SWEET-and-SOUR SAUCE

SWEET-and-SOUR SAUCE

The association of two contrasting flavours, acid and sweet, in the same dish is a very old culinary practice still common today in many countries. Honey with vinegar and verjuice were among the basic ingredients of the seasoning of dishes in ROMAN times and in medieval cooking, with its sauce and ragouts. Many meat, game, or fish (particularly river fish) dishes, marinated or boiled in wine or beer, have dried fruit in the sauce, or the jelly of red berries as an accompaniment this is one of the distinguishing features of Russian, Scandinavian, German, Alsatian, Jewish, and Flemish cooking. Fruit preserved in vinegar plums, cherries, cranberries, are typical example of the sweet-and-sour combination, and there is a large range of cooked condiments chutneys, sweet mustards, achars some of which are exotic origin (from India and the West Indies) and were adopted in Europe under British influence. But it is undoubtedly in China that sweet-and-sour cooking is at its finest, particularly for pork and duck.