Quick Answer: What Is Kaili Sour Soup?
Kaili sour soup, or suan tang (酸汤; suān tāng), is a fermented cooking base associated with southeastern Guizhou. White versions are rice-based; red versions use tomato and red chili.[1]
- White: The national heritage account describes fermented glutinous-rice cooking water.
- Red: Tomato and red chili form the vegetable base.
- Use: A sour base becomes part of a finished dish, such as a fish hot pot.
Choose by ingredients and intended use, rather than color alone. A jar of concentrated seasoning and a pot ready for cooking fish are different products.
The word “soup” can suggest a finished bowl, but Kaili sour soup also names an ingredient used to build one. Understanding that distinction helps when reading a recipe, ordering a meal or buying a prepared base. This guide compares the two main families within Guizhou cuisine and keeps their fermentation separate from the final cooking of a dish.
Red and White Sour Soup Compared
The main names are bai suan tang (白酸汤; bái suān tāng), white sour soup, and hong suan tang (红酸汤; hóng suān tāng), red sour soup.
| Base | Documented ingredients | Character in the heritage account |
|---|---|---|
| White | Glutinous-rice cooking water, fermented with older sour soup | Clear, rice-scented sourness with a sweet finish.[1] |
| Red | Tomato and red chili, fermented with other ingredients | Red, aromatic, sour and mildly spicy.[1] |
The rice component needs some explanation. A 2026 study from Shihua Village in Kaili examined white soup made from rice-washing water. Its red samples combined tomato, chili and ginger with rice-washing water. Those particular preparations differ from the cooked-rice-water description in the heritage record; neither should erase the other.[3]
For a purchased base, the label settles the immediate question: read what that maker actually includes. “White” identifies a family of preparations, not one identical liquid in every jar.
How Fermentation Builds the Flavor
Research on Kaili red sour soup identifies lactic and acetic acids as major contributors to its sour taste. It describes a fermented tomato-and-chili condiment, rather than fresh tomato soup sharpened only with a spoonful of vinegar.[2]
The craft can involve more than one fermentation stage. The heritage account describes red ingredients fermenting for five to six months, followed by grinding and a further period of fermentation. It gives a much shorter five-to-six-day process for its white version.[1]
The Shihua Village study describes different schedules: seven to ten days for its white soup and ten to fifteen for its red preparation. These are records of specific materials and processes, not interchangeable timings for any homemade mixture.[3]
These examples explain variation; they do not supply a complete recipe with quantities, starter controls and process checks. To explore the flavor in cooking, choose a prepared food-grade base and follow its instructions.
Our guide to Chinese fermented foods places these bases beside other fermented ingredients. Here, the fermentation stage produces the seasoning; the later pot of soup is another cooking stage.
Using a Prepared Base in Cooking
First determine whether the product is a concentrate, a ready-to-use broth or another form of seasoning. Follow its stated dilution, cooking and storage directions. Equal spoonfuls from two different products need not supply equal acidity, salt or chili heat.
A reported restaurant preparation gives a concrete example. In Guiyang, cook Peng Delin fries fresh tomato with ginger and garlic, adds his house-fermented red base and some white base, then cooks the fish in that seasoned liquid. Red and white therefore need not be mutually exclusive choices in a finished pot.[4]
Another inheritor’s account describes ginger and bean sprouts in the pot, followed by fish and local aromatics. These additions belong to cooking the dish, rather than proving that every fermentation jar must contain the same vegetables and spices.[5]
For a home meal, choose a finished-dish recipe designed around the base you have. Adjust the final seasoning within that recipe rather than replacing a fermented base with plain tomato puree and assuming the results will match. The guide to Chinese hot pot explains the broader serving format.
Kaili Context and the Fish Soup Tradition
The national heritage record places the craft among Miao communities around Kaili, Leishan, Taijiang and Jianhe, with a wider presence across Qiandongnan. It lists Kaili sour fish soup making as a national intangible cultural heritage project recognized in 2021.[1]
That recognition concerns a cooking craft, including the base, fish preparation, seasonings and cooking. The dedicated guide to Guizhou sour fish soup covers the finished dish; this page focuses on the fermented bases that help define it.
FAQs About Kaili Sour Soup
Is Kaili red sour soup just tomato soup with vinegar?
No. The red base discussed here is a fermented tomato-and-chili preparation. Its fermentation contributes organic acids and aroma.[2]
Can red and white sour soup be used together?
Yes. A documented restaurant method combines house red and white bases in the same fish pot.[4]
Is there one fermentation time for Kaili sour soup?
No. Published descriptions use different ingredients and processes. Follow a complete method for the particular preparation, not a time borrowed from another example.
Sources
[1] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. 凯里酸汤鱼制作技艺
[2] LWT, original fermentation research. Physiochemical, microbiological and flavor characteristics of traditional Chinese fermented food Kaili Red Sour Soup
[3] Zhou and colleagues, AMB Express original research. Bacterial community and functional prediction differences between white and red sour soup
[4] Xiang Lijun, Guizhou Daily original restaurant report. 凯里酸汤鱼 藏在美食里的生存智慧
[5] People’s Daily Online Guizhou, original inheritor interview. “凯里酸汤鱼”省级传承人吴笃琴：做好“鱼” 用好“渔”