabbage

    The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
     with Chinese black mushroom
    Shiitake

    The shiitake is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world....
  • Bao yu
    Bao yu

    B?o y? is the common Chinese name given to abalone, a highly prized and expensive ingredient used in Chinese cuisine. In certain regional Chinese cuisines, its status ranks with such prized ingredients as shark fin soup, hoi sam and Bird's nest soup....
  • Beef with broccoli and mushrooms (popular Chinese-American dish)


Health


In 2001 the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency
Food Standards Agency

The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Her Majesty's Government. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by an appointed board that is intended to act in the public interest....
 found in tests of various oyster sauces and soy sauce
Soy sauce

Soy sauce , soya sauce , or shoyu is a fermentation sauce made from soybeans , roasted cereal, water and Sodium chloride. Soy sauce was invented in China, where it has been used as a condiment for close to 2,500 years....
s that some 22% of samples contained a chemical called 3-MCPD
3-MCPD

3-MCPD or is a carcinogenic and highly suspected to be genotoxic in humans, has male anti-fertility effects, and is a chemical byproduct which may be formed in foods, the most commonly found member of chemical contaminants known as chloropropanols....
 (3-monochloropropane-1,3-diol) at levels considerably higher than those deemed safe by the European Union
European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
. About two-thirds of these samples also contained a second chemical called 1,3-DCP (1,3-dichloropropane-2-ol) which experts advise should not be present at any levels in food. Both chemicals have the potential to cause cancer
Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
 and the Agency recommended that the affected products be withdrawn from shelves and avoided.

The joint Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) said it had taken emergency action to amend its food standards code to set a limit for 3-MCPD in soy sauce of 0.02 milligrams per kilogram, in line with European Commission standards which come into force in the EU in April 2002.

Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) singled out brands and products imported from Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Brands named in the British warning include Golden Mountain, King Imperial, Pearl River Bridge, Jammy Chai, Lee Kum Kee, Golden Mark, Kimlan, Golden Swan, Sinsin, Tung Chun and Wanjasham soy sauce.

In July 2001, FSA issued another statement clearing Lee Kum Kee's name after the company produced laboratory certificates from accredited, reputable laboratories. These certificates shows that Lee Kum Kee products now comply with the proposed EU limit for 3-MCPD.

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