On Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 11:28:35 AM UTC-10, wrote:
> I was at a used-book sale and spotted "Chinese Cookery" (1981) by Rose Cheng, Michele Morris, and George deGennaro (photographer).
>
> http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uplo...ele-morris.jpg
> (cover)
>
> To make sure it was the same book I had at home, I checked the S&S sauce recipe. There it was - and the first ingredient was 18 oz. of ketchup!
>
> Can this possibly be a good idea? Has anyone tried it? I'm pretty sure that even in the average Chinese take-out places around here, they don't use that in THEIR S&S recipes.
>
> (I admit I have far more cookbooks than I'll ever use for even ONE recipe - I know I need to do some culling.)
>
>
> Lenona.

The dirty little secret is that ketchup is a standard ingredient in some Chinese cooking. I've had Chinese salad dressing that is American secret sauce and sesame seed. It ain't bad.