Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Hoisin Sauce

Exquisite hoisin sauce flavour pairings and recipes, revealed through data science.

Hoisin sauce conjures the evocative embrace of liquorice and the kiss of sesame. But look beneath its obvious umaminess and you'll discover a captivating symphony of softer notes, a whisper of garlic, a hint of molasses, and subtle accents reminiscent of oyster that contribute remarkable depth. The gastronomic enchantment unfolds when we pair hoisin sauce with ingredients that let these nuances sing.

To chart these harmonies, we analysed thousands of ingredients, each deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, pinpointing the notes that best complement this ingredient’s profile. Our findings reveal, for instance, how rice's oryzan tones can embrace hoisin sauce, or how oyster sauce's iodine-like notes create an unexpectedly harmonious bridge with the sweet-spicy aroma.

An ingredient's flavour profile is determined by its core characteristics (e.g. spice, acidic, and herbal) enhanced by layers of subtle aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim for a mix of core traits to build balance, and select complementary aroma notes to create harmony.

The Secret Language of Flavour

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Liquorice Notes

Our analysis shows that the flavour of liquorice is strongly associated with the flavour of oyster. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a oystery flavour, such as oyster sauce, when pairing with the liquorice accents of hoisin sauce.

The recipes below provide inspiration for pairing hoisin sauce with oyster sauce.

Harmonious Flavours Of Hoisin Sauce

Just as our analysis indicated that liquorice and malic flavour accents are often associated, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavours present in hoisin sauce. For instance, the sesame flavours of hoisin sauce are strongly associated with hot and garlicy notes.

The aromas linked to the various notes of hoisin sauce can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of rice offers many of the aromas complementary to hoisin sauce, including rice and starch aromas. Because the flavour profile of rice has many of the of the features that are complementary to hoisin sauce, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of rice across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with hoisin sauce.

Recipes That Pair Hoisin Sauce With Rice

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aroma notes that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of hoisin sauce, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of hoisin sauce, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the notes complementary to hoisin sauce.

What To Drink With Hoisin Sauce

The rice notes in sake make it a perfect pairing with hoisin sauce. Likewise, the malic flavours in apple juice create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of hoisin sauce below.

Which Vegetables Go With Hoisin Sauce?

Choose vegetables that lift its earthiness or anchor its fermented aroma. Pak choi and baby bok choy offer vibrant, clean counterpoints, their verdant freshness lifting the palate. Asparagus add a gentle, oniony brightness, while chayote introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace vegetables that harmonise with hoisin sauce's greenness. The addition of enoki mushroom, with its subtle asparagus notes, can complement the tomato beautifully, while new potato lends a green vegetal notes.

How Flavonomics Works

We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.

Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.

Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.

We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.

These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Hoisin sauce), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.