Peking sauce is similar to a richer, more complex Hoisin sauce, sharing its sweet, savory base but adding tangy notes from vinegar, garlic, and ginger for depth, making it a cousin to Sweet & Sour sauce, but with more umami and less bright fruitiness, and sometimes confused with Plum Sauce or the UK's OK Sauce.
Hoisin sauce is a great substitute. It should come out just as good.
Peking sauce is spicy, garlicky and sweet, Mongolian sauce is sweet, gingery, and umami. Mandarin sauce is fruity, and can be spicy. Thai hot and sweet sauce is sweet, sour, and spicy, and should be salty/fishy from the sambal.
Peking sauce is a Chinese-style condiment that works as a marinade, dip and stir-fry sauce. Recipes vary, but it is usually sweet and tangy with a sticky texture that clings to other ingredients well, including meat, noodles and vegetables.
Place duck meat on the un-fried side of the pancake with one teaspoon of hoisin sauce and either two stalks of spring onion, or two slices of cucumber. Roll pancake and serve immediately.
The sauce. Another quintessential accompaniment for Peking duck is Tian Mian Jiang/甜面酱 known as sweet bean sauce, sweet flour sauce, or sweet wheat sauce in English. It's a classic condiment used in Northern Chinese cooking and particularly popular in Beijing cuisine.
Unlike a lot of Chinese-American dishes, duck sauce can be traced back to something similar in more traditional Chinese cuisine—plum sauce. While plum sauce's namesake forms its base, somewhere along the line, duck sauce took a turn to incorporate different fruits. Apricot is one of the more widely used these days.
The sauce is both spicy and sweet at the same time, and is made from a blend of aromatic spices and umami-rich soybeans. Also use the Peking duck sauce in marinades for roast meats, or toss a tablespoon through a stir fry for a quick meal.
For a hoisin sauce substitute, combine soy sauce with brown sugar or honey for sweetness, plus a bit of peanut butter for thickness; other options include mixing oyster sauce with sugar, using kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), or blending miso paste with sweeteners for a rich, savory base, but you'll need to adjust for texture and flavor to mimic hoisin's complex profile.
Also called plum sauce, it got its name when restaurants in the United States started serving it with Peking Duck, which is actually traditionally served with a similar sauce, hoisin (which also has a confusing name since hoisin means “seafood,” although it's not traditionally served with that).
You will need 2.5 tbsp of sweet bean paste, 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of grated garlic, 1 tsp of grated ginger, 3 tbsp of water, 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp of cornstarch. Give that a mix and we can get our wok ready.
Hǎixiānjiàng (Hoisin sauce)
It is known for its balanced combination of sweet, salty, and umami flavors, and is made from fermented soybeans blended with sugar, vinegar, garlic, and various spices.
Spread a teaspoon of Hoisin sauce onto each warm pancake. Then add a slice of the warm Peking Duck, some spring onion and cucumber. Roll up the pancake and enjoy!
Peking sauce is similar to a sweet and sour sauce but has more depth. Alongside the sweet and tangy notes, it also brings umami richness from soy sauce and added aroma from garlic and ginger.
8 Soy Sauce Substitutes That Are as Good as the Real Thing
Hoisin and teriyaki sauces are both sweet, savory, soy-based Asian sauces but aren't the same; hoisin sauce is a thick, Chinese sauce from fermented soybean paste with a complex, sometimes spicy flavor, while teriyaki is a thinner, sweeter Japanese glaze primarily from soy sauce, sugar, and mirin, lacking hoisin's distinct spice and garlic notes, making them close but not identical substitutes.
Worcestershire, like soy sauce, is all salt and umami! This deep, brown English sauce is very popular for adding flavor to meat marinades and in soups, stock, sauces, etc. It will not make a perfect substitute for hoisin, but it does have things in common, and you likely have a bottle of this in your cupboard!
I generally substitute half soy sauce to hoisin. For example in a recipe using 3-4 tablespoons of hoisin sauce, I'd substitute 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce. Add more if needed after tasting. If you want some sweetness you could add some extra white or brown sugar or honey but I generally don't bother.
Ingredients
Hoisin sauce
It's also often served alongside Peking duck as a dipping sauce, and at Vietnamese restaurants it's used as a condiment for phó (soup with noodles and meat). The main ingredient in hoisin sauce is fermented soybean paste, combined with thickening agents such as corn starch and sweet potato powder.
Hoisin sauce, also known as Peking sauce, is a beloved essential ingredient for dishes like Peking duck or mu shu. Its thick, ketchup-like consistency makes it incredibly versatile, often used as a dipping sauce, marinade for barbecued meats, or a key ingredient in stir-fries.
In Asian food, MSG powder is a staple in many kitchens, used to enhance the flavours of soups, stir-fries, and sauces. Japanese, Chinese, and Korean cuisines, in particular, use MSG to create the umami taste that defines many of their dishes. Meanwhile in Latin American and African cuisines, MSG is gaining popularity.
Peking sauce which can be used to make Peking style shredded pork, serve as a dip for peking duck or Chinese spring pancakes.
If you're from the Midwest or Eastern seaboard of the United States, duck sauce is likely an orange jelly-like substance—similar to sweet-and-sour sauce but with a fruitier flavor—that comes in packets with your Chinese takeout.