Chinese Fondue Sauces
- Preparation 5 min
- Servings 4 to 6
- Freezing I do not suggest
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🥣 Four sauces, five minutes, no cooking
Nothing gets cooked here. You take out four bowls, you measure, you mix. Done. The longest part is grating the orange zest.
All four start from the same half cup of mayonnaise and split right after. One goes toward honey and Dijon mustard. Another toward ketchup and smoked paprika. The third toward citrus and heat. The last one toward curry and shallot.
🍲 Chinese fondue is a long supper
At our place it’s the holiday meal. The one where nobody leaves the table for two hours. People talk, dip, talk some more, dip again.
That’s exactly why the sauces matter as much as the broth. A good broth gives you the base flavour, but the sauces are what keep the twentieth bite from tasting like the first. I always make all four. Not three.
🎯 Which one goes with what
Honey mustard with the beef is unreal. It’s the one that empties first every single time, and I go back for thirds without any shame.
Ketchup and smoked paprika is the kids’ one, and the one for anybody who finds the rest too sharp. Orange and Sriracha wakes up shrimp and anything from the sea. Nobody ever announces the curry one, and the ramekin still comes back empty.
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🥣 Half a cup of mayonnaise, four directions
You can make all four in the same bowl if you wash it between each one. I take out four instead. It’s faster, and it keeps a leftover streak of Sriracha out of the curry.
🍯 Honey mustard, and it isn’t close
It’s my favourite and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. With beef, nothing touches it. The honey rounds off the fat in the mayonnaise, the Dijon cuts back through it, and you end up with something sweet that bites just enough to make you go again.
If you only make one, make that one.
🌶️ Smoked paprika is not regular paprika
Two jars that look alike, two flavours with nothing in common. Sweet paprika only adds colour. The smoked one brings a campfire smell that carries through the ketchup and the mayonnaise. Grab the wrong jar and you get a pink mayonnaise with nothing to say.
🍊 Zest before juice
Silly order, but it matters. You grate the zest off a dry, whole orange, then you cut it and squeeze it. Do it the other way around and you’re rasping a soft, wet orange that tears instead of shaving.
Take the orange part only. The white underneath is bitter, and in a mayonnaise-based sauce there’s no fixing that.
🍛 The curry one needs a little time
It’s the sauce I build first, because it’s the one that gains the most from waiting. The finely chopped French shallot has to soften in the mayonnaise, and the curry powder needs twenty or thirty minutes to open up.
Taste it right after mixing and it’s powdery, with a sharp shallot bite. Taste it half an hour later and it’s a different sauce.
📅 Make them ahead
All four can be made the day before, no problem. That’s what I do when we have people over, because a fondue night already has plenty of cutting and setting up.
In the fridge, in sealed containers, they keep two to three days. Pull them out about fifteen minutes before serving. A sauce straight out of the fridge tastes like very little.
None of them freeze. Mayonnaise separates on thawing and you end up with oil on one side and paste on the other. There’s nothing to be done with that.
✅ What do I serve these fondue sauces with?
With Chinese fondue, obviously, and that’s where the real work happens in the broth. I have three that are worth it: the Trois-Pistoles beer fondue broth, the fondue broth with Eau Bénite beer, and the classic fondue broth with beer and red wine. Pick your broth, set out the four sauces, and your meal is built.
They’re not limited to that. Homemade fries, chicken wings, raw vegetables, a sandwich that needs help. The ketchup and smoked paprika one is dangerous on a french fry.
And if you want a fifth sauce out of the same supper, go see my fondue sauce with Maudite beer.
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Mustard and honey mayo
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) honey
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) Dijon mustard
Ketchup and smoked paprika mayo
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) ketchup
- 1 1/2 teaspoon (7.5 ml) smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Italian spices
Orange and Sriracha mayo
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) mayonnaise
- Finely grated zest of 1/2 orange
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) grain mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoon (7.5 ml) Sriracha
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) honey
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) Provence herbs
Curry mayo
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) curry powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon (7.5 ml) finely chopped French shallot
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) honey
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) dried thyme
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Preparation
- Mustard and honey mayo: in a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, the honey and the Dijon mustard. Season with salt and pepper.
- Ketchup and smoked paprika mayo: in a second bowl, mix the mayonnaise, the ketchup, the smoked paprika and the Italian spices. Season with salt and pepper.
- Orange and Sriracha mayo: in a third bowl, mix the mayonnaise, the orange zest and juice, the grain mustard, the Sriracha, the honey and the Provence herbs. Season with salt and pepper.
- Curry mayo: in a last bowl, mix the mayonnaise, the curry powder, the French shallot, the honey and the thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Serve all four sauces together, with the fondue.
For Chinese fondue, mayonnaise-based dipping sauces do the heavy lifting. The four here cover the whole meal without repeating themselves: honey mustard, ketchup and smoked paprika, orange and Sriracha, and curry. Each one pulls in a different direction, so you get sweet, smoky, hot and spiced on the same table. Honey mustard is the one that disappears first with beef.
Chinese fondue is thin slices of raw beef, chicken, pork or shrimp that each person cooks at the table in a pot of simmering broth. The broth is the base, and everybody dips their cooked bite into a sauce afterward. It has nothing to do with cheese or chocolate fondue, which sit in a completely different meal.
Figure half a cup per person, all sauces combined. This recipe gives you roughly three quarters of a cup per sauce, about three cups in total, which feeds four to six over a full meal. More people than that, double it.
Yes, and that’s what I do. Mix them the day before, cover, refrigerate. They keep two to three days. The curry one is actually better the next day, once the shallot has softened. Take them out about fifteen minutes before you sit down. Don’t freeze them though, mayonnaise separates and there’s no coming back from it.
Homemade fries first, and the ketchup and smoked paprika one is the obvious pick there. Chicken wings, raw vegetables, cold shrimp, a burger that needs something. The honey mustard works on a chicken sandwich the same way it works on beef. Nothing here is cooked, so a bowl left over from fondue night keeps earning its place for a couple of days.
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