Question:P. F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

[Jalepeno]

P. F. Chang's Mongolian Beef I was going over this recipe, and then I looked at the nutritional list, and it says it has over 4000 grams of salt, I don't see anything in the recipe that has salt, and even if it is for the whole recipe, there is still over a 1000 grams of salt for one portion. I just don't understand it. For one thing there is nothing pre-packaged in the recipe, and they have a lot of salt. Can someone please explain. It doesn't make any sense.

[duonyte]

Soy sauce is all sodium - if you click the detailed nutritional analysis link, you will see what foods have what components. I could not put my hands on a regular bottle, but low-sodium soy sauce is 600 mg a tbl, which would be 4800 mg for 1/2 cup. Regular soy sauce is much higher.

[Zeldaz]

That's true, the soy sauce has 8,043.8 mg of sodium, 1,000 mg. per tablespoon for regular. People on low-sodium diets are told to avoid it. A quarter cup of soy sauce is really excessive for one serving, but restaurants really lay on the salt and salt-containing ingredients. I'd cut it back considerably.

[auzzi]

4000 milligrams of salt - not 4000 grams of salt ...

This is slightly under 1 teaspoon per person [as it serves two people]

[Chocolatl]

They do make low-sodium soy sauce.

[DrGaellon]

The nutritionals are calculated based on the idea that you're going to consume every bit of the ingredients as listed - if you notice, the last step says to leave the excess sauce in the pan. You're going to be leaving the lion's share of the sodium in the pan.

[Zeldaz]

auzzi wrote:
4000 milligrams of salt - not 4000 grams of salt ...

This is slightly under 1 teaspoon per person [as it serves two people]

I think (hope?) everyone understood that, despite the OP's typo. Americans generally have trouble with metric measurements. The problem is, it's about half the recommended sodium for one day in one dish at one meal, and many people have no idea how loaded with sodium soy sauce is.

[DEEP]

DrGaellon wrote:
The nutritionals are calculated based on the idea that you're going to consume every bit of the ingredients as listed - if you notice, the last step says to leave the excess sauce in the pan. You're going to be leaving the lion's share of the sodium in the pan.

You have made note of something that every Chef should remember. Even "I" am often guilty of just writing off a recipe due to the sodium content. I frequently have to remind myself that most of the sodium is "going down the drain" at the end of the recipe as written/submitted. We can, more often than not, enjoy foods that show high sodium content
when we extract the total of what we are eating. Marinades and dressings are good examples.

[Zeldaz]

That draining may happen at the restaurant, but home cooks don't like to waste expensive ingredients are generally used to scraping every bit of "gravy" (for lack of a better term) out of the pan and are likely to put it, or even more soy sauce, on rice. Personally, I'd rather see a recipe with a smaller amount of soy sauce that can be absorbed by the dish and not have that waste of ingredients. I'd personally halve it if I were making it. It's neither marinade nor dressing, but sauce. Then again, Everyone is free to cook as they see fit, so....

I recently made another recipe that had that very same instruction, but there was nothing to drain off at the end. In that case it was a huge amount of Worcestershire, not shoyu. It was totally inedible and the contributor objected to my negative review. I should have trusted my instincts!

[Chocolatl]

Zeldaz wrote:

auzzi wrote:
4000 milligrams of salt - not 4000 grams of salt ...

This is slightly under 1 teaspoon per person [as it serves two people]

I think (hope?) everyone understood that, despite the OP's typo. Americans generally have trouble with metric measurements. The problem is, it's about half the recommended sodium for one day in one dish at one meal, and many people have no idea how loaded with sodium soy sauce is.

Well, I don't think Americans have so much trouble with metrics they can't divide by 1000! I'm sure it's just a typo.

This is actually more than the RDA of sodium, if I read the nutritional information right.

To be fair, the recipe does state "leave the excess sauce behind in the pan."

[Zeldaz]

As I previously observed, most people scrape every bit out. How often do any of you leave sauce behind in the pan to discard? Personally, it never happens in my house.
As I said, I do think (hope) everyone understands what the OP's typo actually meant, regardless of their math skills.

The US RDA of sodium is about 1 teaspoon, or 2300-2400 mg. This recipe has 4000 mg per serving, not for the whole recipe, and that's way too much. That's why I'd cut the soy way back and forget the stuff about leaving sauce in the pan. Why waste expensive ingredients when a little modification will work? Personally, there's no way I'd make this one exactly as written, although I'm sure it's delicious. One stroke was quite enough!

[Chocolatl]

Actually, I discard cooking liquids all the time. I wouldn't want to assume that people don't follow the recipe.

[DrGaellon]

Zeldaz wrote:
As I previously observed, most people scrape every bit out. How often do any of you leave sauce behind in the pan to discard?

I think of it as simmering in a marinade. If the recipe says not to save a sauce, I don't. (Well, I might taste it first - but I suspect this one is too salty to use.)

[Chocolatl]

Someone reviewed one of my recipes and said they threw out half the sauce.

[DEEP]

Chocolatl wrote:
Actually, I discard cooking liquids all the time. I wouldn't want to assume that people don't follow the recipe.

Same here! I recently reviewed a recipe, giving no stars, that had 1/4 cup "liquid smoke" and stated that this must be wrong!....1/4 CUP liquid smoke? Now, let's get real. If a recipe calls for 1/4 cup soya, or Worstershire, I'll use about 2 Tsp., max. I'm looking for "flavor", not saturation. To the person that felt the recipe needed 1/4 cup liquid smoke, you'll never convince me, though you tried. One small bottle of liquid smoke will prolly last me 2 years![/img]