Pick a sauce and how many you're feeding. Your order ticket lists every ingredient in spoons, millilitres and grams, with the cornflour slurry and the sodium per serving.
Order No. 01Table for 2
Savoury soy-garlic
Salty, savoury and garlicky. The all-rounder for chicken, beef, tofu or a big pile of greens.
Sauce for 2 servings · stir together in a jug
Soy sauce (light or all-purpose)2 tbsp30 ml · 32 g
Oyster sauce1 tbsp15 ml · 18 g
Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry1 tbsp15 ml · 15 gBottles sold as “cooking wine” often have salt added.
White sugar1 tsp5 ml · 4 g
Toasted sesame oil1 tsp5 ml · 4.5 g
Water or unsalted stock3 tbsp45 ml · 45 gOrdinary stock adds sodium that is not counted here.
Garlic, finely chopped3 cloves9 g
Ground white pepper⅛ tsp0.63 ml · 0.3 g
Slurry · glossy · mix in a cup
Cornflour (cornstarch)1¾ tsp9 ml · 4.5 g
Cold water1 tbsp + ½ tsp17.5 ml · 18 g
Sodium per serving≈ 1,130 mg2.9 g salt equivalent · 49% of the FDA Daily Value
Stir the sauce together until the sugar dissolves.
Cook your stir-fry, then pour the sauce in around the edge of the hot wok and let it bubble for 30 seconds.
Stir the slurry again (the starch sinks), add it a little at a time and toss until the sauce turns glossy and clings.
How the sauce builder works
Every style is our own house recipe, written for two servings. Change the number of servings and each amount is scaled, then rounded to something you can actually spoon: eighths and quarters of a teaspoon for small amounts, tablespoons and cups for big ones. Millilitres and grams sit alongside, so you can pour into a measuring jug or weigh straight into a bowl on the scale.
The slurry
Cornflour (cornstarch) stirred into twice its volume of cold water thickens the sauce in the last minute of cooking. Light uses 1 teaspoon of cornflour for every 120 ml (½ cup) of liquid in the sauce, Glossy 2 teaspoons and Thick 3. Stir it again just before it goes in, because the starch sinks to the bottom of the cup.
The sodium estimate
We add up the sodium in every ingredient from USDA FoodData Central and divide by the servings. For scale, the FDA's Daily Value for sodium is 2,300 mg, and the NHS says adults should have no more than 6 g of salt a day. Soy, fish and oyster sauce carry most of it; reduced-sodium soy sauce and a little more water or unsalted stock are the easiest ways to bring it down. Brands vary, so the label on your own bottle is the final word.
Spoons and cups
We use 1 tsp = 5 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml and 1 cup = 240 ml. Australian tablespoons hold 20 ml, so in Australia go by the millilitres or grams instead.
Sodium in one tablespoon, from USDA FoodData Central (weight × sodium per 100 g)
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A stir-fry needs a little liquid to steam the vegetables through and to turn into a coating once the slurry goes in. Water or unsalted stock adds that volume without adding salt. For a stronger sauce, swap some of the water for more of the main seasoning.
What can I use instead of Shaoxing wine?
Dry sherry is the usual swap. To leave out alcohol, use the same amount of water or unsalted stock with a few drops of rice vinegar. Check the label on bottles sold as cooking wine: many have salt added, which our sodium estimate does not include.
Is cornflour the same as cornstarch?
Yes. In Britain and Ireland, cornflour is the fine white starch that Americans call cornstarch. In the US, corn flour means finely ground whole corn, which will not thicken a sauce the same way, so look for the word starch on the pack.
How accurate is the sodium figure?
It is an estimate from the USDA's average values for each ingredient. Real bottles differ, sometimes a lot, and the figure leaves out salt in your meat, stock, noodles or rice. For an exact number, add up the nutrition labels on the bottles in your own cupboard.