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Sauce recipe

Black Vinegar Ginger Dipping Sauce

The dark, sharp dip that comes with xiao long bao: Chinese black vinegar and fine threads of fresh ginger.

Black Vinegar Ginger Dipping Sauce
The ratio
  • 6 partsBlack vinegar
  • 1 partSoy sauce
  • 1 partFresh ginger
What you need
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) Chinese black vinegar
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp caster sugar
  • 1 thumb (20g) fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine threads
  • 1/4 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp chilli oil, optional
Makes
About 80ml, enough for 4
Ready in
10
Keeps
1 week in the fridge
How to make it
  1. Peel the ginger, slice it very thinly along the grain, then stack the slices and cut them into hair-thin threads.
  2. Stir the black vinegar, soy sauce and sugar together until the sugar dissolves.
  3. Add the ginger and sesame oil and leave it for 10 minutes so the ginger softens and flavours the vinegar.
  4. Spoon into small dishes, add a few drops of chilli oil if you like, and serve with dumplings.
About this sauce

At a dumpling house, xiao long bao arrive with a little dish of black vinegar and slivers of ginger. That is this sauce. Chinese black vinegar (Chinkiang or Zhenjiang) is malty, mellow and only gently sour, and fresh ginger cuts through rich pork and soup. Unlike our gyoza dipping sauce, there's no rice vinegar and very little soy, so the vinegar is the star.

Slice the ginger as finely as you can and let it sit in the vinegar for ten minutes before eating. A drop of soy and a pinch of sugar round it out; chilli oil is optional.

What to put it on

Xiao long bao, pork and chive dumplings, wontons, potstickers, steamed buns and cold noodles.

Serve it with xiao long bao, pork and chive jiaozi or siu mai. Want heat? Add a spoon of chilli crisp oil. Read our guide to Chinese black vinegar.

Uses this sauce

Recipes that call for this sauce. Make a batch and cook one of these.

Pairs well with

Dishes this sauce suits. These recipes make their own glaze or dressing, so you can swap this sauce in.