Chinese-Style Plum Sauce

Name: Chinese-Style Plum Sauce
Yield: Makes 4 pints
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1½ cups granulated sugar; 2½ cups water; 3 or 4 medium-large sweet red peppers; 1 stick cinnamon; 2½ pounds peaches or apricots, stoned and quartered (weight before preparation); 5½ cups cider vinegar; 2½ pounds plums (preferably red), stoned and quartered (weight before preparation); 2 tablespoons coarse (kosher) salt; ¼ cup mustard seeds, lightly toasted in a small skillet; ½ cup light corn syrup; ½ cup peeled, chopped fresh gingerroot; 2 cups (packed) light brown sugar; 2 small hot fresh green peppers (about 2 inches long), or more if your taste runs to “hot,” seeded and diced; or 3 dried hot red peppers (each about 1½ inches long), seeds removed, crumbled; 1 medium onion, quartered; 4 to 6 large cloves garlic, minced

“Duck Sauce”

Preparation info

Makes
4 pints

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Better Than Store-Bought

By Helen Witty and Elizabeth Schneider

Published 1979

About

More liquid and less fiery than Indian chutneys, to which it is closely related, this Chinese dip-sauce is most often served with roast pork and spring rolls. If you have not had the opportunity to eat in a fine Chinese restaurant, you may have encountered only the sickly-sweet, garlic-laden pink substance labeled “duck sauce” but bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the pungent, fruity real thing. Incidentally, you don’t need to wait to cook a Chinese meal to savor this sauce; it may be se