| Tauco | |
| Alternate Name: | Taucu, Tauchu, Tao Jiew |
| Region: | Southeast Asia |
| National Cuisine: | Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand |
| Creator: | Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia |
| Type: | Cooking sauce and condiment |
| Main Ingredient: | Fermented soy |
| Variations: | Closely related to douchi |
Tauco, Taucu, Taotjo, Tao Jiew or Tauchu (;,) is a paste made from preserved fermented yellow soybeans in Chinese Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai cuisines.[1] Tauco is made by boiling yellow soybeans, grinding them, mixing them with flour, and fermenting them to make a soy paste. The soy paste is soaked in salt water and sun-dried for several weeks, furthering the fermentation process, until the color of the paste has turned yellow-reddish. Good tauco has a distinct aroma.[2] The sauce is also commonly used in other Indonesian cuisine traditions, such as Sundanese cuisine and Javanese cuisine. Taucu is generally used in cooking by Chinese Malaysians, Singaporeans, Bruneians, and Thais.[3]
The sauce is often used as a condiment and flavouring for stir-fried dishes such as tahu tauco (tofu in tauco sauce), kakap tahu tausi (red snapper with tofu in soybean sauce), in soup such as swikee oh (frog legs in tauco soup) and pie oh (softshell turtle in tauco soup), or stir fried with kangkung (water spinach). Today the major production centre of tauco in Indonesia are in Cianjur in West Java, and Pekalongan in Central Java. In Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei, the main commercial brand of taucu is Yeo Hiap Seng (Yeo's).[4] [5] In Thailand, the sauce is often used in stir-fries, such as Pad Mee Korat & stir-fried vegetables, and also dipping sauces such as Khao Man Gai.