Tauco, Taucu, Taotjo, Tao Jiew or Tauchu (
Chinese: 豆醬;
pinyin: dòujiàng;
Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tāu-chiùⁿ;
Thai: เต้าเจี้ยว,
RTGS: Tao Jiew) is a paste made from
preserved fermentedyellow soybeans in
Chinese Indonesian,
Malaysian and
Thai cuisines.[1] Tauco is made by boiling yellow soybeans, grinding them, mixing them with flour, and fermenting them to make a soy paste. The soy paste is soaked in salt water and sun-dried for several weeks, furthering the fermentation process, until the color of the paste has turned yellow-reddish. Good tauco has a distinct aroma.[2] The sauce is also commonly used in other
Indonesian cuisine traditions, such as
Sundanese cuisine and
Javanese cuisine. Taucu is generally used in cooking by Chinese
Malaysians,
Singaporeans,
Bruneians, and
Thais.[3]
The sauce is often used as a condiment and flavouring for stir-fried dishes such as tahu tauco (
tofu in tauco sauce), kakap tahu tausi (
red snapper with tofu in soybean sauce), in soup such as swikee oh (
frog legs in tauco soup) and pie oh (
softshell turtle in tauco soup), or stir fried with kangkung (water spinach). Today the major production centre of tauco in Indonesia are in
Cianjur in
West Java, and
Pekalongan in
Central Java. In Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei, the main commercial brand of taucu is
Yeo Hiap Seng (Yeo's).[4][5] In Thailand, the sauce is often used in stir-fries, such as
Pad Mee Korat & stir-fried vegetables, and also dipping sauces such as
Khao Man Gai.
