In article >,
"Peter Dy" > wrote:

> "Julian Vrieslander" > wrote in
> message
> ...
> >
> > I doubt it was a bottled sauce. Most of the recipes I've seen start
> > with black beans or fermented black beans. I've never used the
> > fermented kind - perhaps it provides the viscosity that we noticed.
>
> Surely you've used the fermented kind; otherwise it would be a Mexican or
> South American dish and not Chinese. Maybe you're mistaking the dried kind
> with the wet ones? They're both fermented.

I've never actually tried to make Chinese black bean sauce - just looked
at recipes. Some of these called for fermented beans, but (if I recall
correctly) some just called for dried or canned black beans. Maybe the
authors are assuming that a Chinese variety will be used, and that this
stuff will be the fermented kind.

--
Julian Vrieslander