18 Most Classic and Popular Vietnamese Sauces You Should Know

Vietnamese sauce is considered a “soul” part of many delicious meals. Being able to increase palatability, decrease concentration, enhance flavor texture, etc. are the diverse roles that this ingredient brings to dishes. Depending on your preferences, culinary culture, enjoyment habits, processing methods, etc., sauces are also extremely rich in appearance and taste. Vietnam is known as the paradise of sauces. Let’s discover the most popular Vietnamese sauces with Tasty Touch in this article.

What is Vietnamese Sauce?

In cuisine, sauces are liquid, creamy, or semi-solid that is served directly or used to prepare other dishes. In essence, a sauce is a food that can be in liquid form, can be in the form of a paste, slightly thickened, or thick. This type of sauce is used to process dishes, combine them with dishes, enhance fish dishes or beautify and attract dishes.

Sauces come in many forms, many Vietnamese sauce recipes, and many flavors, but most are combined and rarely used alone. That is, the sauce itself always accompanies other dishes and is an integral part of many dishes. Depending on the dish, the sauce can be salty, sweet, spicy, sweet and sour, fatty… used cold, warm, or hot.

When it comes to the appearance of sauces in cuisine, dates back a long time. It is thought that sauces have been around since BC. Each region, continent, and the country has its signature sauces. The oldest recorded sauce recipe is garum, a fish sauce used by the ancient Greeks.

In modern cuisine, various sauces are also prepackaged. When used, people can bring it to us directly. We can also use this pre-packaged type to mix more according to our preferences or mix depending on the characteristics of the dish that we combine.

Types of Vietnamese Sauce

There are funny stories surrounding the division of sauce; its pedigree is as complex as the genealogy of the human races on earth. The classification of sauces is considered an impossible job, with no specific or complete standard to be performed.

Although so far there is no specific standard or standard for dividing sauces, sauces are temporarily sorted according to certain typical criteria. For example, people divide sauces according to:

• Most featured list. For example, there is a list of the most famous sauces.
• Combination dishes. For example salad dressing, sauce for grilled fish, and sauce for barbecue,…
• Sauce ingredients. For example avocado sauce, fruit sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup…
• Color. For example, white sauce, brown sauce, red sauce, etc.
• Regional or national cuisine. For example Chinese soy sauce, Vietnamese fish sauce, Indonesian peanut butter sauce, Middle Eastern toum, Colombian hogao, Canadian honey garlic sauce, British HP sauce, and French mayonnaise,…

18 Most Popular Vietnamese Sauces

Chili Sauce (Tương ớt)

Chili sauce is quite diverse and is used a lot in Asian and Vietnamese cuisine. Unlike Western chili sauce, chili sauce has the spiciness of dried chili and a variety of flavors depending on the chef’s use. So chili sauce can be used as much as its rich version. In addition to being used to dip and add to dishes, chili sauce can also be used as a marinade for many dishes as a unique but very simple secret.

Chili Oil Sauce (Sốt dầu ớt)

In Asian cuisine, chili sauce is very commonly used to marinate meat, fish, and other seafood. Chili oil sauce is also used as a dipping sauce or added to various dishes to enhance the flavor. In Vietnam, we also often use this sauce as a satay that many people love.

Shrimp paste (Mắm tôm)

Shrimp sauce is a special sauce in Northern Vietnam with a very specific taste. This type of fish sauce is made from shrimp or Moi and salt. Going through the fermentation process creates a dark purple color and a characteristic strong smell. Vietnamese people not only love this fish sauce but also use it as slang in daily life.

Shrimp sauce when used to eat with vermicelli with fried tofu or Hanoi fish cake can be mixed with a little hot fried fat. In cooking dishes, shrimp paste is an indispensable ingredient when preparing plum machetes and fake pig’s feet. Water dishes such as vermicelli and vermicelli take the salty taste of shrimp paste to blend the other flavors.

Mam nem (Mắm nêm)

Mam nem is made from the fish-like fish sauce but has a completely different processing method. If the fish sauce gets sauce from the water extracted from the fish body and salt, the mam nem uses the whole fish carcass. After the process of salting and fermentation, the fish is mixed with some ingredients such as hearing, aromatics, and sugar… to create a characteristic flavor.

Mam nem usually has two forms: whole form (anchovy, red painted fish…) and pureed form (herring, scad, catfish…). Mam nem is a typical dipping sauce of Central Vietnam.

Fish sauce

Fish sauce can be made from raw or dried fish; or from all kinds of shellfish, shrimp, and crabs, or fruits such as cashews when making vegetarian fish sauce. Some fish sauces are made from whole fish, while others are only made from blood or offal. Some fish sauces have only fish and salt, others may have herbs and spices added. Short-term fermented fish sauce has a characteristic fishy smell. Longer fermentation reduces the fishy smell and creates a more nutty and nutty flavor.

Caramel sauce

Caramel sauce is a concentrated sauce created when sugar is heated at 170oC. When heated at this temperature, the sugar molecules will be broken down and form a new compound with a dark golden brown color, rich taste, and attractive aroma. The sweetness of caramel sauce always creates a highlight for dishes, especially desserts.

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is essentially the same thing, the only difference in name in each region is “a kind of dipping sauce” produced by fermentation or acid hydrolysis from soybeans, roasted grains, water, and salt. Soy sauce, also known as soy sauce, is a black sauce that can be used as a dipping sauce or condiment.

Soy sauce is produced by fermentation or acid hydrolysis from soybeans, roasted grains, water, and table salt. To be able to extract the flavor of nature, soybeans must be fermented with a completely natural fungus.

Tomato sauce

Tomato sauce is a processed solution whose main ingredients include tomatoes and other ingredients such as water, garlic, sugar, salt, etc. We can use it directly or process it into other dishes. Tomato sauce is very welcome in the ready-to-eat industry. We love to combine this dish with french fries, fried chicken, fried fish, spaghetti, fried ribs… At the same time, tomato sauce also enhances the taste and nutrition of the dish.

Chao sauce

Chao is made from fermented tofu, the longer it is left, the more “fat”. Mix well, and add a little sugar, and satay with grilled dishes (especially goat) is delicious. In addition, there is also a famous dish, boiled okra with dipping sauce. This dish is simple but often called by many people when eating at the restaurant, as a light and peaceful snack. People also use Chao to marinate in some dishes when cooking or add stir-fried vegetables to increase their attractiveness. Compared to other types of fish sauce, Chao seems to be lighter in smell and easier to eat.

Mam ruoc (Mắm ruốc)

Holding a piece of raw mango, crispy and sour, smeared in the thick paste of shrimp paste is delicious. Therefore, in the sunny season, the fruit stalls that have this dish are attractive to students. In addition to mango, toads, guava, plum, and other sour fruits can be dipped in fish sauce. The taste of fish sauce emphasizes the mango flavor, making the mango dish more fragrant and sweet. In addition, people in the Central and Southeast region also have rice paper dipped in fish sauce, snacking and playing with cravings.

Peanut butter sauce

Peanut butter sauce is a type of margarine made from the main ingredients of peanuts and sugar with a little oil and made by grinding or pureeing. Peanut butter is a popular food in North America, the Netherlands, the UK, and parts of Asia, as popular as in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

In addition to the advantage of being one of the ingredients of fast foods, peanut butter is also used to combine in many main dishes, people can use peanut butter to add to snacks such as salads, and cakes. Toast or pizza, make dipping sauces, make peanut chocolate candies…

Satay sauce

Satay is a mixture of additives to marinate food with the main ingredients being chili (powdered chili or fresh chili) and cooking oil, in addition, lemongrass may be added. Satay originates from the Indian Malays with authentic Indian spices. 

Satay is used as a condiment for some dishes, especially to help the hot pot, the broth has an attractive aroma, the red color floating as well as the scum on the surface of the hot pot and broth. preferred by consumers. The Vietnamese imported and localized to suit the local taste of the satay additive, they reduced the dose of basic spices to reduce the strong odor.

Kumquat sauce

Kumquat sauce is a kind of sauce that is no longer strange to the followers of rice paper or breaking Lau. Rich sauce largely determines the deliciousness of rice paper. The sauce is full of sweet, sour, and salty flavors with the outstanding aroma of sweet kumquat coming from the ingredients: tap water, white sugar, shrimp salt, chili sauce, scallions, and maybe more chili, red onion, cooking oil, beans. peanuts, butter, … depends on each person preparing.

Lemon chili salt sauce

Specialty Salt Chili Lemon is probably the most famous sauce in the list of pure Vietnamese Dipping Sauces. With the main ingredients including chili, lemon, and sugar, this smooth sauce with eye-catching green color blows up the taste for seafood dishes and grilled meat. Lemon Chili Salt Salt can be found at any street food stall, in addition, the sauce has many other variations such as Nha Trang Ginger Lemon Chili Salt, and Passion Fruit Chili Salt to meet diverse tastes and rich dishes. in Vietnamese cuisine.

Dipping fish sauce

Fish sauce of this type is very popular, used to dip with raw vegetables, boiled vegetables, rolls, or used with spring rolls, vermicelli, rolls, pancakes, and broken rice …

Lemon butter sauce (Sốt bơ chanh)

Lemon butter sauce is one of the most popular and commonly encountered sauces on Western dining tables and was introduced to Vietnam in the last century. This kind of sauce is greasy, mildly aromatic, and a little sour, easy to balance the dishes, as well as it can help increase the flavor but reduce the strong smell of the ingredients combined.

Garlic Cream Sauce (Sốt kem tỏi)

Garlic cream sauce has a harmonious aroma of garlic, onions, and aromatic leaves. In addition to the aroma of garlic, onions, and other herbs, the creamy milk ingredient will contribute to increasing the texture of the combined dish, thanks to its characteristic fat consistency. Garlic cream sauce is also quite popular in the cuisines of different countries.

Depending on the place, there will be certain variations in the number of ingredients used to make the sauce. But, this is not so important because the change is to taste. You can also refer to how to apply it to the right dishes in your home.

Mixed mayonnaise (Sốt Mayonnaise tổng hợp)

Mayonnaise when combined with other ingredients can create delicious dipping sauces that are irresistible. These mixed sauces are very popular in the world because they are easy to use, easy to prepare, quick, and uncomplicated. They can also be used for a variety of fast foods from main dishes to snacks.

Above are the shares of Tasty Touch about Vietnamese sauce. Hope this article can be beneficial for you!