What kind of stew/sauce is this?

Can you remember more about the episode? Maybe then we can find the episode and rewatch it.

I am not sure which one you saw. There are several types of sauces in SE asia that have been passed down from generation to generation. The actual sauce, not the recipe.

As they cook with the sauce it replenishes itself and takes on more flavor.

I got this from watching Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre foods and Anthony Bourdain’s no reservations.

@WestRiverrat How? How does sauce have these amazing regenerative properties?

@MyNewtBoobs I have no idea how it works.

@WestRiverrat Yes! It was an episode of Bizarre Foods, definitely! I think he might have been in Taiwan, but don’t quote me on that. All I remember is that it was in the kitchen of a restaurant, and the sauce was very spicy. I haven’t seen this episode in ages. The idea of letting something stew for years and years and slowly adding to it came up in a discussion about winemaking today.

Sounds like possibly XO sauce?

@crisw where does it say anything about it needing to cook for years in there?

@MyNewtBoobs It probably works something like a sourdough starter, which is basically a persistent yeast/bacteria culture. When a baker goes to make a loaf of sourdough, the baker takes some of the starter to make the “sponge”. When the sponge has had its first rise the baker will then take back some of the sponge and add it to the starter to replenish it. In this way bakers can keep the starter going for months. I’ve heard that some bakeries in San Francisco have starters that are more than 150 years old.

@uberbatman

I agree it doesn’t, but I’ve read elsewhere that it is aged a long time.

@koanhead That’s so cool! I wonder if using such an old starter changes anything about the finished product.

I still can’t find more info on the sauce, but the winemaking technique that uses this idea is the solera process. There’s a series of barrels for aging fortified wine such as port, and they’re filled and drained in fractional increments so that none of them ever go empty and the old wine blends with the young wine.

@Haleth They say that the older the starter, the more ‘sour’ the dough will be. Also I’ve heard that an older starter can go longer before refreshes. I don’t know as I’ve never had a starter that was more than a year old, and I was doing it wrong.
Also, thanks for the interesting link!

I don’t know the specific sauce that you’re describing but it sounds like a master stock recipe, similar to what @WestRiverrat described earlier.

From Wiki-
The defining characteristic of a master stock from other stocks is that after initial use, it is not discarded or turned into a soup or sauce. Instead, the broth is stored and reused in the future as a stock for more poachings. With each use, the poached meats and other ingredients absorb the stock’s flavour while imparting their own back into the stock. In this way, over time, flavour accumulates in the stock, making it richer and more complex with each poaching, while subsequent poached meats absorb this flavour and likewise become more flavorful.
In theory, a master stock could be sustained indefinitely if due care is taken to ensure it does not spoil. There are claims of master stocks in China that are hundreds of years old, passed down through generations of cooks in this way
After use, if the master stock will not be immediately reused it is usually boiled, skimmed, strained and cooled quickly to kill any microorganisms in the stock

Perhaps there is a Taiwanese version of master stock that is used in the production of Stinky Tofu? That dish would be very appropriate for the Zimmerman’s show.

@Raven_Rising That’s awesome, thanks! It doesn’t sound exactly like what I saw- they never talked about adding or removing meat, just adding more spices to make a hot sauce. But the idea of a master stock is really, really cool.