What is XO Sauce?
Dec 13th, 2007 by admin
Being Cantonese, I love XO sauce with a passion. I’ve even created a simple dish based around this versatile and delicious condiment, XO Scallops With Noodles, which took no time at all. Recently, I tried to describe XO sauce to a Chinese friend, who had never heard of it. So I thought I’d write about it for The Larder, the new section of World Foodie Guide, featuring posts on the origins and background of various foods and ingredients that I love.
XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce, made from dried scallops and dried shrimp – cooked in red chilli and spices, garlic and oil. It was created in Hong Kong in the 80s, and named after XO cognac, the brand of alcohol signifying wealth and status that rich Chinese like to order when they’re ‘showing off’ in restaurants. After it became very successful in upmarket Cantonese restaurants, featuring in both seafood and meat dishes, XO sauce became available to buy in small jars in supermarkets.
Lee Kum Kee is the most well-known commercial brand, and in my opinion, the tastiest. In London, XO sauce costs around £10 a jar (for 190g). I couldn’t find the Lee Kum Kee one last time I was in Chinatown, so I tried another brand from Singapore, Kwong Cheong Thye (you can buy this for just under £10 at See Woo on Lisle Street in Chinatown, London). It’s not quite the same, as the Lee Kum Kee taste is quite distinctive, and in my opinion much better. XO sauce is generally pretty expensive wherever you buy it.
As I mentioned before, you can cook with it. It works well with seafood, such as the classic scallops, prawns, fish and so on, but people also cook meat with it. It complements tofu very well too. As it’s quite strong and oily, you don’t need to use much at all, so a small jar goes a very long way. I bought a jar last month, have used it numerous times and there is still two-thirds left. It keeps for months (I used to store it in the fridge but now I just leave it in the cupboard), and if it starts to dry up, simply add a little groundnut oil to it.
Apart from cooking with XO sauce, you can also use it as an accompaniment for noodles, whether fried, soup or braised, and of course congee – Chinese rice porridge. I also use it when I eat Chinese hot pot, as it’s perfect as a dipping sauce for boiled food that could otherwise be a little bland. And it’s a great little kick for home-made dumplings, whether steamed or pan-fried. So you can see, it’s a really versatile product.
You could also make XO sauce yourself. My uncle used to make it back in the 90s, but to be honest, it didn’t taste quite as exciting as the commercially produced version (which most likely has some additives and preservatives in it!). I found a recipe in Neil Perry’s Balance and Harmony – Asian Food, but as I don’t have access to dried scallops, I’ll have to wait.
To get a proper taste of XO sauce, order a dish in a good Chinese restaurant. Here’s an example of a menu that features a few XO sauce dishes. Then if you like it, buy a jar and start experimenting at home. I don’t cook much, but XO sauce is so easy to use that I can throw together my XO scallops with noodles in less than 15 minutes. It’s a fantastic product that I always like to have in my kitchen. Have a look at What’s in My Chinese Kitchen for other useful things in the Chinese kitchen.
I’d love to hear about your XO experiences!
If you’ve enjoyed reading this, you might like the other posts from The Larder series:
I’m all about the spicy, in all its form. I think my pantry needs some XO sauce. I’ll keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the tip.
Hi Mish – I think you’ll really like it! I just emptied my jar into a dish to take a photo of it and it smelled so enticing…I’ll be writing about other Chinese condiments, dipping and cooking sauces in the near future…Helen Yuet Ling
Hi,
Love XO Sauce and really adds a zing to a dish. We often use some when we stir-fry a ho fun dish (Chinese flat, broad, rice noodles) and for a quick dish for a simple supper we add a spoonful to a tin of shop-bought Lo Han Gai (veggie dish with gluten, carrots, bamboo shoots) and put extra shitake mushrooms and fried tufu, and heat the ingredients up in a saucepan. Serve with Chinese choi with oyster sauce and steamed white rice. Simple and tasty.
A really good brand is expensive too, here in the States, but not as expensive as in the UK. We buy a middle-of-the-road brand made in the States; cost-wise is under $8.00 and is very tasty. The brand is Yank Sing and it’s their Chili XO sauce and is produced in the States, in San Francisco.
XO sauce is a must-have in the Chinese kitchen.
Enjoy,
Susan
Thanks Susan, for the tips on how to use XO sauce. I’m always after new ways (excuses) of eating it! I might get some ho fun this week. And it’s good to hear about the brand you use in the States, as I don’t know what’s available on the other side of the pond. Useful for US readers!…Helen Yuet Ling
Thanks for your descriptions and honesty (it’s better to buy and use rather than make yourself) I was looking on here for the recipe to make for my chinese boyfriend for New Year, who was telling me yesterday that it’s made with XO, I can enlighten him now and when I’m next in Chinatown I’ll look out for the brands you mentioned.
Hi Nicola, I might try and make XO sauce next year (which is in a few hours for me!), so I’ll let you know if it’s good or not. But I think you’ll only know if home-made is good once you’ve tried a couple of brands (to compare your own version with). Lucky boyfriend! Helen Yuet Ling
They sell XO sauce in Singapore in all supermarkets at around $3 a bottle. Thats about £1+ a jar. Go figure.
That’s so cheap! I would eat it every day at that price…Thanks for letting me know. Helen Yuet Ling
Hi Helen,
I have a few things to say after reading your blog:
1. OMG!!! X.O Sauce – I luuuuvv them!
You gotta try the X.O sauce by Lee Kum Kei. The right amount of ‘Larder’ and the correct amount of chillis and it’s perrrrfect!
2. Great blog. I was spending god-knows how long going through your restaurant reviews. I must confess – I cannot agree more – Yauatcha ROCKS!
Hope to bump into you at Yauatcha soon!
Happy blogging/reviewing/gourmet tasting!
Hi there! Thanks for this! I love Lee Kum Kee XO sauce. It really is the best. Unfortunately the supermarket I went to told me that it’s not being imported anymore (don’t know why), and that the one I bought instead came into the country via the Netherlands (how does that make it OK?!). So I’m reluctantly using a substitute, but it’s just not the same. When I go to HK this October, my suitcase is going to be full of XO sauce! Glad to meet another Yauatcha fan by the way. There’s just no other place like it (in the UK at least). See you there soon! I’m going to be reviewing some other dim sum restaurants over the next two months, in preparation for a post on My Favourite Dim Sum Restaurants, although I think I can already guess which ones I’ll be writing about…Helen Yuet Ling
hi helen! i came about your site when i was searching to know more about the xo sauce. very interesting history. in another blogsite, a reader shared her recipe for home-made xo sauce. you might want to check it out, but i don’t know how to attach the url address here. but the blog is marketmanila. hope you and your readers will enjoy it.
i am an armchair tourist, hehehe, and blogs like these help me see other places and taste the food of the world. best regards!
Chris – thanks for letting me know about the Market Manila recipe. There’s an old comment from me somewhere amongst all the others!
Isn’t it great being an armchair tourist?! Thanks for visiting and come back soon…
Helen Yuet Ling