On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 23:02:49 +0000 (UTC), Steve Pope wrote:

> aem > wrote:
>
>>On Aug 4, 3:06*pm, (Steve Pope) wrote:
>
>>> Does anybody here brew their own soy sauce, or ferment their
>>> own black bean sauce, or concoct their own oyster sauce from
>>> oysters?
>
>>One of my Chinese uncles brewed his own soy sauce once. Took a
>>loooong time, he fussed over it a lot, and he was disappointed with
>>the result. Never tried again.
>
> Interesting.
>
>>Black bean sauce is easy. I buy the fermented/preserved black beans,
>>dry in plastic bag in a cardboard cylinder package. When you want
>>black bean sauce you (optionally rinse them), chop them up with some
>>garlic and put them in your hot wok. Add soy, wine, water to taste.
>
> (Arg, you're using "soy" to refer to soy sauce.)
>
> (Ignore previous comment, just one of my pet peeves.)
>
>>Bottled black bean sauce is all "one note", whereas you can vary
>>whichever of the ingredients you like to your taste when you make your
>>own.
>
> I didn't know one could buy fermented/preserved black beans.
> I'll have to look for those. I normally mix black beans (cooked,
> but unfermented) with rice vinegar, chilis, tomato paste and
> sesame oil and leave sit up to a week refrigerated. What
> I haven't tried is getting the stuff to ferment on its own.

any reasonable well-stocked asian market should have them. you can see the
salt on them. i taste, i should think, is much different from unfermented.

your pal,
blake