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Chinese Barbecued Tofu with Sesame Noodles

A dish of marinated and charbroiled tofu served over sesame-seasoned Chinese egg noodles with vegetables.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 204 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl pentanoate, which smells yeast, fruit. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat, soy, shellfish, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • marinade
  • sesame noodles

Directions

Make the marinade

  1. Combine soy sauce, hoi sin sauce, oyster sauce, sherry or beer, brown sugar, garlic, and five spice for the marinade. Set aside.

Prepare and cook the tofu

  1. Slice each 10-ounce brick of tofu into eight ½-inch portions.

  2. Dry thoroughly between several layers of paper towels.

  3. Heat a non-stick skillet and brown tofu on both sides using a small amount of oil. Remove from skillet and cool slightly.

  4. Cover with Chinese Barbecue Sauce and marinate 30 minutes to 2 hours.

  5. Charbroil tofu over hot coals until browned on both sides, basting tofu several times.

Make the sesame noodles

  1. Cook egg noodles in simmering water 2 to 4 minutes or to al dente state.

  2. Drain and cold shock to stop cooking. Drain well.

  3. Season with soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil.

  4. Toss with assorted vegetables.

  5. Serve noodles at room temperature with barbecued tofu. Garnish with onion brushes, carrot curls and cucumber fans, if desired.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sherry + sesametop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together204 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).

  2. Tofu + sesametop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Garlic + sesametop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,999 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Garlic + tofutop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together604 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Oyster + eggtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tofu
Firm tofu browned and charred, giving a chewy, savory exterior and a tender interior.
Soy sauce
Provides salt and savory depth, and helps browning through its sugars and amino acids.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the marinade caramelize and brown over the heat.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and deepens during cooking.
Egg noodles
Form the starchy base of the dish, with a springy texture when cooked al dente.
Sesame oil
Adds nutty aroma and fat that carries the flavor of the noodles.

The step that matters

Drying the tofu thoroughly. Removing surface moisture lets the tofu brown rather than steam in the skillet, and helps it take on the marinade and char well.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, oyster, sherry, sugar, tofu, egg, sesame):

  1. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  2. Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, oyster, sherry, sugar, tofu, egg, sesame. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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