Tian mian jiang, translated as sweet wheat paste or sweet flour sauce, is a fermented sauce made of wheat flour and salt. It is a seasoning condiment used frequently in northern China and in some iconic Sichuan dishes as well. Despite the name, sweet wheat paste is not overly sweet. Nor is it spicy. It is just pure savory umami.
Tian mian jiang is sometimes translated as sweet bean sauce because some brands include soybeans in the mix. This makes it very easily confusable with sweet bean paste, which is mainly fermented soybeans. We prefer the translations of sweet wheat sauce/paste or sweet flour sauce/paste to denote that Sichuan’s tian mian jiang contains no soybeans.
Our tian mian jiang is made by the Sichuan Pixian Douban Co. under its heritage Juan Cheng label. It is a smooth, dark brown sauce fermented in earthenware crocks in the traditional way. Note that it has a significantly lower percentage of salt than doubanjiang and therefore requires preservatives.
How To Use It
In Northern cuisines, tian mian jiang is famously used in Beijing’s zhajiang noodles. In Sichuan, it is an indispensable ingredient in twice-cooked pork, combined with doubanjiang and douchi (fermented soybeans). It is also used to flavor the pork mince topping for noodles such as dan dan mian and zajiang mian.
Rich, savory and full of fermented umami, it’s a great stir-fry base for those avoiding soybeans or the chilies and high salt content of Pixian doubanjiang.
Twice-cooked pork belly has a sauce of Pixian doubanjiang and fermented soybeans or sweet wheat sauce, or both. Triple umami makes it a favorite of both Sichuan chefs and locals.
