Northern Sesame Dip Builder
Build a northern sesame dip on the 8:2 paste rule, with the exact warm water to loosen it and four regional presets.
A northern hotpot dip is sesame paste, and sesame paste is a problem of texture before it is a problem of flavour. Straight from the jar it is too thick to coat anything, so it gets loosened with warm water a little at a time. The 8:2 rule below — eight parts sesame paste to two parts peanut butter — is what most Beijing and Hebei households use: peanut butter keeps the paste from tasting flat and stops it seizing.
Pick a preset
Classic is the plain 8:2 paste. The Beijing version adds chive flower and fermented bean curd, which is what most old-style hotpot shops serve.
Chive flower and fermented bean curd are already salty; adding both usually means no soy sauce is needed.
Your ratio
Grams are for the whole bowl. One tablespoon is about 15 g.
| Ingredient | Amount | What it does |
|---|
How to loosen the paste
- Put both pastes in a bowl and stir them together dry, before any liquid goes in. Mixing them first is what makes the 8:2 ratio hold.
- Add warm water in three stages — about a third at a time — stirring the whole time in one direction. Stop as soon as the paste falls off the spoon in a ribbon rather than a lump.
- Only then add the salty things: chive flower, fermented bean curd, soy sauce. If you salt first, the paste tightens and needs more water.
- Let it stand ten minutes. The paste thickens slightly as the starch hydrates; loosen with a spoon of water if it sets.
Why 8:2
Sesame paste alone is dense and slightly bitter at the back of the throat. Peanut butter adds sweetness and a softer mouthfeel, and two parts in ten is enough to notice without tasting of peanuts.
More peanut butter than 3 parts in 10 and the dip starts to taste of peanut butter rather than sesame, which is the usual complaint about cheap commercial dips.
The water figure below assumes 55–65 g of water per 100 g of paste. Thin paste needs less; paste that has been open a while needs more.
Common mistakes
Loosening with hot water. Boiling water cooks the paste and it turns grainy; use water you can hold a finger in.
Stirring back and forth. Change direction and the paste separates; keep one direction until the water is fully absorbed.
Adding soy sauce before the paste is smooth. Salt makes the paste seize, and it will not loosen again without more water and more stirring.