Yellow bean sauce substitutes

The jars labelled ground bean sauce, yellow bean sauce or mo tau jiang in Chinese grocers, most commonly the Koon Chun brand. Fermented soybeans, salt and a little sugar, and functionally the same ingredient.

Best for

pad see ew, stir-fries, chicken with cashews, marinades, dipping sauces, noodle dishes

The closest thing on the shelf and often the same ingredient under a different label. The main differences are texture and salt: ground bean sauce is smoother, with the beans fully mashed rather than left whole, and it is usually a touch saltier, so pull back slightly on the soy sauce in the recipe. Flavour is genuinely interchangeable.

Loosen the miso with a little water or stock so it disperses in the wok, then stir it in near the end of cooking.

Best for

stir-fries, pad see ew, braises, soups

Miso is the most common substitution and the one people get wrong. It is noticeably sweeter and rounder, with a rice-fermented smell rather than the beany, faintly funky pungency of tao jiao, so a stir-fry made with it tastes softer and less savoury, and can read as slightly flat in a hot wok. Add ¼ teaspoon of fish sauce or soy sauce per teaspoon of miso to close the gap. Do not boil it hard or the aroma goes dull.

The pantry fix that almost everyone has. Reduce any other liquid in the recipe slightly, since you are adding a thin sauce in place of a paste.

Best for

stir-fries, noodles, quick sauces, marinades

This gets you the salt and a decent share of the glutamate savouriness, which is most of what tao jiao does. What it cannot supply is body and the bean texture, so the finished sauce tastes thinner and looks darker, and it clings less to the noodles. A quarter teaspoon of cornstarch slurry restores the coating. Adequate rather than good.

Coarse Korean fermented soybean paste. Same raw material, longer and more assertive fermentation.

Best for

stir-fries, braises, dipping sauces, soups

An excellent swap that is simply louder. Doenjang has a deeper, funkier, more pungent fermented flavour and a coarser texture with visible bean fragments, so a Thai stir-fry made with it tastes more robust and slightly earthy where tao jiao is cleaner and gentler. Start with three-quarters of the amount and taste before adding more, and expect the dish to lean savoury rather than delicate.

Salted fermented black soybeans, either as a jarred sauce or the whole beans rinsed and mashed. Use half as much because they are far more concentrated.

Best for

stir-fries, steamed dishes, braises

Powerfully pungent and unmistakably Cantonese, so it does not so much substitute as redirect the dish. Where tao jiao sits in the background as a savoury foundation, black bean pushes to the front with a sharp, almost cheesy funk. Great cooking, different dish. Rinse whole beans first or the salt will be overwhelming.

Listed last on purpose. Hoisin is fermented soybean sweetened heavily with sugar and spiced with five-spice, garlic and chili, and it is thick and glossy.

Best for

emergencies only, glazes, marinades

This is the swap people reach for and the one that most changes the dish. Hoisin's sugar and five-spice make a pad see ew taste sweet, dark and barbecue-like instead of savoury, and the sauce turns syrupy. If it is truly all you have, use half as much, add a teaspoon of soy sauce per tablespoon to restore the salt, and skip any sugar the recipe calls for. Expect a noticeably sweeter dish.