Cppycat Bulldog Tonkatsu Sauce.
Tonkatsu sauce is a ketchup/Worcestershire mix served with pork or chicken that has been breaded, fried and cut into strips. Bull-Dog, the most popular brand, has a mystery sweet/astringent element that might come from the prunes listed in the ingredient table but can be (almost) replicated with a bit of lemon juice and a squeeze of umeboshi paste. If you don’t have umeboshi paste (from a sour plum used in sushi) add a pinch of ground cloves (you can grind a clove very easily with a mortar and pestle) or just leave it out. Makes ½ c, enough to sauce a pound of katsu strips (though it’s not a bad idea to double the recipe for leftovers).
Ingredients:
¼ c ketchup
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T oyster sauce or soy sauce
1 t lemon juice
½ t sugar
1 t umeboshi plum paste OR 1/8 t ground clove
The real thing. Be sure you’re buying the original tonkatsu sauce; Bulldog also makes a Worcestershire and a sweet sauce.
Method: mix all ingredients until sugar is dissolved and serve with katsu cutlets.
Note: some copycat Bulldog tonkatsu sauce recipes add more Worcestershire or sugar and you’re welcome to tinker with the recipe as you like; just don’t leave out the Worcestershire. It may not taste exactly like Bull Dog but it will be fine. You’re not going for a Japanese flavor profile, by the way, because Bull-Dog sauce was designed to mimic English sauces. More on this heritage here.
