Hey guys, a few notes: 1. I know that this one was slightly different, in that we really didn’t show how to make the two dishes at all. I figured that this video might be better off really focusing on the idea of brown sauce/white sauce and how they’re used… and I could go into detail on the recipes themselves in the written Substack/Reddit posts. 2. The “language lesson”, as I said, was a *drastic* drastic simplification. It’s also important to point out that what we taught there were descriptions of how the words are used, and not definitions. There’s also handful of other characters that also can be translated as “sauces” (or pastes!) - in particular, 水 (water) and 油 (oil) are two that stand out off the top of my head. Also, there's a borderline comical level of broadness to all of these characters - like fruit juice is also a zhi 汁. 3. Not sure who edited that Wikipedia article - it was pretty egregious. In a cooking context, you’d usually see the character “褐” instead of “棕” (e.g. the proper translation of espagnole is 褐酱), and the character “色” (emphasizing color) feels really out of place. Honestly feels like someone just popped something into Google translate and called it a day. Nothing against the people that take their time to edit things - doing god’s work there! - but food articles seem to consistently be one of the lower quality corners of Wikipedia. If I was a better human being I’d edit it myself, but I’m lazy :) 4. In the context of a stir fry, you can obviously have different orders of operations. Usually what we do is add our ingredients after the aromatics/wine, give it a brief stir fry, then add the sauce. The advantage of doing it this way is that the ingredients get a bit of a fry (and you can sizzle in some soy sauce if applicable), and take on the subsequent flavors a smudge better. The advantage of making the sauce first is that you can more clearly control the consistency of the sauce. 5. We chose to go sauce-first this time in this video in order to show the underlying technique clearer. 6. One thing that I’m worried that I didn’t show clearly enough was the motion of adding in the starch slurry. In an ideal world, you want to add it in in a thin stream *while* stirring constantly - this helps prevent clumps. In the shrimp stir fry, I did it after (not best practice, but hey), and unfortunately Art of Cooking just sort of… dumped his in lol. 7. As an aside, Art of Cooking is still probably the best channel out there for takeout style Chinese food. It feels like the world desperately needs an American Wang Gang to just... show what’s going on behind a professional wok clearly. 8. Oh, when thickening, potato starch or tapioca starch are preferred. These starches thicken better, are quicker to act, and hold longer after cooking. Cornstarch can work in a pinch, but is generally thought of as the least-good option for this sort of thing (great for deep frying coatings however). That’s all I can think of for now. More straightforward recipe video coming next week :)

There's literally no one else providing the information that you provide us. You guys are invaluable

I've been cooking like this for years and I had no idea that my lazy, all-in-one-pan, saucy stir fry is ✨technique✨

Even though I don’t really do this myself, it reminds me of pan sauces made from fond that is deglazed with a liquid and then thickened up with butter or just reduction. You don’t buy this “pan sauce” and it’s not bottled. It’s just a part of the dish.

Appreciate the "Chateau de Chinois Démystifier" menu a lot! Do yourself a favor and pause the video to read the thing 😂 I used to make a premixed stir fry sauce, but now I prefer to make it while cooking, just like Steph and Chris have been teaching us all these years.

This is the demystifying content I come here for! Super interesting.

For some reason I've never run into the idea of 'Chinese Brown/White Sauce' as not a result of the cooking process, and my mind was mildly blown by the idea that it can be thought of that way! I think I've just been looking for recipes by the names I've been exposed to (so broccoli beef, no brown sauce mentioned). But I am glad to have some more terminology and context. Thanks!

The brown sauce is like the gravy for Christmas roast turkey. You can't buy it or make it without roasting the turkey first and collect its oils and juices dripped on the oven tray. Then you thicken the turkey oils and juices to make the brown gravy. Same concept!

I have an old Chinese cook book from like.. the 70s. In the recipes it constantly refers to "Brown Master Sauce". Clearly the terminology is borrowed from the idea of the French Master Sauces. The cook book, itself, has no mention of what this sauce is supposed to be. After trying a few of the recipes, I came to the conclusion that the 'brown' sauce used is different from recipe to recipe. I tend to default to a mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy, light soy, xiao xing, sugar and chicken stock just because that's my preferred go-to for the majority of recipes. But for the longest time, I just used light soy and this premade gravy mix that I found in my grandma's pantry. No idea where it came from or who made it, but it lasted me about 15 years until it ran out lol.

Glad to see an Art of Cooking shoutout. They were one of the earliest English resources for Cantonese cooking on KZfaq, and as a Cantonese guy born in the west, they were invaluable and I still refer to some of their recipes.

For some time now I've been approximating "brown sauce" without having any idea how it's actually made, and what I've basically been doing is making a pan sauce with "usual suspect" Asian ingredients and thickening it with a corn starch slurry. I'm pleased to know that this was basically spot-on 😂

LMAO the shade thrown under the menu with the astrix is hilarious!!

Mind blown. I love eggplant in a garlic brown sauce and spent years trying to figure out how to make it at home. Stumbled upon a chinese restaurant that makes it in the US and asked what the hell is this sauce? All I got out of the waitress is it's a brown sauce which further stumped me. Your video just showed me what that sauce is and that it's actually more complex than just buying something in a bottle at a grocery store. My mind is blown. Wow!

Wow. Y’all are doing the Lord’s work and delivering esoteric Chinese cooking knowledge to the English speaking internet. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been wondering what this stuff is. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

Ok... The footnote on the fictitious menu is everything. Kudos for it.

When I was trying to figure out a beef-and-broccoli recipe, I discovered quite by accident that soy sauce, diluted with salted water, with some dried onion, black pepper, and a little sugar, tasted a lot like beef gravy. I started using this combination whenever I'm making a beef-based stir-fry, or when I just want a beefy flavor with little or no beef in a recipe. It's great to know I was doing something right, even though I didn't know what I was doing. lol

The way you made Jiang and Zhi plural by adding a ‘s’ is absolutely hilarious 🤣🤣🤣🤣

For those who are wondering why you can't buy the 'brown sauce' in a bottle: Imagine bottling the fond you deglazed from your pan and selling it in a grocery store.

Most people might pay attention to the first dish in the menu at 6:52, but dish #3 is the most eye-popping to me...Sashimi that requires picking prickly bones is devilishly evil

Love the recognition of “The Art of Cooking” channel. I miss that guy… and coincidentally I first heard of “Chinese brown sauce” (being used as a base) from his channel.

This is probably one of the most informative cooking show I've ever watched. I love how you just not only show us recipes but also the way of thought behind it which most people don't really think about. You are such a helpful angel for Chinese cooking

Some brown sauce is Southern brown gravy. Like in Massachusetts the Hoo Mee restaurant came up with a cheap dish to feed hungry workers. It's a big mess of fried noodles in brown sauce served with a hamburger bun because carbs. The brown sauce couldn't be made with the fried noodles, and trust me, there are no vegetables. So they basically just make Southern brown gravy. They even sell it, so you can confirm for yourself it's a bag of instant gravy. (Maybe they do some Asian cookery to make the gravy powder, but trust me, grocery store brown gravy is fine). Short version to make Southern brown gravy to double as American Chinese brown gravy. Make a roux heating some flour in neutral cooking oil - just a few tbsp of flour and oil can thicken gravy for a small pot of vegetables. Obviously subbing beef fat, lard, etc is also good. Mix thoroughly and allow the roux to darken a little to taste over medium heat. Pour in a little beef broth or whatever you like to make a paste. Once it's as brown as you like and lumps are mixed. Continue to add liquid to desired consistency, and it does thicken on standing. That's it. A little salt and pepper goes a long way. Maybe some five spice. Turn this in American chow mein. And since we're not factory workers. Shred a head of cabbage into a big pot with a little butter to help it wilt. Thinly slice anything else you like, such as celery and onion. Browning the aromatics before you wilt the cabbage is obviously a pro move. Either way. Add gravy, and enough broth to help the gravy coat the cabbage. Cut in any meat you like. A simple ham steak cut into cubes is great. Now you have a big pot of delicious vegetables, and yes it's amazing with fried noodles just give them time to soften. But it's a big cheap pot of Chinese American food. And it's mostly vegetable so it's quite healthy. You can feed a whole family for next to nothing.

6:52 "Are you ready to order?" "Yes. I'd like a bowl of your.. *squints down at menu* steamed fish semen." "Excellent choice, sir."

While theres *LOTS* of Asian recipes on YT for all kinds of dishes and sauces, yours is the only one that really digs down into the _'nitty gritty basics'_ of the video title. The result is a deeper more complex flavor profile in the end, mixed with just enough history to keep it entertaining. *THANK YOU!*

Videos like this one about technique and theory are incredibly valuable. Please continue making these types of videos along with recipes

Six years of weekly uploads... and I realise I haven't even grasped the basics. I am eternally grateful.

I pre-prepare a three-to-one mix of meat broth and soy sauce, using the stock corresponding to the meat in the dish. I sweeten it with sugar or honey, season it with ginger and garlic, and store it in the fridge in a squeeze bottle to use later. I thicken it with starch and water as I cook. It may not be right but it works.

This would explain why I have tried virtually every "brown sauce" recipe online and none have gotten me close to what I want. Though I want basically a beef broccoli tasting sauce without any meat. That's been my largest challenge. I'll have to try this some time.

You solved two longstanding great mysteries of Chinese cooking for me in this vid. I can't thank you enough.

love the menu at 6:52 lol

even when your video topics get 'borrowed' by other youtubers, your videos are always superior! I learn so much from you! thanks!!!

I can't speak for authentic cantonese "brown sauce" but canadian-chinese brown sauce almost always has some oyster sauce added, so if you are trying to recreate your fav takeout brown sauce, i would recommend using some of it in your seasoned soy sauce mix.

Best Chinese cooking channel for English speakers, period. And that’s one lucky dog!

Y’all are * undefeated * for this one. Premium content, the history, the chemistry, the application. Amazing

Awesome video and a really clearly argued. Also, almost comically well timed for me. I made Dan Dan noodles from your recipe for dinner tonight and was going through the process in my head afterward trying to figure out how I could speed it up / pre-make parts of it because it was so delicious and want to eat it all the time now. Then I remembered an earlier video you made about seasoned soy sauce and decided that would be the best thing to pre-make along with the chili oil. And then I was trying to think of other things I could use it for and now you’ve answered that too. You guys are amazing.

This is exactly what I wondered about for years. This is exactly the information I needed to fix all my dishes when I'm making American style brown sauce. It never has come out right? And of course it's that intermediate state that no one would think to say but they would just make. I feel like this is a huge puzzle piece for so many dishes I've screwed up. Thank you thank you and thank you!

I followed the Art of Cooking video for brown sauce and noticed it did not call for the starch thickener. I’ve made similar recipes before and knew in advance to do it. That said, that video, with added starch, was the best brown sauce duplication I’ve made! This video really demystified the whole thing for me. Thank you!

Do not try and make the brown sauce, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth… there is no brown sauce.

Your in-depth info on terminologies and technique is presented in such a genial manner---with your gentle humor---that I may just binge watch y'all once we are snowed-in up here this winter. A big thank you for incl. the Chinese word, it's correct pronunciation, it's character (!), definition, and ingredients (---when appropriate). You are the most complete info source here. Please keep on keepin' on with all of this valuable info, we love it.

I always wondered about this: My parents lived in NYC many years ago, at such a time when most of the Chinese food around them was *Chinese* food, not this americanized version that's all over the country. So when I was young, we would make more traditional style stir fry, braises, steam pots... my favorite dish by far being red braised chicken. And zhong zhi (or however it's spelled in English). When I was introduced to the typical American Chinese restaurant, I was confused why everything was basically the same - vegetable, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp; "white" sauce, "brown" sauce, sweet and "sour" sauce... Watching your channel has brought back a lot of what I grew up, and I thank you so much for it!

Great video. I worked in Chinese American restaurants (and cantonese) for 7 years and the head chef always made a master brown sauce that's thickened per order which is used the most for the C/A menu, beef & broccoli etc... Also a garlic sauce, a white sauce and a sweet, thick sauce used for sesame chicken, Tso & orange, each having a distinct variation once in the wok. Again, good video, interesting to hear this from a different viewpoint

I'm glad you got rid of this one. There's too many "brown sauce" in Western cooking. There's the old French ones (the historical brown coulis, sauce espagnole, demi-glace). The British brown ketchup HP style "brown sauce" thingy, and often other brown gravies are also referred to as brown sauce. Here in Sweden "brown sauce" or brunsås is a light brown cream sauce that is almost like a gloriously brown base sauce in our food culture. Too much confusion.

Chef non-chalantly going from Mandarin to English and the throwing us a bit of French with 'raison d'etre'. Damn, Bro. Good work. Your brain is a culinary treasure.

I've gotten a fairly "okay" brown sauce by just mixing soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar. Often a sour ingredient as well like a vinegar or rice wine. Certainly not as robust as the sauce shown in the video but extremely easy to make on the spot for home cooking and still very tasty. Of course thickened with starch during cooking as well. I use it most often on sauteed vegetables, usually broccoli.

the word qian in Chinese, is replaced by ankake in Japanese. same thing, liquid thickened by a starch. and zhi, is often used for it's "juice/juices" meaning. so the heme or liquified fats that comes out of a raw/rare steak or a "juicy piece of chicken", that's zhi, as is apple juice or the liquid that comes out of cooking down vegetables.

This is a very deep lesson. In my ignorance let me say this: In northern New Jersey when you get Egg Foo Young, often it comes in this "brown sauce" that is lighter: like caramel colored. You have to specify I want DARK "brown sauce" like you put on Chicken and Broccoli. Then you get this darker brown sauce that is almost the color of dark chocolate. And this is really good, ginger in there and some other magic. The lighter color sauce is.. sigh.. like turkey gravy or something... (I have to add Tabasco sauce to doctor it up.) The darker one stands on it's own and really makes Egg Foo Young (or Chicken and Broccoli) really shine. When I look at your video I can't tell which one of these (if any) you are making. I will watch it again. You and your lovely wife are just the best. You really are opening up an amazing culinary world that is so sophisticated, nuanced and delicious in ways that many western tongues have never dreamed of. Thank you for this!

Nicely done guys! I think I've always intellectually knew this before, but my brain was thinking it was more complicated when my wok hit the fire so to speak. (My very first job was as a dishwasher/chopper boy in a Chinese restaurant near Chicago, I ate what the kitchen ate, and even though I saw them put it together, "Live" I still disconnected decades later.) Thanks for putting this out there!

When i first started cooking American Chinese food, i had this exact problem, i didn't know what brown sauce or White sauce was. So many recipes existed for making pre thickened sauce, and i would follow those recipes but i NEVER got the right consistency. It took months of mistakes to finally understand that the "sauce" isn't a sauce at all! It's just thickening the final dish with starch slurry! And now you've helped me give this technique a name! Thank you so so so much!

Man, I love how you break down and educate. It is easy to follow and demystifies things so well! Thank you. You really are unique!

Another banger of history crossing over to cooking. Big fan. I am from Australia and there is a lot of Chinese meals that are popular here that i don't believe are as popular else where. If you ever travel here, make sure you look them up. Although I imagine there would be a fair bit of cross over with American-Chinese food.

On the subject of Chinese-American takeout food, another channel I'd recommend to supplement your videos is Happy Wok. He's not very chatty, but he's a very skilled retired restaurant chef and shows all the techniques and recipes for the take out classics. I find between his content and yours, I get a much better understanding of the food.

Well here goes. I have no idea how to reach your guys... But thanks to you i have "Demystified" most of the dishes i have been searching for... Some times for more than 20 years LOL.... Thank you!!

This is a lesson in American Chinese food. I’ve never heard of either white or brown sauce in relation to Chinese cooking.

Love you guys, super important food history research, presented so well. You are a treasure.

The easiest thing to find out about asian cooking technique, yet for many people hard to grasp. Sometimes it's best to hide something in plain sight maybe. Thanks for the video

I've been looking for this explanation forever! Thanks for such an informative video!

The deep dive we didn’t know we needed. You guys rock!

Thanks so much for explaining this!! That's always the question of my non-Chinese friends asking me what brown sauce is and my reaction is always I don't know! I never ever heard of that!!

There’s still one mystery - my dad’s brown sauce had a smokiness I cannot replicate. He was a Chinese chef with forearms as hard as rocks working those woks!

This is a real deal! This lady is speaking the truth of what will become of brown sauce if you thickened in advance in hope to save time. It’s a total rubbish. Thank you for being authentic.

To do a pre-thickened version that is long-term stable, you need modified starch, which is in general not available to individual consumers.

I like how you still say "fer" instead of "for" 😁 It is very hard to drop it isn't it. This is a super video. There is always a hand full of mysteries in every cuisine and this was one of them for me. So funny how it has seemed to be difficult for others to explain such an easy concept. Thank you. You have unlocked something really important here.

I love the video, it really helped me to understand things about sauces. I kept going into asain places and asking what kind of sauce they were using, and they would always tell me that it was "teriyaki sauce". But when I would go to the store and look for teriyaki sauce, I would always be confused as to why it was so watery and not thick. It makes allot of sense that you can't really find bottles of it given how it's made in multiple cooking processes during the same dish.

Yes please give me those language lessons, Chinese is such an intriguing language

The detail on the fake menu makes me laugh uncontrollably, it's the love that goes into making something for a throwaway 16-frames joke

Huh. Turns out I've been unknowingly making a version of this "brown sauce" for years and years.

6:44 That hit the nail in the head - you *can* do this but it's not really a practical or necessary thing for home cooking. One might use different ratios of the same ingredients for different dishes; what I want my ratios to be is not the same as your preference; etc. Some things don't translate well language-wise, and some things don't translate well technique-wise.

I made a version of the beef and mushroom with the "brown sauce" tonight. Subbed the beef for chicken and added celery. Turned out fantastic as always with any of these recipes or techniques. One thing I also did differently was I simmered my mushrooms in the seasoned soy sauce and then once cooked through I added my slurry to thicken. Saved a pot to wash and who doesn't like extra mushroom flavor?

These tips, tricks, and deep dive explanations do so much to make my "almost like Real Chinese Food" attempts at traditional dishes taste just a bit more authentic. Fantastic info, thanks so much guys. The humour is great too, I paused to read the "Démystifier" menu and was glad I did. :D

Big fan of the channel for years, commenting to just say the D&D GoT reference was amazing (07:35) . Thanks

There are some similar concepts in Italian cooking. Especially egg and cheese based pasta sauces just don't become a thing until the pasta is added and tossed together.

Thanks for the rundown. It's interesting that there is a not only a language barrier here but also a paradigm of cooking barrier.

I always thought of these types of “sauces” as pan gravy.

Love this video. I found a recipe that is similar to your seasoned soy sauce. The differences are the use of cornstarch as the thickener and that it is added to the cooled liquid before placing in a jar, in the fridge. This way you can shake the jar up and pour in what you need, eliminating the extra step of adding your thickener later. It's basic enough that you can add a few other ingredients when you're cooking and change the flavor profile, like hoisin or crushed peanuts (peanut butter). I get about 5 servings from one 16oz. jar. It lasts for at least 6 weeks. I like not having to get out all of the ingredients every time I want to stir fry. Seeing the jar in the fridge inspires me to whip up more stir fry. P.S. Using a jar to shake up your cornstarch before adding to any slurry is a great way to avoid lumps- it's how my mom taught me to make smooth gravy.

this channel is fabulous, keep up the amazing work guys, these videos are so informative and an absolute joy to watch

i dont do a lot of chinese style cooking at home, this was so interesting! thank you so much for explaining the techniques in their proper context

In art of cooking brown sauce, the aromatics are steeped in hot stock for an hour. Similar to the way you make scallion water for dumplings. So that would be something you would want to make ahead of time I made it and it's great after you reduce it and i also turned it into general tso sauce by adding sugar vinegar and Sriracha

Thank you for featuring Art of Cooking channel!!! That channel is so underrated, if anyone of you wanted learn how chinese resto do their stuff, you can visit that channel. Unfortunately, the chef on the video Raymond(rip) already passed away a couple of years ago.

Thanks for the 'white sauce' recipe. After searching and trying many 'brown sauce' recipes I did find a simple and easy version very common in the area I live. A cup of chicken broth, 1 or 2 tsp.s of mushroom soy sauce and 1 Tablespoon. of Oyster sauce. Thicken with a slurry if you need to. Definitely going to try both of yours. Thanks so much !!!

I never do even think about it as white/brown sauce using in chinese cooking - Anlo-Sax´s are very different in their "behavioir" - They mostely need a measurements in their cooking... My Grandmother made everyting (mostly) by eyebolwling it... Maesurements by feeling, seeingn the resource of heat, pans, pots, quantity, ingriens... Bless her soul and thank, thank her so much for giving me...

I've tried doing the starch-thickening technique a few times trying to make honey, sweet and sour, and kung pow chicken/beef/shrimp at home but I don't think my electric burner is up for the task. applying it to my american *gravy* making techniques, however, has improved the consistency by leaps and bounds. it's so much faster than just cooking off the liquid and pulling it off the heat at the exact right time.

Nice! We actually called our inauthentic meat with soy sauce and starch a brown sauce with my dad and essentially it is the same concept - you cannot get it without the ingredients.

This channel is a world treasure

I did not know I needed a Chinese brown sauce tutorial and historical analysis until today. Great video.

This is a great video!! I really enjoy learning about cooking!

Brilliant stuff! I wish I'd had this video to refer to 20 years ago *cries*

Excellent information. Understanding cuisine is fun and your videos are so easy to follow… just wanted you to know how much it is appreciated!❤

Thanks for making this. I have been chasing a classic American Chinese take out kung pao or szechuan brown sauce for years. But I can't ever nail it from my childhood.

Es lo mejor que he encontrado. Ustedes son un espectáculo de la cocina. Muchas gracias desde México. Pd. Algunos detalles tienen semejanza con nuestra comida de Yucatan. Saludos

6:30 for others who got caught up here, "gyofen" here is hondashi, the bonito fish stock powder.

I like to throw in kitchen bouquet or other browning seasoning if i don't have a good wok that can get rocket hot. Helps cheat out some of those complex, sweet flavors that make Chinese restaurant brown sauce so good.

This man is asking the real questions 10/10

In many ways, the "brown sauce" here is essentially just a pan (or wok) sauce, thickened with a corn starch slurry. Kinda why the sauce can be a little generic at times

Art of Cooking - the best for Americanized food chinoise-is right. Raymond- where did you go? Great videos all CCD! Excelent analysis

Interesting take on a Chinese buffet recipe. I love to make various dishes, but the brown gravy I make is similar in only one direction, like oyster sauce added to Mongolian beef, while other ones, like the omelet, are more hoisin without much oyster sauce. Or some other stir fries that go in another sauce like the brown ground bean sauce infused soy sauce to make a "lo mein" that I often enjoy making or black bean sauce on chicken and so on. It's almost a base that is constantly taken to another sauce as a mother sauce like Americana bechamel/roux is the starter for things like sausage gravy or gravy-covered chicken with a white onion flavor. Thanks, C.C.D., for letting us think of it as a way to start various dishes and thus pass those ideas forward to the next generation.

This is actually pretty enlightening: I found a lot of different jiang being used to make the zhi for many different beef w/ broccoli recipes and so it makes sense to me that depending on how you make it, you might use different jiang (whether you are using gai lan or western broccoli, how much carrot you add, whcih cut of beef you use, etc). I like the one that cooking with Lau uses and it's interesting that he specifies that oyster sauce is a must when making a beef stir fry, but that other meats don't call for it.

In Japan, they call this Ankake (あんかけ). Usually served over Tenshinhan (天津飯) aka Tianijn rice bowl. Many other dishes use it such as Ankake Yakisoba and Champon.

I'm telling you this just straight-up reminded me immediately of How To with John Wilson on HBO. He has a documentary series in the same manner as this video, I'm not sure how to explain it necessarily, I know squat about filming or editing but I'm telling you it's spot-on. Thank you for the amazing video... TIL'ed.

As a chinese-american, I never wondered what "Brown sauce" was. The closest english 1-word for it is: "gravy", but in plain english it's a colloid where products of the Maillard Reaction are suspended along with gelatinized starch, water, and lipids. Pre-making a stir-fry gravy makes as much sense to an american as making a sausage gravy without sausages to begin with and adding it in the end, or like making a roux without fat and water and then adding those ingredients afterwards!

"Chateau de Chinois Démystifier", "Miscellanious du vache", 'Century egg gruau de riz" As a french speaking person, those ones got me!