Sesame-Peanut Sauce vs. Pon Pon Sauce

For over 30 years, I have wondered what the fundamental differences are between the Five Spice Peanut-Sesame Sauce and the Pon Pon Chicken Sauce. They are similar, but not identical. Because I am a nerd, I took the ingredients from both cards and normalized them for comparison using peanut butter as the base ingredient. Below, please find a “chart” showing the ingredient and ratio differences between these two delicious sauces.

Peanut Sesame Sauce         | Pon Pon Sauce 
Peanut Butter        1 Cup  | Peanut Butter    1 Cup
Tahini               1 Cup  | Sesame Paste     1 Cup
Oil (soybean)        1 Cup  | Oil (Soybean)    1¾ Cups
Hot Black Tea        12T    | Hot Black Tea    14T
Red Wine Vinegar     8T     | Red Wine Vinegar 5.5T
Sesame Oil           4T     | Sesame Oil       2T
Sugar                3T     | Sugar            3.5T
Light Soy            12T    | Light Soy        7T
                            | Dark Soy         7T
Hot Oil              2T     | Sichuan Pepper   3.5T
Dry, Gran. Garlic    2.75T  | Chopped Garlic   3.5T
Water                4T     |

Executive summary: the big differences are the use of sesame paste + sichuan pepper + dark soy (for Pon Pon) vs. tahini + hot oil + only light soy (Sesame-Peanut). Pon Pon uses distinctly more oil while Sesame-Peanut insists on dry, granulated garlic.

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