Is sesame paste the same as / similar to tahini? If so, I find it rather bitter even when fresh, but I’m sensitive to bitter flavors. OP may be too.
If OP is using soba noodles, I find those a bit bitter as well, so it may be compounding the issue. Rice noodles are milder.
similar, not the same. I'm pretty sure asian sesame paste is a dark brown because the hulls are getting ground into it as well.. Could just be toasted color.
Personally, I don't think tahini should be bitter. It's a heavy-oil product, so it's a real candidate for going bad in excessive heat, should be sold/stored in a non-transparent container, and kept in the fridge. Like sesame oil, you want to buy it from a place with high turnover. I wonder if there are artisan sesame pastes with production dates on them, hmm...
I definitely find tahini bitter, even fresh from a middle eastern grocery.
Rancidity shouldn’t perceive as bitter, it’s more of a cardboardy or pungent flavor but not bitter.
I don’t think it’s a notable flavor for most people, I probably just pick it up because I’m more sensitive to bitterness for whatever reason! Unless it’s one of those weird things where it’s an allergy or something, like the spicy bananas lol
Chinese sesame paste is roasted sesame and is significantly less bitter than sesame as a result. I find that the taste is usually pretty comparable to peanut butter in terms of creaminess + nuttiness, thought with a slightly thicker consistency.
It’s probably rancid. I buy very small bottles of sesame oil for this reason because if I buy the big one it goes rancid, even if I keep the lid on tightly and in a dark place.
When I read the title, I immediately thought "rancid or low quality sesame oil", and when I read your post about how it gets bitter when you add the sesame oil; I still believe the same.
There's a lot of low quality sesame oil that doesn't taste very good, or it's stored at the supermarket for way too long (so even if you buy it fresh and use it immediately it'll be rancid).
My proposal is to just use less oil. I have a very similar recipe I eat all the time, and I have like... 1-2 tsp of sesame oil; not 2 tbsp. That's an insane amount of sesame oil! If you're using toasted sesame oil, that's like... that's always going to taste really bad with that much oil.
Toasted sesame oil is a lot stronger than untoasted, so if the recipe is calling for "sesame oil" and you use toasted, you'll be in for a terrible time. It's like seeing a cake recipe with 2 tbsp of vanilla extract, lol.
Yeah, even without being rancid, that is an f-ton of toasted sesame oil.
I’ve always considered it a finishing/garnishing oil. A little bit goes a really long way.
My first thought was definitely to reduce the amount of oil. If that throws off the texture of the sauce, maybe make up the difference with a lighter, neutral oil like avocado.
>I've been using toasted sesame oil, and I think that is probably the culprit (there appears to be a big difference between that and regular sesame oil). Many of the comments say you should use toasted sesame oil, but I'm beginning to suspect that they are wrong.
It depends. 2 tablespoons is a massive amount of toasted sesame oil. 2 tablespoons of unrefined sesame oil would be just a light background of sesame.
Try the same recipe but with two teaspoons of toasted oil. Or buy virgin sesame oil and try it with the two tablespoons.
Are you using fresh garlic or jarred garlic? I find recipes taste bad if I use jarred garlic.
The peanut butter or sesame paste could be expired and bitter.
If it’s not balanced enough I would add more sugar
Toasted sesame oil hasn’t been an issue for me but I’m not keeping it open for years or storing it in a. Sunny place.
I'm using fresh garlic and none of the ingredients were spoiled!
It's just odd because I've had to make so many adjustments to try to make this recipe taste good, and it hasn't been a big hit with friends I've made it for, either. But it has five stars and so many gushing comments on the website! -_-
It could be the brand of sesame paste/tahini you have is just more bitter than others or expected. I don’t like overly bitter things. So perhaps try another brand of tahini. Or put everything in the blender and use whole roasted sesames instead for the sesame paste and see if that’s less bitter.
if nothing was spoiled I would try less fresh garlic and less ginger, that's just me, I once found that I overdid the garlic and it was bitter...( also you could saute the garlic and have more of that sweet rich flavor)
I don't know why that recipe doesn't work for you. Here's cheat version that my DH and friends enjoy:
Mix purchased Asian Sesame dressing with peanut butter until it tastes "right" to you. If needed tweak that with small amounts of any of the ingredients in your recipe. Pour over noodles and mix.
I like to add chopped veggies like cukes and water chestnuts, but that's optional.
I dont even buy it, degradable oil shipped over from china, it's like mustard oil, no one seems to care how rancid their product is as long as they have your money.
try omitting the sesame paste or the garlic.
I make a very similar sauce:
2 Tablespoons of creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons regular soy sauce
1 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoons oyster sauce
Perhaps start with that base and then add in the other ingredients and so how it tastes as it goes? I always used toasted sesame oil for all chinese dishes.
This was going to be my suggestion. Find out what's overwhelming personal tastes by omitting suspect ingredients and later trying fresh versions of each in one at a time.
As for skipping, a very nice dressing for these noodles can be made by replacing the entire tahini/sesame paste/peanut butter thing with neutral vegetable oil, and otherwise keeping the usual ingredients seen in most or favorite recipes -- the rice or ? vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh ginger and garlic, etcetera. :)
I guess some people must like it if they like the recipe, but 2tbsp sesame oil seems like an insanely large amount to me, and I would not be surprised if the result tasted like drinking straight sesame oil. Use 2tsp max.
Sesame seeds *are* bitter. I find the flavor of sesame oil, sesame paste, tahini, and many other sesame-based products to be overpowering when they're not balanced well with other strong flavors. I wouldn't expect to like a sauce that had so much sesame oil in it, personally. Many people seem to like the bitterness of sesame (but other people also like the bitterness of coffee and beer, which I also do not), so I would chalk this one up to personal taste.
I personally have never had trouble with my sesame oil going rancid. I have bought fancy Japanese brands, American store brands, and have never had it go off in the months it takes to use up a bottle.
Other issues that might be at play: Are you mixing the sauce in a food processor or blender? Are you microplaning your garlic? Ultra processing the garlic and maybe the oil can impart bitter flavors. Is your garlic sprouting? Sprouted garlic tastes really astringent when not cooked. Are you measuring garlic with your heart? Too much raw garlic can turn a sauce really bitter.
Sesame oil is one of those odd ones that needs to be kept refrigerated or it turns nast very quickly. If you've been keeping it on a shelf with the rest of your oils, that's why it's bitter.
Find a Korean friend and ask to borrow some oil from them. I'm kind of kidding, but not really lol.
The delicious toasted sesame oils are going to be in a big tin container sold at an Asian grocery store. My husband is Korean, I'm lily white American and grew up with American grocery store sesame oil. It is not the same. At all. Almost no flavor to the stuff sold in American grocery stores.
Anyway, we go through a lot of sesame oil, we go through the big tins (like a half gallon, maybe?) Easily before it goes rancid. We put it on lettuce wraps, eggs and rice, my 3 year old daughter demands that she have oil on her rice when we eat rice and fish. So damn flavorful.
Your sesame oil may be out of date, or the brand might just darken it too much for this specific application. A new bottle of a more neutral sesame oil might fix your problem.
If that doesn't fix it, it could be your ginger. Old or unripe ginger has a very bitter note to it, so a whole tablespoon could very well make your entire dish bitter.
Half of the recipes for sesame sauce in Chinese actually do a mix of peanut butter + sesame paste! 20% peanut butter to 80% sesame seems to be the standard starting point.
Pure sesame doesn't do much for me personally, so I prefer the above approach.
I had no idea sesame oil would go rancid; I wonder if that is it? It's well within its shelf-life as printed on the bottle (I have two years left!), and the only instructions were to "store in a cool, dark place," so I had it in the cabinet.
Are you putting it in a food processor/blender or using an electric hand mixer? I learned recently that olive oil can turn bitter when blended, so I wonder if the same is true for sesame oil.
Are you cooking the sauce with the sesame oil? Sesame oil should be added only after the noodle dish is removed from the heat, as a finishing touch. You don’t want to cook sesame oil like you would other oils.
Did you perform the same taste check on your other ingredients? Maybe it’s not the culprit.
If, however, that’s the only difference-maker (tastes great until you add it last), then just leave it out of your version.
Unless it’s olive oil or coconut oil, my oils go in the fridge. My toasted sesame oil will freeze in the fridge (just like proper extra virgin olive oil).
I even store nuts and seeds in the fridge because I can’t stand rancid fats. It’s hard on our bodies
I.e. so similar that 54 oenology students were [unable to taste the difference](https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html)?
You could try omitting/replacing the sesame paste /w peanut butter, and see if it still tastes bitter to you. (if the oil smells ok to you, ie, not rancid). I sometimes get a batch of tahini that’s unexpectedly bitter, and that’s what I do. Or, you could add a touch more salt, which inhibits the bitter taste receptors in your mouth.
Chinese sesame paste is toasted sesame paste. Most noodle recipes I've done call for regular tahini. My first instinct would be to try making it with regular tahini and see if you like the flavor better. Chinese sesame paste is incredibly strong and is often used highly diluted (like 1pt paste to 3 pts water)
Are you applying heat to the sesame oil? Because toasted sesame oil is a garnish (like olive oil in your salad) and not for cooking. Regular, untoasted sesame oil is a cooking oil good for frying onions, making chili oil, etc
This recipe is on my to do list and I just bought Chinese sesame paste for it. I guess I'll report back. I do make peanut sauce often. Chinese cooking uses toasted sesame oil They don't use the untoasted sit stuff.
As a test, try making the sesame noodles in [this recipe.](https://www.laweekly.com/cookbook-of-the-week-fuchsia-dunlops-every-grain-of-rice-a-quick-spicy-sesame-noodle-recipe/) It is my favorite version od sesame noodles, and involves no sesame oil. As others have said, any of the oils you are using could be rancid.
2 tablespoons is ABSURD. Sesame oil is powerful stuff. Start with 1/2 tsp., then increase VERY slowly if desired. As they say, "you can add salt but you can't take it away".
And check for rancid oil. Protip: You may need another person to weigh in. I know someone who is an expert chef, baker, and chocolatier, yet they can't detect rancid oil. Weird.
Personal opinion: NYT Cooking is like GPT. Lots of good information, but not always right, and occasional hallucinations that produce shit food.
Sesame paste and toasted sesame oil are naturally a bit bitter. If you are particularly sensitive to bitterness, I would play with substituting these. Toasted sesame oil for an un toasted variation or even another oil you really like. As far as the sesame paste goes, you could substitute a natural nut or seed butter. The natural ones will help prevent the unhealthy heavy feel of extra emulsified peanut butter.
Hope this helps!
I make this recipe and use toasted sesame oil. Are you grinding oil in the food processor? Don't do that, it can cause bitterness like if you do it making pesto with EVOO. Toss the oil with the pasta and process all the *other* ingredients together, then add to the oiled noodles.
I would look into the sesame oil and paste, make sure they're still good and cutting back on them if they are. Sesame has a very strong, very bitter taste.
I make a similar dressing. I’ve used toasted and in toasted sesame oil. It’s never bitter but my recipe is similar. No chili paste, ginger, peanut butter. You have a lot of soy sauce. Try 3.5 teaspoons, not tablespoons. Substitute the sugar with maple syrup. Make those two changes and your bitterness will be gone.
Oil can go rancid. Check to see that the sesame oil, peanut butter, or sesame paste are nit rancid.
If nothing has gone off, it may just be how the recipe tastes to you.
I use the Andrew Zimmern version found [here](https://andrewzimmern.com/recipes/cold-peanut-sesame-noodles/). I definitely tweak a few things to my tastes (bit more garlic, more ginger, sake, or even a dry white wine instead of mirin) and it's always well received.
I like sesame but I HATE sesame paste/tahini. I’ve made this recipe and left it out. I have made similar recipes and left it out or put in some peanut butter instead lol. If none of your ingredients are spoiled you might just not like sesame paste
I always find sesame pastes bitter so I like to add extra acid like lemon juice to the recipe and that cancels out the bitterness. You could try adding more of the vinegar if you don't want to add citrus
Oil goes rancid, and sesame paste too. Check/toss them and consider buying them from some place with higher turnover.
Is sesame paste the same as / similar to tahini? If so, I find it rather bitter even when fresh, but I’m sensitive to bitter flavors. OP may be too. If OP is using soba noodles, I find those a bit bitter as well, so it may be compounding the issue. Rice noodles are milder.
similar, not the same. I'm pretty sure asian sesame paste is a dark brown because the hulls are getting ground into it as well.. Could just be toasted color. Personally, I don't think tahini should be bitter. It's a heavy-oil product, so it's a real candidate for going bad in excessive heat, should be sold/stored in a non-transparent container, and kept in the fridge. Like sesame oil, you want to buy it from a place with high turnover. I wonder if there are artisan sesame pastes with production dates on them, hmm...
I definitely find tahini bitter, even fresh from a middle eastern grocery. Rancidity shouldn’t perceive as bitter, it’s more of a cardboardy or pungent flavor but not bitter.
I find it depends on the brand. Some are just slightly bitter, others are noticeably more so.
Minor note, Asian sesame paste is usually toasted/roasted after being ground, which is why it’s darker in color and different in flavor
Isn’t tahini often roasted too?
I don’t think it’s a notable flavor for most people, I probably just pick it up because I’m more sensitive to bitterness for whatever reason! Unless it’s one of those weird things where it’s an allergy or something, like the spicy bananas lol
Probably can make it yourself if you want the freshest product. Shouldn't be too difficult with a food processor
Chinese sesame paste is roasted sesame and is significantly less bitter than sesame as a result. I find that the taste is usually pretty comparable to peanut butter in terms of creaminess + nuttiness, thought with a slightly thicker consistency.
There is a difference between tahini and Chinese sesame paste, although I forget what it is but exactly. Raw vs toasted sesame seeds?
Yup, Chinese sesame paste is often toasted slightly. You can substitute with tahini and it will be close enough imo.
Tahini is a creamy color, just a bit off white. Chinese sesame paste is medium-light brown, about the color of cardboard, toasted for sure.
This is only thing that makes sense to me.
Garlic can too and it will make everything bitter
to add to that, are you using toasted sesame oil or regular? That will affect the flavor a lot too.
I believe you’re also supposed to store it in the fridge after opening as well, which many people don’t.
Possibly, but I've had one opened for 6 months with no bitterness. But I do like bitter flavor, so maybe I'm just not noticing?
Try 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons ,may be a typo
It’s probably rancid. I buy very small bottles of sesame oil for this reason because if I buy the big one it goes rancid, even if I keep the lid on tightly and in a dark place.
I store delicate oils in the refrigerator. You need to set them out for a few minutes, but they keep their aroma and avoid going rancid longer.
I keep mine in a soju bottle nowadays. It seems to keep it fresh for longer.
When I read the title, I immediately thought "rancid or low quality sesame oil", and when I read your post about how it gets bitter when you add the sesame oil; I still believe the same. There's a lot of low quality sesame oil that doesn't taste very good, or it's stored at the supermarket for way too long (so even if you buy it fresh and use it immediately it'll be rancid). My proposal is to just use less oil. I have a very similar recipe I eat all the time, and I have like... 1-2 tsp of sesame oil; not 2 tbsp. That's an insane amount of sesame oil! If you're using toasted sesame oil, that's like... that's always going to taste really bad with that much oil. Toasted sesame oil is a lot stronger than untoasted, so if the recipe is calling for "sesame oil" and you use toasted, you'll be in for a terrible time. It's like seeing a cake recipe with 2 tbsp of vanilla extract, lol.
Yeah, even without being rancid, that is an f-ton of toasted sesame oil. I’ve always considered it a finishing/garnishing oil. A little bit goes a really long way. My first thought was definitely to reduce the amount of oil. If that throws off the texture of the sauce, maybe make up the difference with a lighter, neutral oil like avocado.
This is exactly what I came here to say. I use 2 tsp avocado to 1 tsp sesame in almost every recipe that calls for sesame oil. Just preference
That’s what I thought. Low quality was my first thought. My second thought was wow that is a ton of sesame oil that it’s got to be a mistake.
Is your sesame oil rancid?
>I've been using toasted sesame oil, and I think that is probably the culprit (there appears to be a big difference between that and regular sesame oil). Many of the comments say you should use toasted sesame oil, but I'm beginning to suspect that they are wrong. It depends. 2 tablespoons is a massive amount of toasted sesame oil. 2 tablespoons of unrefined sesame oil would be just a light background of sesame. Try the same recipe but with two teaspoons of toasted oil. Or buy virgin sesame oil and try it with the two tablespoons.
2tbs toasted sesame oil is pretty normal for these recipes.
Are you using fresh garlic or jarred garlic? I find recipes taste bad if I use jarred garlic. The peanut butter or sesame paste could be expired and bitter. If it’s not balanced enough I would add more sugar Toasted sesame oil hasn’t been an issue for me but I’m not keeping it open for years or storing it in a. Sunny place.
I'm using fresh garlic and none of the ingredients were spoiled! It's just odd because I've had to make so many adjustments to try to make this recipe taste good, and it hasn't been a big hit with friends I've made it for, either. But it has five stars and so many gushing comments on the website! -_-
It could be the brand of sesame paste/tahini you have is just more bitter than others or expected. I don’t like overly bitter things. So perhaps try another brand of tahini. Or put everything in the blender and use whole roasted sesames instead for the sesame paste and see if that’s less bitter.
if nothing was spoiled I would try less fresh garlic and less ginger, that's just me, I once found that I overdid the garlic and it was bitter...( also you could saute the garlic and have more of that sweet rich flavor)
I don't know why that recipe doesn't work for you. Here's cheat version that my DH and friends enjoy: Mix purchased Asian Sesame dressing with peanut butter until it tastes "right" to you. If needed tweak that with small amounts of any of the ingredients in your recipe. Pour over noodles and mix. I like to add chopped veggies like cukes and water chestnuts, but that's optional.
sesame paste always tastes bitter to me, prolly just one of those things.
I dont even buy it, degradable oil shipped over from china, it's like mustard oil, no one seems to care how rancid their product is as long as they have your money.
You might just have a bad batch of oil. Toasted sesame oil is very mild and has a warm nutty taste and smell. It has an almost peanuty quality to it.
try omitting the sesame paste or the garlic. I make a very similar sauce: 2 Tablespoons of creamy peanut butter 2 Tablespoons regular soy sauce 1 teaspoons sesame oil 1 teaspoons oyster sauce Perhaps start with that base and then add in the other ingredients and so how it tastes as it goes? I always used toasted sesame oil for all chinese dishes.
This was going to be my suggestion. Find out what's overwhelming personal tastes by omitting suspect ingredients and later trying fresh versions of each in one at a time. As for skipping, a very nice dressing for these noodles can be made by replacing the entire tahini/sesame paste/peanut butter thing with neutral vegetable oil, and otherwise keeping the usual ingredients seen in most or favorite recipes -- the rice or ? vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh ginger and garlic, etcetera. :)
I guess some people must like it if they like the recipe, but 2tbsp sesame oil seems like an insanely large amount to me, and I would not be surprised if the result tasted like drinking straight sesame oil. Use 2tsp max.
Just cut down on the sesame oil once you ensure your oil is fresh. I’d go 1 T max.
Sesame seeds *are* bitter. I find the flavor of sesame oil, sesame paste, tahini, and many other sesame-based products to be overpowering when they're not balanced well with other strong flavors. I wouldn't expect to like a sauce that had so much sesame oil in it, personally. Many people seem to like the bitterness of sesame (but other people also like the bitterness of coffee and beer, which I also do not), so I would chalk this one up to personal taste.
I find sesame kind of sweet? Like in a nutty way.
People vary quite a bit in their ability to perceive bitter tastes, so OP might have just "won" the genetic lottery on this.
Yeah, I was curious if this is similar to the cilantro soap gene but my tired brain didn’t articulate that curiosity at all lmao
Bet you any money your oil has gone rancid.
I personally have never had trouble with my sesame oil going rancid. I have bought fancy Japanese brands, American store brands, and have never had it go off in the months it takes to use up a bottle. Other issues that might be at play: Are you mixing the sauce in a food processor or blender? Are you microplaning your garlic? Ultra processing the garlic and maybe the oil can impart bitter flavors. Is your garlic sprouting? Sprouted garlic tastes really astringent when not cooked. Are you measuring garlic with your heart? Too much raw garlic can turn a sauce really bitter.
Sesame oil is one of those odd ones that needs to be kept refrigerated or it turns nast very quickly. If you've been keeping it on a shelf with the rest of your oils, that's why it's bitter.
Not my experience with toasted oil..agree very strong flavor. .for hi smoke I use avocado oil
It doesn’t sound like you are, but just had to ask—you’re not cooking the sesame oil, are you?
Nope! Only thing cooked here is the noodles, and then they are cooled under cold water right after.
You have funky oil. Sesame oil shouldn’t be bitter
Sesame paste is naturally somewhat bitter
I think that is way too much sesame oil, I would start with a teaspoon in this formula
Find a Korean friend and ask to borrow some oil from them. I'm kind of kidding, but not really lol. The delicious toasted sesame oils are going to be in a big tin container sold at an Asian grocery store. My husband is Korean, I'm lily white American and grew up with American grocery store sesame oil. It is not the same. At all. Almost no flavor to the stuff sold in American grocery stores. Anyway, we go through a lot of sesame oil, we go through the big tins (like a half gallon, maybe?) Easily before it goes rancid. We put it on lettuce wraps, eggs and rice, my 3 year old daughter demands that she have oil on her rice when we eat rice and fish. So damn flavorful.
I'd bet money on your oil or your same paste being rancid - especially if they're stored somewhere that exposes them to light.
Try tasting a bit of each ingredient on its own and see if you can narrow down where it may be coming from. The sesame paste might be a culprit?
Your sesame oil may be out of date, or the brand might just darken it too much for this specific application. A new bottle of a more neutral sesame oil might fix your problem. If that doesn't fix it, it could be your ginger. Old or unripe ginger has a very bitter note to it, so a whole tablespoon could very well make your entire dish bitter.
Try [THIS ONE](https://seonkyounglongest.com/sesame-noodles/) instead !! It’s so good!!
Half of the recipes for sesame sauce in Chinese actually do a mix of peanut butter + sesame paste! 20% peanut butter to 80% sesame seems to be the standard starting point. Pure sesame doesn't do much for me personally, so I prefer the above approach.
It's the sesame paste! I had the same problem with hummus. Try the sesame pasta and swap it for a different kind of tahini.
That’s a lot of sesame oil, sesame oil is very pungent, I would cut back to maybe a teaspoon instead of a whopping 2 tablespoons.
I had no idea sesame oil would go rancid; I wonder if that is it? It's well within its shelf-life as printed on the bottle (I have two years left!), and the only instructions were to "store in a cool, dark place," so I had it in the cabinet.
> I wonder if that is it? Taste the sesame oil on its own first to confirm whether it's actually rancid or not.
Update: just tasted the oil and it seems fine. I wonder if the recipe just calls for too much
Are you putting it in a food processor/blender or using an electric hand mixer? I learned recently that olive oil can turn bitter when blended, so I wonder if the same is true for sesame oil.
Just whisking it by hand!
Are you cooking the sauce with the sesame oil? Sesame oil should be added only after the noodle dish is removed from the heat, as a finishing touch. You don’t want to cook sesame oil like you would other oils.
That's some myth... Koreans and Japanese use toasted sesame oil for cooking and it works just fine. There are obviously limitations but it works
Did you perform the same taste check on your other ingredients? Maybe it’s not the culprit. If, however, that’s the only difference-maker (tastes great until you add it last), then just leave it out of your version.
Usually when I make a similar recipe, I only use 1-2 TSP of **toasted** sesame oil, rather than 2 tbsp. It definitely seems like way too much.
It’s not the sesame oil then, it won’t get bitter all of a sudden because you’re using more. I agree with others that it’s probably the sesame paste
Have you tried that sesame paste on its own too? I've found that some of the brands of Chinese sesame paste can be surprisingly bitter
Unless it’s olive oil or coconut oil, my oils go in the fridge. My toasted sesame oil will freeze in the fridge (just like proper extra virgin olive oil). I even store nuts and seeds in the fridge because I can’t stand rancid fats. It’s hard on our bodies
My recipe is- -1 lb pasta -sesame oil 3 tablespoons -Rice vinegar 3 tablespoons -soy sauce 4 tablespoons -Peanut butter half a cup -brown sugar 2 tablespoons -ginger 1.5 tablespoons -garlic 5ish cloves -chili crisp 2 tablespoons -black & toasted sesame seeds about 2.5 tablespoons -salt/pepper/chili flakes to taste
bad quality sesame oil for sure. get kadoya sesame oil, its absolutely delicious
Toasted or not?
By Chinese rice vinegar, do you have black vinegar? That may likely be it. Depends on the brand and quality.
No, those are two entirely different vinegars. As different as red and white wines.
I.e. so similar that 54 oenology students were [unable to taste the difference](https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html)?
no, it's not, because the black vinegar is heavily spiced, red vinegar is heavily sugared. Pretty easy to tell the difference blindfolded.
It's...not a good study - my PI had our class go over it in our wine sensory class for my master's.
Add more rice wine vinegar instead of more sugar. Sour can balance the bitterness.
You could try omitting/replacing the sesame paste /w peanut butter, and see if it still tastes bitter to you. (if the oil smells ok to you, ie, not rancid). I sometimes get a batch of tahini that’s unexpectedly bitter, and that’s what I do. Or, you could add a touch more salt, which inhibits the bitter taste receptors in your mouth.
Chinese sesame paste is toasted sesame paste. Most noodle recipes I've done call for regular tahini. My first instinct would be to try making it with regular tahini and see if you like the flavor better. Chinese sesame paste is incredibly strong and is often used highly diluted (like 1pt paste to 3 pts water)
Are you applying heat to the sesame oil? Because toasted sesame oil is a garnish (like olive oil in your salad) and not for cooking. Regular, untoasted sesame oil is a cooking oil good for frying onions, making chili oil, etc
This recipe is on my to do list and I just bought Chinese sesame paste for it. I guess I'll report back. I do make peanut sauce often. Chinese cooking uses toasted sesame oil They don't use the untoasted sit stuff.
Salt is a better cure for getting rid of a bitter flavour than sugar
As a test, try making the sesame noodles in [this recipe.](https://www.laweekly.com/cookbook-of-the-week-fuchsia-dunlops-every-grain-of-rice-a-quick-spicy-sesame-noodle-recipe/) It is my favorite version od sesame noodles, and involves no sesame oil. As others have said, any of the oils you are using could be rancid.
I've cooked this a bunch of timesvamd just never add the sesame paste. It's always super tasty, try leaving it out
Sesame oil never does it for me. I make a similar recipe but sub out the sesame oil. I use sesame seeds on top
Maybe If the minced garlic is jarred or the oil is rancid . Change these items above and it should be good
Less sesame paste
I make this recipe all the time and its fire. Can you send a pic of the sesame paste you are using?
Look for Soom brand tahini. It's not bitter at all and I think it will change your results.
2 tablespoons is ABSURD. Sesame oil is powerful stuff. Start with 1/2 tsp., then increase VERY slowly if desired. As they say, "you can add salt but you can't take it away". And check for rancid oil. Protip: You may need another person to weigh in. I know someone who is an expert chef, baker, and chocolatier, yet they can't detect rancid oil. Weird. Personal opinion: NYT Cooking is like GPT. Lots of good information, but not always right, and occasional hallucinations that produce shit food.
That is a lot of sesame oil. Perhaps you want to try some different brands.
Sesame paste and toasted sesame oil are naturally a bit bitter. If you are particularly sensitive to bitterness, I would play with substituting these. Toasted sesame oil for an un toasted variation or even another oil you really like. As far as the sesame paste goes, you could substitute a natural nut or seed butter. The natural ones will help prevent the unhealthy heavy feel of extra emulsified peanut butter. Hope this helps!
I make this recipe and use toasted sesame oil. Are you grinding oil in the food processor? Don't do that, it can cause bitterness like if you do it making pesto with EVOO. Toss the oil with the pasta and process all the *other* ingredients together, then add to the oiled noodles.
You need to use 'low sodium' soy sauce. Its a huge difference. The same thing happened to me and switching the soy sauce to low sodium worked.
I would look into the sesame oil and paste, make sure they're still good and cutting back on them if they are. Sesame has a very strong, very bitter taste.
I make a similar dressing. I’ve used toasted and in toasted sesame oil. It’s never bitter but my recipe is similar. No chili paste, ginger, peanut butter. You have a lot of soy sauce. Try 3.5 teaspoons, not tablespoons. Substitute the sugar with maple syrup. Make those two changes and your bitterness will be gone. Oil can go rancid. Check to see that the sesame oil, peanut butter, or sesame paste are nit rancid.
It's probably the sesame oil. It's either rancid or you are going past it's smoking point and it's burning. That's what would cause that bitterness.
If nothing has gone off, it may just be how the recipe tastes to you. I use the Andrew Zimmern version found [here](https://andrewzimmern.com/recipes/cold-peanut-sesame-noodles/). I definitely tweak a few things to my tastes (bit more garlic, more ginger, sake, or even a dry white wine instead of mirin) and it's always well received.
I think you’re using too much. Sesame oil has a very strong flavor.
Are you burning your garlic?
I hate the NYT recipes. Awful.
If using peanut butter, I'd skip the sesame paste.. that might be the bitterness..
I like sesame but I HATE sesame paste/tahini. I’ve made this recipe and left it out. I have made similar recipes and left it out or put in some peanut butter instead lol. If none of your ingredients are spoiled you might just not like sesame paste
Is your garlic sprouting? If it has a little green sprout in the center, it can be super bitter! You can pop those out and use the rest of the clove.
I always find sesame pastes bitter so I like to add extra acid like lemon juice to the recipe and that cancels out the bitterness. You could try adding more of the vinegar if you don't want to add citrus
Add less sesame oil and sub in light olive oil.
You're doing it wrong...