Sweet and sour facts for kids

Sweet and sour is a popular flavor that mixes sweet and tangy tastes. It's used in many different sauces, dishes, and cooking styles around the world. You'll find it a lot in places like East Asia and Southeast Asia. It has even been a part of English cooking since the Middle Ages, and it's still very popular in Europe and the Americas today.

Deep fried fish with sweet and sour sauce

Sweet and Sour Around the World

Sweet and sour flavors are enjoyed in many countries, each with its own special way of making and using them. Let's explore how different regions use this tasty combination!

Sweet and Sour in Asia

Many Asian countries have their own unique sweet and sour dishes.

Chinese Sweet and Sour Dishes

Some people believe the first sweet and sour sauce (simplified Chinese: 糖醋酱; traditional Chinese: 糖醋醬; pinyin: tángcùjiàng) came from Henan, a province in China. However, the sauce there is a simple mix of light vinegar and sugar. It's not quite like the sweet and sour sauce most people know today.

In China, sweet and sour sauce is often used as a dipping sauce for fish and meat. This is different from how it's often used in Western Chinese restaurants, where it's cooked into the dish. For example, people might use a chili and soy sauce for shrimp, or vinegar and garlic for goose.

But some Chinese dishes do cook the meat with the sauce. A famous example is the Cantonese sweet and sour pork. Another is Loong har kow, which are sweet and sour lobster balls. In these dishes, the sauce is added to a wok (a large cooking pan) right before serving.

Not all sweet and sour dishes are cooked. There's a "sweet and sour fruit and vegetable" salad from eastern China. It mixes fresh vegetables like cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, and onion with pineapple (or pear), vinegar, and sugar. This makes a refreshing cold dish.

Traditionally, Chinese sweet and sour sauces are made by mixing sugar or honey with a sour liquid. This liquid is often rice vinegar or soy sauce. Spices like ginger and cloves are also added. Sometimes, a paste made from tomatoes is used, but this is more common in Western cooking.

Sweet and sour seabass

The sweet and sour sauce from Cantonese cuisine is what most Western sweet and sour sauces are based on. It was first created for sweet and sour pork. A famous chef from Hong Kong, Leung King, used white rice vinegar, salt, Chinese brown candy, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and dark soy sauce in his recipe.

Cantonese Sweet and Sour Pork

The original Cantonese sweet and sour pork (simplified Chinese: 咕噜肉; traditional Chinese: 咕嚕肉; pinyin: gūlūròu; Cantonese Yale: gūlōuyuhk; literally "rumbling meat") gets its bright red color and sweet-sour taste from vinegar, preserved plums, and hawthorn candy. A similar dish from Hong Kong is sweet and sour spare-ribs (Chinese: 生炒排骨; pinyin: Shēngchǎo páigǔ; Cantonese Yale: sāangcháau pàaigwāt; literally "stir-fried spare ribs"). It's made the same way, but with spare ribs instead of pork.

Guo Bao Rou

Guo Bao Rou, a sweet and sour dish

Guo bao rou (simplified Chinese: 锅包肉; traditional Chinese: 鍋包肉; pinyin: Guō bāo ròu) is a classic dish from Northeast China. It started in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. This dish uses thin slices of chicken or pork coated in potato starch batter. They are deep-fried twice until they are super crispy. Then, they are lightly covered in a sweet and sour sauce. This sauce is made from fresh syrup and rice vinegar, with ginger and garlic for flavor. The batter soaks up the sauce and becomes soft.

Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish

Squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish

This dish comes from Suzhou, Jiangsu province. The squirrel-shaped Mandarin fish (Chinese: 松鼠鳜鱼; pinyin: Sōngshǔ Guìyú) has a crispy skin and a soft inside. The fish is cut in a special way so it spreads out when cooked, looking like a squirrel's bushy tail. A sweet and sour sauce is drizzled over the fish, and it's often topped with shrimp and dried bamboo shoots.

Sweet and Sour Yellow River Carp

This is a special dish from Shandong province, especially in the city of Jinan. The Yellow River carp is cut diagonally, then coated in corn flour and deep-fried. This makes the fish curl up and the cuts open. Finally, a sweet and sour sauce is poured over the cooked fish. This is a famous dish in Lu Cuisine.

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

Sweet and sour pork ribs

Sweet and sour spare ribs (Chinese: 糖醋小排; pinyin: tángcù xiǎopái) are very popular in Shanghai cuisine. They are made with pork ribs lightly coated in corn starch and seasoned. Then, they are fried and served with a sweet and sour sauce.

Korean Sweet and Sour Meat

Tangsuyuk is a popular Korean Chinese dish.

In South Korea, a sweet and sour meat dish called tangsuyuk (Hangul: 탕수육; Hanja: 糖水肉) is one of the most popular Korean Chinese dishes. It can be made with pork or beef. Small pieces of meat are usually covered in potato or sweet potato starch, or corn starch. They are then fried twice in oil. The dish is served with a sweet and sour sauce. This sauce is usually made by boiling vinegar, sugar, and water. It often includes fruits and vegetables like carrot, cucumber, onion, wood ear mushroom, and pineapple. A starch mixture is used to make the sauce thicker.

Sweet and Sour in Europe

Sweet and sour flavors have a long history in Europe too.

English Sweet and Sour Recipes

Sweet and sour sauces have been used in English cuisine since the Middle Ages. Recipes for sweet and sour meat and fish can be found in a cookbook from 1390 called The Forme of Cury.

French Sweet and Sour Sauces

In French cuisine, a sweet and sour sauce base made from sugar and vinegar is called a gastrique. The general term for a sweet and sour sauce in French is "Aigre-doux."

Italian Agrodolce Sauce

A saucepan of onion with agrodolce sauce

Agrodolce is a traditional sweet and sour sauce in Italian cuisine. Its name comes from "agro" (sour) and "dolce" (sweet). Agrodolce is made by cooking down sour and sweet ingredients, usually vinegar and sugar. Sometimes, other flavors are added, like wine, fruit, or even chocolate.

Sweet and Sour in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian countries also have their own versions of sweet and sour.

Filipino Agre Dulce Sauce

Filipino lumpia with an agre dulce dipping sauce

In Filipino cuisine, sweet and sour sauces are known as agre dulce or Filipino sweet and sour sauce. It's made by mixing cornstarch with water, salt, sugar, and a tangy ingredient. This tangy part is often tomato ketchup, banana ketchup, or pineapples. The mixture is boiled and then simmered until it gets thick. Small chili peppers can also be added. The name "agre dulce" means "sour-sweet" in Philippine Spanish. It's often used as a dipping sauce for appetizers like lumpia (spring rolls) or okoy (shrimp fritters).

Sweet and Sour in Modern Cooking

Sweet and sour flavors are now used in many different types of cooking, blending traditions from various cultures.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and sour chicken

Sweet and sour chicken is a dish you'll often find in Chinese restaurants in many parts of the world, like North America, Europe, and Australia. It usually has pieces of white meat chicken that are deep-fried in batter. These are then served with sweet and sour sauce poured over them. Sometimes, it's topped with pineapple, green pepper, carrot, or sweet pickles.

Sweet and Sour Pork

Sweet and sour pork

Sweet and sour pork is a very popular Chinese dish, especially in Western-style Cantonese cooking. You can find it almost anywhere in the world. The dish uses deep-fried pork in bite-sized pieces. These are then stir-fried with a special sweet and sour sauce. This sauce is made from sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce. Other ingredients like pineapple, green pepper, and onion are often added.

How Western Cultures Use Sweet and Sour

Western cultures use sweet and sour sauce in two main ways. It can be an ingredient cooked into a dish, or it can be a sauce poured over food or used for dipping.

In Western Chinese restaurants, it's common to find chicken, pork, or shrimp that has been battered and deep-fried. Then, sweet and sour sauce is poured over the meat. Often, the sauce is cooked with sliced green peppers, onions, and pineapple before it's added to the meat.

Many Western dishes also cook the meat with other ingredients to make a full sweet and sour meal, similar to the Chinese Gu lo yuk. Pork and shrimp dishes are especially popular this way.

Common ingredients in Western sweet and sour sauce include fruits like pineapple and vegetables like sweet pepper and green onions. While traditional rice vinegar is becoming easier to find, a mix of vinegar and dry sherry is still often used. Corn starch is frequently used to thicken the sauce. Tomato ketchup is often added to give the dish a stronger red color and a more Western taste.

You can find many ready-made sweet and sour sauces in supermarkets across Europe and North America. These are great for adding to a stir-fry or using as a dipping sauce. In North America, Chinese take-out places often give small plastic packets of sweet and sour sauce for dipping.

In Britain, Thai-style sweet chili dipping sauce has become very popular. It's even more popular than Chinese-style sweet and sour sauce now. You can often find it at non-Asian restaurants for snacks like fishcakes, chips, and seafood like calamari and prawns.

Sweet and sour flavors are also used in barbecue cooking. Many popular fast food restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's have their own special sweet and sour sauce packets. These are often given out and used as a dipping sauce for chicken fingers and chicken nuggets.

Images for kids

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  Sweet and sour Bid-bid (Pacific Tenpounder) balls

See also

In Spanish: Agridulce para niños