If you dine at local Chinese restaurants, you’ve probably been served a container of duck sauce, a versatile sweet and sour sauce that is commonly used for dipping fried foods, from eggrolls to chicken fingers, fried wontons to crab rangoons. It has become such a familiar sauce that you can find it at non-Chinese restaurants too, especially with an order of chicken fingers.
What is the origin of this curious sauce?
Theories abound about its origin, most believing it acquired its name in the U.S., and that it may be a renamed or variation of plum or hoisin sauce. It was likely called ‘duck sauce’ in the U.S. because the sauce was originally a Chinese accompaniment for duck. My own research into its origins has been enlightening, especially as there may be a Boston connection.
It’s fascinating that the first documented reference I found concerning Chinese duck sauce was in the Boston Herald, January 15, 1927. The paper mentioned a dinner at an unnamed Chinese restaurant on Hudson Street which served “sauces of soy, sauces of mustard and duck sauce.” Did the term duck sauce thus originate in Boston and spread from there? Unfortunately, the article didn’t provide any details on the nature of this duck sauce.
Hoisin sauce is commonly used with Peking Duck, but it doesn’t seem a likely candidate for being duck sauce. From my piece on a prior history of Peking Duck, we know that Peking Duck was a rarity in the U.S. during the 1920s. It wasn’t until 1958 that the first Chinese restaurant in the Boston area served Peking Duck. So, it makes no sense that the duck sauce mentioned in Boston had anything to do with Peking duck.
The Cantonese had their own version of roast duck, and it was served in American restaurants, including in Boston’s Chinatown, at least as far back as the late 19th century. Plum sauce was used with Cantonese duck, so it seems a far more likely candidate for duck sauce than hoisin sauce.
In general, plum sauce was made from plums, sugar, vinegar, salt, and ginger but there were acceptable variations, which might include other fruits, like apricots, as well as garlic, soy sauce or other items. American Chinese restaurants might have purchased plum sauce from Chinese grocery stores, or they might have made their own. ‘Duck sauce’ could easily be a variation of plum sauce.
The next reference to duck sauce didn’t appear until over 11 years later, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY), September 19, 1938, which noted that Chinese foods were becoming popular. The article stated that “...another favored dish is barbecued roast pork in duck sauce served with white meat chicken balls, dipped in rice flour batter and fried with black and white mushrooms, pimientos, bamboo sprouts and water chestnuts.” Duck sauce with roast pork?
Although plum sauce was used with roast duck, it wasn’t restricted to that use. The Chinese also used plum sauce with roast meats, such as pork, and that obviously carried through in their American restaurants. In fact, in many later American newspaper references, duck sauce was more often mentioned in connection with roast or barbecued pork than with duck. It actually wouldn’t have surprised me if duck sauce had been called ‘pork sauce’ instead, as Americans were using it for pork far more than duck.
With the first documented reference to ‘duck sauce’ in 1927 in Boston, and the next reference not appearing until 11 years later, it’s easy to believe the term had spread from Boston to New York during that lengthy period. It may only be circumstantial evidence, but it is persuasive in some respects, especially as there isn’t any evidence to the contrary. .
During the 1940s, duck sauce started becoming mentioned a bit more in various newspapers and books. As I mentioned previously, it was being used primarily for other foods, like pork or egg rolls, rather than duck. It wouldn’t be until the second half of the 1940s that a few duck sauce references arose in regions outside of Massachusetts and New York. In the 1950s, mentions of duck sauce seemed to explode across the country.
The first newspaper recipe for Duck Sauce also apparently appeared in the Boston Globe, February 6, 1952. The ingredients included consomme, onion, green pepper, mushroom, tomato, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, ginger root, and broth. It was also mentioned that the Chinese serve duck sauce at their restaurants with pork or barbecued spareribs, but there was no mention of duck.
Later that year, another, and very different, recipe was provided in the Boston Traveler, September 9, 1952, for “Plum or Duck Sauce.” The ingredients were very different from the earlier Boston Globe recipe. The ingredients included 1 cup plum jelly, ½ cup chutney, 1 tablespoon vinegar; and 1 tablespoon of sugar. It was said to be served with egg rolls, shrimp, lobster, barbecued spareribs, and Chinese roast pork.
We may have more clarity on the origins of duck sauce, but a definitive answer is still elusive. It seems that duck sauce is probably another term for plum sauce, and was used at least as far back as 1927. Plus, it’s possible that the first use of the term duck sauce may have originated in Boston’s Chinatown, in the 1920s, and spread across the East Coast and then westward. Duck sauce remains as popular as it ever has been, and it would be fascinating if Boston’s Chinatown played a part in its creation.
For more information, you may read Richard Auffrey’s lengthier article on this topic here.
To read this article in Chinese (Traditional), please click here.
