Oyster sauce
| Oyster sauce | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 蠔油 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 蚝油 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | oyster oil/liquid | ||||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 蚵油 | ||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | dầu hào dầu hàu | ||||||||||||
| Hán-Nôm | 油蠔 | ||||||||||||
| Thai name | |||||||||||||
| Thai | ซอสหอยนางรม | ||||||||||||
| RTGS | sot-hoi-nang-rom | ||||||||||||
| Malay name | |||||||||||||
| Malay | sos tiram | ||||||||||||
| Indonesian name | |||||||||||||
| Indonesian | saus tiram | ||||||||||||
| Khmer name | |||||||||||||
| Khmer | ទឹកប្រេងខ្យង (tɨk preeng khyɑɑng) | ||||||||||||
Oyster sauce describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from oyster extracts, sugar, salt and water, thickened with corn 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 with caramel, though high-quality oyster sauce is naturally dark. It is commonly used in Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, and Khmer cuisine.