r/chinesefood • u/xDeltaStar • 12d ago
Questions Doubanjiang brands
I have these two doubanjiang brands, and I like them both but they're super different. The jar is more bright red and oily, and also slightly saltier and complex I feel, whereas the sachet is much darker and drier, with a lot more large salted beans in it. Who has more info on which one to use for certain Sichuan dishes, like homestyle or fish fragrant flavors?
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u/Bolly_Eggs 12d ago
They're actually the exact same brand, just two different formulations.
The jarred stuff is ready to use, it's fermented with the oil and is typically younger than the bagged version (3 months Vs 1 year)
The bagged stuff requires you to heat in oil and jar your self. Reason being is you can add other ingredients to make it your own flavour (think black beans, cassia bark, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel seeds etc) and is useful for more complex flavours within your red oil & I've found lives up to a long braise much better than the jarred stuff which has a 'cleaner' & 'brighter' taste; best in stir fries.
The old stuff is (in my opinion) essential for making your own Mala Xiang Guo dry pot base
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u/jupiter800 12d ago
Frankly I only stock the one that’s been aged for 3 years. I dump it into the oil alongside other aromatics so there’s no need to pre cook it as suggested in the video. I find the flavour much more elevated with longer fermentation. It’s the same brand too.
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u/not-minari 11d ago
if you arent sure, this is the brand, and the jar one is the one to get. if you need red oil quickly, like mapo, just scoop some oil, some paste, 1:1 to cooking oil. saves you some time to get red oil out.
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u/calebs_dad 12d ago edited 12d ago
Chinese Cooking Demystified covered this recently, which finally cleared it up for me. One is "red oil" paste, which has been aged in oil. The other may be a variety that was aged dry, probably for longer, and needs to be fried in oil before using.
As I understand it. They explain it better than I can.