Oyster sauce

Oyster saucedescribes a number of sauces made by cookingoysters. The most common in modern use is aviscousdark browncondimentmade fromoysterextracts,sugar, salt and water, thickened withcorn starch(though original oyster sauce reduced the unrefined sugar through heating, resulting in a naturally thick sauce due to caramelization, not the addition of corn starch).
Today, some commercial versions are darkened withcaramel, though high-quality oyster sauce is naturally dark.It is commonly used inChinese,Thai,Indonesian,Malay,Vietnamese, andKhmer cuisine.
Oyster sauce production began in China no later than the mid-1870s. Oysters were boiled in three iron basins for half an hour, then removed for drying onrattaneither by sun or over a moderate fire. The water from the basins was reduced in a fourth basin to "a blackish sauce". Seawater, salt and/or soy could be added.
Today, most oyster sauce is produced commercially on automated production lines. Many shortcuts have been made to create a similar flavor more quickly and at reduced cost. Oyster sauces today are usually made with a base of sugar and salt and thickened with corn starch. Oyster extracts or essences are then used to give flavor to the base sauce. Other ingredients, such as soy sauce andmonosodium glutamate, may also be added to deepen the flavor and add color. The quality of the oyster sauce will greatly affect the flavor.
Oyster sauce adds a savory flavor to many meat and vegetable dishes. The sauce is a staple for much Chinese family-style cooking. It is commonly used in noodle stir-fries, such as chow mein. It is also found in popular Chinese-American dishes such as beef with stir-fried vegetables. Oyster sauce can also be used as a topping for some dishes.
Since its early stage of development, oyster sauce has been widely popular withCantonesechefs as anumamirich condiment.
Oyster sauce is also used inShandong,Sichuan,JiangsuandZhejiangcuisines.
Dishes that may use oyster sauce includecrab in oyster sauce,kai-lan,Buddha's delight,Hainanese chicken rice,cashew chicken,lo mein,cha siu baau,har gow,kai yat sai,wonton noodles, anddaikon cake.
While oyster sauce andfish sauceare both briny and may have related histories, they are different products. Fish sauce is watery, clear, and salty, whereas oyster sauce is made by reducing oyster extracts and therefore sweeter with a hint of salt and not as strong an aroma as fish sauce.
"True" oyster sauce of good quality should be made by condensing oyster extracts, the white broth produced by boiling oysters in water. Thisopaquebroth, similar to the color ofclam juicefound in supermarkets, is thenreduceduntil a desiredviscosityhas been reached and the liquid hascaramelizedto a brown color.No other additives, not evensalt, should be added to the sauce, since the oysters should provide all the savory flavor. However, this method is prohibitively expensive.
Many modern oyster sauces are thickened withcornstarch, flavored with oyster essence or extractand darkened withcaramel.
Vegetarian oyster sauce prepared frommushrooms, oftenoyster mushroomsorshiitakemushrooms, is also popular and generally lower in price. It may contain moretaste enhancersif less mushroom extract is used to reduce costs.
Most of the oyster sauces available on the market contain addedmonosodium glutamate(MSG). In recent years MSG-free varieties can also be found.
In 19th-century French and English cooking, "oyster sauce" referred to a variant ofsauce blancheflavored with oysters, using a base of milk and melted butter rather than purelyreducingthe oysters by cooking.The white sauce version was moistened with cream, whereas in brown oyster sauce, the cream was replaced with gravy.Common recipes using the sauce included "Steak and oyster sauce", documented as early as 1806,and "Cod and oyster sauce".This sauce was still being eaten in Australia in the 1970s.
In 2001, the United KingdomFood Standards Agencyfound in tests of various oyster sauces andsoy saucesthat 22% of samples contained a chemical called3-MCPD(3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol) at levels considerably higher than those deemed safe by theEuropean Union.  About two-thirds of these samples also contained a second chemical, called1,3-DCP(1,3-dichloropropanol), which experts advise should not be present at any levels in food.  Both chemicals have the potential to causecancer, 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 that came into force in the EU in April 2002.