Dinh To Sauce

Illustrative photo. (Source: Internet)

When it comes to Luy Lau ancient land cuisine, it is impossible not to mention Tuong To. Tuong is traditional sauce of Vietnamese people, distilled with the essence of rice and corn kernels. The most special kind of similarity is Dinh To (Dinh To commune, Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province). The people of Ding To take the milestone associated with the legend of the first Nguyen status of Dai Viet – Le Van Thinh, the birth time of the job of making Ding To.

Dinh To sauce is different from other soybeans because the main ingredients are maize, soybean, and yellow flower sticky rice, which is keep and naturally fermented, creating its own flavor. Ding To sauce looks red brown, thicken, fragrant, sweet, fatty features of glutinous rice, corn. The process of production of Dinh To sauce is meticulous and highest requirement is in sterilization. The sauce of Ding To village has a differential production process, not to let rice to be fermented up to green mold, but anaerobic conditions. The technique of production of sauce, formula, the ratio of rice, or corn, water, salt, utensils containing sauce, is an esoteric of the Ding To traditional craft village.

Currently, dozens of households of Ding To village are producing sauce for sales. However, the special corn sauce cannot occupy the large market because the production scale is small, the equipment for the production is rudimentary and backward, the building and promoting the brand of product has not been paid attention.

Ding To sauce is a specialty of traditional craft villages with the regional typical and the crystallization of ancient history and culture, the craft village of production of Ding To sauce should be preserved and maintained under the support of the authorities and villagers.