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Sauce, Sweet And Sour, Ready-To-Serve
Sweet and sour sauce is a Chinese-American condiment based on sugar, vinegar, ketchup or tomato, and often pineapple juice or a starch thickener. Its high sugar load drives a density of 1.183 g/ml — about 18% heavier than water. A tablespoon weighs approximately 17.5 g; a cup weighs approximately 280 g. Pours moderately freely but coats the spoon. Used as a dipping sauce for egg rolls and chicken, as a stir-fry base, and as a glaze. The ratio of sugar to vinegar varies significantly between brands — sweeter versions will be denser, more acidic versions slightly lighter.
What is Sauce, Sweet And Sour, Ready-To-Serve?
Sweet and sour sauce is a Chinese-American condiment based on sugar, vinegar, ketchup or tomato, and often pineapple juice or a starch thickener. Its high sugar load drives a density of 1.183 g/ml — about 18% heavier than water. A tablespoon weighs approximately 17.5 g; a cup weighs approximately 280 g. Pours moderately freely but coats the spoon. Used as a dipping sauce for egg rolls and chicken, as a stir-fry base, and as a glaze. The ratio of sugar to vinegar varies significantly between brands — sweeter versions will.
Volume measurements can drift because settling, packing, and texture change the amount of ingredient inside the same spoon or cup. When gram values look surprising, structure is usually the reason rather than an error. Use the same fill method each time and verify by weight.
Chef note:Chef-level consistency starts when one reference cup is matched to a gram baseline.
Quick convert
- US cup = 236.588 mL
- 1 tbsp = 14.787 mL
- 1 tsp = 4.929 mL
Kitchen Conversion Chart
Cups, tbsp, tsp, mL and oz — all in one printable reference for oils, liquids, dairy and sauces.
Condiments
Viscous condiments like ketchup, BBQ sauce, or dips tend to cling stubbornly to measuring cups. This leads to waste and messy cleanup. Weighing directly into your dish or pan is the professional, clean, and accurate method.
FAQ
- Why is sweet and sour sauce denser than most other dipping sauces?
- Sweet and sour sauce gets its high density (1.183 g/ml) primarily from its sugar content — typically 10–15 g of sugar per tablespoon in commercial preparations. Sugar (sucrose, ~1.59 g/ml) significantly raises the density of any aqueous solution at these concentrations. The acetic acid from vinegar contributes less, but the starch thickener and any fruit juice components also add dissolved solids.
- How does sweet and sour sauce compare to teriyaki in weight per tablespoon?
- Sweet and sour sauce (1.183 g/ml, ~17.5 g/tbsp) is slightly lighter than teriyaki sauce (1.217 g/ml, ~18 g/tbsp). Both are high-sugar sauces, but teriyaki has a higher soy-sauce base with additional dissolved salt, which slightly raises its density. Per tablespoon, the difference is about 0.5 g — negligible in most recipes.