Doubanjiang
Also known as Pixian douban, Pixian doubanjiang, Pixian broad bean paste, broad bean chilli paste, chilli bean paste
PasteFermented
Quick answer
The fermented chilli and broad-bean paste of Sichuan cooking: salted red chillies and mould-fermented broad beans, fermented apart and then aged together into a salty, savoury, reddish-brown paste. It is fried into a dish at the start as its seasoning, and its savouriness is made by the fermentation.
In essentially every version: Fresh red chillies, salted and fermented, Broad beans, fermented with a mould starter, Salt.
3 distinct versions are set out below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
A note on the name
Doubanjiang is a generic name for chilli and bean paste. Pixian douban, or Pixian doubanjiang, is a protected geographical indication in China and names the paste of that district. This profile uses the generic name and says where its evidence concerns the Pixian product, which is nearly everywhere.
What goes into it
What essentially every version is made from, with what each ingredient is there to do.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| Chilli flakesFresh red chillies of Capsicum annuum, not flakes, chopped, salted and fermented on their own before they meet the beans; in one factory process described they are mixed with 15 per cent salt and fermented for 120 days. SpiceHQ records the chilli generically because it holds no profile of the cultivars used. | heat | defining |
| BeansThe beans are mixed with wheat flour and a starter of Aspergillus moulds, salted and fermented on their own. The papers call the result meju or koji. It is where the savoury taste of the paste comes from. | savoury depth | defining |
| SaltStructural, not seasoning: both halves of the paste ferment in heavy salt, and it is the salt that decides which organisms grow. The labels of three commercial Pixian pastes analysed in one study declared about 48 per cent red pepper, 26 per cent broad beans, 5 per cent wheat flour and 17 per cent salt. | salt | defining |
In the Pixian paste the ingredients are fixed (chilli, broad beans, salt and wheat flour) and what varies is the fermentation. Traditionally the mash ferments outdoors in strip pools or ceramic vats, open to sun, air and weather, which gives a strong flavour that differs from batch to batch. Factories have begun to move it into closed tanks for consistency. A comparison of the two from one producer, using the same raw materials, found the closed product stronger in soy-sauce aroma and savouriness and richer in esters, and the open one richer in higher alcohols, terpenes and sulphur compounds. Age is the other variable: one study describes the paste as usually ripened for one to three years, and another analysed pastes sold as two, three and five years old. Outside Sichuan the ingredients vary too: the chilli bean paste of Guizhou is made with no flour.
The versions
Each attributed to whoever describes it. The sources say what goes in and how it is made and give no amounts, so none are shown.
Traditional open fermentation
Regional traditionPixian practice, as described by food scientists in Sichuan comparing it with newer processes · no amounts given · medium confidence
Fermented chilli and fermented broad beans combined and aged in outdoor strip pools or open ceramic vats, exposed to sunlight, air and the weather. The microbes come from the raw materials and the surroundings, which makes for a rich flavour and an inconsistent one.
Made with: Fresh red chillies, salted and fermented, Broad beans, fermented with a mould starter, Salt. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
One experiment mixed fermented beans and red chillies at 1 to 3 before the joint fermentation, which it ran in an open ceramic vat for 90 days; a factory process gave the beans 180 days, the chillies 120 and the mixture a further 15. These are single studies’ figures, and they are not offered as the composition of the paste.
Industrial closed fermentation
Typical commercialTank-fermented Pixian douban, as made by a producer licensed to use the protected name · no amounts given · medium confidence
The same materials fermented in closed tank fermenters, which take the weather out of the process and reduce the risk of contamination. In the comparison read, tasters found it stronger in soy-sauce aroma, alcohol note and savouriness than the open-fermented paste, and alike in sweetness, sourness, chilli aroma and roasted aroma.
Made with: Fresh red chillies, salted and fermented, Broad beans, fermented with a mould starter, Salt. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
One producer, one batch of raw materials, and a study whose authors call their findings exploratory.
Guizhou chilli bean paste, made without flour
Regional traditionThe chilli bean paste of Guizhou, as described by food scientists there who studied one producer in Zunyi · no amounts given · medium confidence
Fermented from chilli and broad beans only, with no wheat flour. The reason given is practical: a paste without flour is less inclined to stick to the pan, which matters in long-cooked dishes such as hot pot. Like the Sichuan paste it is made in two stages, the beans and the chilli prepared apart and then mixed and left in open jars for months.
Made with: Red chillies, prepared as a chilli sauce, Broad beans, fermented with a mould. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
One study of one producer. After six months of the second fermentation its paste held more citric, malic and tartaric acid than at the start, and glutamic acid was the most abundant free amino acid. The study does not give the salt.
Fermentation
What makes it what it is, as studies have found it. Observations, not a method to follow.
Doubanjiang
Mixed fermentation · Pixian, Sichuan, China · also Pixian broad-bean paste, Pixian douban
Red chilli, steamed broad beans, salt and wheat flour. The paste is made in three stages: the broad beans are fermented with wheat flour and a mould starter, the fresh chillies are chopped and fermented in salt, and the two are then combined and aged together. The studies read describe it both as a broad-bean paste and as a fermented red pepper paste. A chilli bean paste made in Guizhou leaves out the flour.
The bean stage is started with a mould, Aspergillus oryzae in the processes described; one licensed producer used two strains of it and one of Aspergillus awamori. Followed at three salt levels, that stage was dominated by Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Aspergillus and Mortierella. The salted stages that follow are spontaneous. In the Pixian mash, Aspergillus niger, Candida zeylanoides and Bacillus licheniformis were identified as secreting peptidase and building up amino acids from the bean proteins. In a Guizhou paste, Latilactobacillus led the bacteria and Starmerella and Pichia the fungi across two samplings, but in the six months between them Latilactobacillus fell from about half of the bacteria to about 6 per cent and Pichia from about 30 per cent of the fungi to about 4. Traditional production is described as relying on the microbes of the raw materials and the surroundings.
Heavy salt throughout: one study gives the commercial paste as 15 to 22 per cent salt under the Chinese national standard and the bean stage as 12 to 13. The combined mash is traditionally aged in the open, in the sun, sheltered from rain, stirred by day and left under the dew at night. At one factory the pH of the mash fell from 5.7 to 4.9 over the 60 days sampled. At another, beans and chillies were each salted to 15 per cent, the beans fermented for 180 days, the chillies for 120 and the mixture for 15 more. An experimental batch ran its joint fermentation for 90 days. One study describes the paste as usually ripened for one to three years. All of this is the Pixian paste.
In an aroma study of three pastes aged two to five years, 165 volatile compounds were identified and 13 were aroma-active. Ethyl isovalerate, β-damascenone, 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine and sotolone had the highest odour activity values; the last three were described as fruity, red-pepper-like and caramel-like. Among non-volatiles in six samples, citric acid was the most abundant organic acid at 4.1 to 6.3 mg/g, followed by malic acid at 2.1 to 3.6 mg/g, and the savoury amino acids were the most abundant amino acids. Time adds to all of it. Beans followed in a tank darkened as they fermented while volatile compounds accumulated, and in a Guizhou paste six months of the second fermentation raised the organic acids, citric acid most, by a factor the abstract gives as 1.51, and left glutamic acid the most abundant free amino acid, at 4.0 mg/g of dry weight.
A cooking base of Sichuan food. In a study of water-boiled beef made with and without it, leaving the paste out made the dish less savoury and less liked; the paste contributed most to taste, and the dried chilli and Sichuan pepper most to aroma.
Salt is what holds the fermentation to the organisms wanted. When the bean stage was run at 4, 8 and 12 per cent salt, less salt gave more amino acid nitrogen, sugars, organic acids and volatile compounds, and it also left more of three genera the authors class as opportunistic pathogens, Enterobacter, Pantoea and Brevundimonas, whose share fell as the fermentation went on and fell further as the salt rose. The authors read this as high salt holding such organisms back, and say that fermenting with less of it would need something else to do that work.
What goes into it
- Fermented: Broad beans, steamed (Fermented first on their own with flour and a mould starter. The catalogue has no page for the bean.); Fresh red chillies, chopped (Salted and fermented separately, then combined with the beans. The catalogue holds chilli only in its dried forms.)
- Salt: Salt (Eighteen per cent in one tank experiment on the bean stage; 4, 8 and 12 per cent in another that compared them.)
- Starter or culture: Mould starter (Aspergillus oryzae) (Grown on the beans and flour to make the koji that the salted stage begins from.)
- Carrier or binder: Wheat flour (Mixed with the cooked beans, three parts of bean to one of flour in one experiment, before the mould is grown on them. A Guizhou paste leaves it out.)
Organisms studies found, and how
- Lactic acid bacteria: Latilactobacillus — reported as dominant, found by sequencing. One Guizhou producer’s paste at the start of its second fermentation, about half of the bacteria; about 6 per cent six months later. Sources: Correlation Analysis between Microbial Comm… (Abstract; results, microbial community)
- Bacillus and its relatives: Bacillus — reported as dominant, found by sequencing. The bean stage fermented in the laboratory at three salt levels, with Staphylococcus, Aspergillus and Mortierella. Sources: Effects of Salinity on Physicochemical Prop… (Abstract)
- Moulds: Aspergillus oryzae — added as a starter, added by the maker. The bean stage in two laboratory experiments, and in the factory processes the studies describe. Sources: Effects of Salinity on Physicochemical Prop… (Section 2.1)
What was measured to change
Each of these was measured before and after, or at several points on the way, in the study named. It is a finding about that study’s material.
Measured to appear during the process
- Tetramethylpyrazine. Described as a new volatile compound in the six-month paste. No amount is given in the text read. Compared: The start of the second fermentation against six months into it. One producer: One producer in Zunyi, Guizhou; three samples from the fermentation vessel at each of the two times. The authors’ own explanation: The authors say it can be produced by the Maillard reaction; they did not show how it arose here. Sources: Correlation Analysis between Microbial Comm… (Section 3.4)
Measured to rise during the process
- Citric acid. 3.60 ± 0.94 g/kg at the start and 5.43 ± 0.25 g/kg after six months, a factor of 1.51. Compared: The start of the second fermentation against six months into it. One producer: One producer in Zunyi, Guizhou; three samples from the fermentation vessel at each of the two times. Sources: Correlation Analysis between Microbial Comm… (Table 3; section 3.3)
- Malic acid. 0.25 ± 0.05 g/kg at the start and 0.69 ± 0.14 g/kg after six months. Compared: The start of the second fermentation against six months into it. One producer: One producer in Zunyi, Guizhou; three samples from the fermentation vessel at each of the two times. Sources: Correlation Analysis between Microbial Comm… (Table 3)
- Tartaric acid. 0.43 ± 0.03 g/kg at the start and 0.84 ± 0.06 g/kg after six months. Lactic, acetic and oxalic acids did not change significantly. Compared: The start of the second fermentation against six months into it. One producer: One producer in Zunyi, Guizhou; three samples from the fermentation vessel at each of the two times. Sources: Correlation Analysis between Microbial Comm… (Table 3)
- Glutamic acid, free. 2.58 ± 0.08 mg/g of dry weight at the start and 4.00 ± 0.15 after six months; total free amino acids went from 11.85 to 17.03 mg/g. Compared: The start of the second fermentation against six months into it. One producer: One producer in Zunyi, Guizhou; three samples from the fermentation vessel at each of the two times. Sources: Correlation Analysis between Microbial Comm… (Table 2)
- Organic acids, in total. Rose at every salt level, to 28.17, 22.72 and 16.69 mg/g at day 49 with 4, 8 and 12 per cent salt. Lactic acid averaged 7.77, 5.55 and 0.95 mg/g at the three levels. Compared: Ten points from day 0 to day 49, at 4, 8 and 12 per cent salt. A laboratory batch: The bean stage only, made in the laboratory and fermented in sealed ceramic jars. The authors’ own explanation: The authors put the extra lactic and acetic acid at low salt down to lactic acid bacteria, as a possibility. Sources: Effects of Salinity on Physicochemical Prop… (Section 3.3)
- Glutamic acid, free. Total free amino acids rose at all three salt levels. Less salt gave slightly more of them in total but less glutamic acid: on average 80.43 mg per 100 g at low salt against 90.00 at high. Compared: Ten points from day 0 to day 49, at 4, 8 and 12 per cent salt. A laboratory batch: The bean stage only, made in the laboratory and fermented in sealed ceramic jars. Sources: Effects of Salinity on Physicochemical Prop… (Section 3.2)
- Amino acid nitrogen. Rose gradually throughout, to 0.445 g per 100 g at the end; reducing sugars rose to 3.858 g per 100 g and the pH moved from 5.98 to 5.66. Compared: Days 0, 6, 13, 20, 28 and 39. A laboratory batch: The bean stage only, from a factory’s mould-grown beans, in one 50-litre tank held at a constant temperature. Sources: HS-SPME-GC × GC/MS combined with multivaria… (Section 3.1; Figure 2)
- 2,5-Dimethylpyrazine. Enriched late in the fermentation, highest at day 28 and markedly lower at day 39. Read from a heat map of peak areas; no concentrations. Compared: Days 0, 6, 13, 20, 28 and 39. A laboratory batch: The bean stage only, from a factory’s mould-grown beans, in one 50-litre tank held at a constant temperature. Sources: HS-SPME-GC × GC/MS combined with multivaria… (Section 3.4; Figure 5)
Found in the finished product
These were measured in the finished product only. That shows they are there; it does not show that the process made them.
- Sotolon. One of four compounds with the highest odour activity values among 13 aroma-active ones, described as caramel-like. Analysed: Three finished pastes aged two to five years; nothing was measured during their fermentation. Several samples: Three commercial doubanjiang of different ages. Sources: Characterization and Evaluation of Aroma Qu… (Abstract; Conclusions)
What is not established: Nine studies, each of a handful of samples from one or two producers, and few read in every section. Eight are of the Pixian paste or its bean stage and one is of a paste from Guizhou; nothing here describes chilli bean paste in general. The salt levels and times are those of particular factories and experiments, or one paper’s account of a standard that was not read; they are not a description of the paste in general, and they differ from one another. The finding on salt and opportunistic genera is from sequencing in one laboratory experiment on the bean stage, not from the finished paste.
Using it
A cooking base, not a table condiment. In the standard recipe for water-boiled beef that one study followed, the vegetables are stir-fried with the paste before the beef is boiled, and the dried chilli and Sichuan pepper go on at the end. When the paste was left out, an electronic tongue and a tasting panel both found the dish less savoury, and the panel liked it less: of the seasonings tested it contributed most to taste, and the chilli and Sichuan pepper most to aroma. Because the paste is heavily salted, it sets the salt of the dish as well.
Salty and deeply savoury, with chilli heat and a fermented, soy-sauce-like aroma, in a reddish-brown paste. Tasting panels in the studies describe its smell as soy-sauce-like, mellow and sour and its taste as salty, delicate and faintly citric. The savouriness comes from amino acids released as the bean protein breaks down; citric acid is its most abundant organic acid. In an aroma study of three aged pastes the compounds that counted most were described as caramel-like, fruity and red-pepper-like. The beans darken as they ferment, so colour as well as smell deepens with time.
Moderate. It is as much a salty, savoury seasoning as a hot one.
- Water-boiled beef and the other water-boiled dishes of Sichuan
- Mapo tofu
- Twice-cooked pork
- Braises and stir-fries that start from a fried paste
- Hot pot and other long-cooked dishes
Scaling: Bought as a paste, not mixed from parts. A dish that uses more of it takes on more salt as well as more heat and savouriness, so the salt added elsewhere has to come down as the paste goes up.
What to use it on
Beef
ClassicWater-boiled beef, the Sichuan dish of sliced beef poached in a seasoned broth under fried chilli and Sichuan pepper, starts from vegetables stir-fried with doubanjiang. In a study that cooked the dish with and without the paste, leaving it out made the dish less savoury and less liked.
How: Water-boiled beef
Tofu
ClassicMapo tofu, bean curd in a chilli and Sichuan pepper sauce, is built on doubanjiang fried in oil until the oil turns red. Tofu is bland and takes its seasoning from the sauce, and the paste supplies the salt, the savouriness and much of the colour.
How: Mapo tofu
Recorded from kitchen practice. None of the studies read for doubanjiang describes this dish.
Doubanjiang compared
Direct comparisons with the blends and spices it is most often taken for.
Storage
Good for: not established
Closed, with the surface kept smooth; refrigerated once opened.
A wet food, not a dry spice: darkening at the surface is a matter of quality, and mould means the jar is discarded.
Allergens and safety
- Cereals containing gluten — a declarable allergen in the EU and US
Cereals containing gluten must be declared in both the EU and the United States. This is a statement about labelling law rather than about whether allergy occurs — allergic reactions to spices are documented and are not a labelling category — and it is the part of the answer that differs by where the food is sold.
Culture and origin
Sichuan, in south-western China. The paste the literature describes is Pixian douban, named for Pixian, which one study places in the Pidu district of Chengdu, and a protected geographical indication in China; one study adds that it is listed as national intangible cultural heritage. Food scientists describe it as valued as a seasoning for several centuries and its traditional process as hundreds of years old; none of the papers read gives a date or a first maker.
Sichuan
Sichuan, China.
Food scientists writing about it repeat the saying that Pixian douban is the soul, or spirit, of Sichuan cooking, and call it an essential condiment in preparing Sichuan dishes.
Guizhou and Hunan
Guizhou and Hunan, China.
A study from Guizhou describes chilli bean paste as a main ingredient of Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan cooking alike, and as a well-known seasoning in Guizhou in its own right, where it is made differently: with chilli and broad beans and no flour.