To ask how can I improve a jar of sweet and sour sauce?

[WhatsWhat456]

I have to jars of Aldi sweet and sour hanging around in the back of the cupboard. How can I improve the taste? We used one last year and nobody was keen it tasted far to much of vinegar, is there anything I can do to make it more palatable?

I hate food waste so don't want to throw it away if at all possible.

Tomato puree, tbsp sugar and a bit of sesame oil is what I do.

Fresh ginger and some orange marmalade sprang to mind.

Think of it as a base, add fresh ginger and soft brown sugar, then use it with stir fry pork.
If you’ve got an opened jar from last year, bin it.

Orange marmalade! Genius.

Don't put any more sugar in it!! Fresh ginger, chillies or lemongrass might help. Best advice though would be to bin it and move on with the rest of your life!

No not got an open jar from last year just two sealed jars. I have all of them except tomato puree hopefully I can improve it and not make it worse. Going to add stir fried chicken, orange pepper, spring onion and baby corn. I have fresh chilli but not sure

Extra peppers and pineapple.

That all sounds like a lot of faff for something you still might not like, I'd give then to a food bank rather than possibly waste more food and money.

Add some pineapple mmmmmmm

To make your own sweet and sour sauce

Tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar and either water or pineapple juice.

Heat and stir, then add cornflour to thicken

Quick and easy to make yourself

Thanks for the recipe @GreenTulips I will try that out in the future.

Look up the hairy bikers sweet and sour. I think its from their diet cookbook. It is really nice and you can adapt it to your preferences ie leave oit the chilli powder if you don't like it hot. It might give you an idea what to try with your jars. It donate them personally and make the hairy biker one.

If you can redress the balance so add more tomato and sugar the vinegar should reduce

Caramelise the pork, add sauce scrapping up the bits of meat juices. Fresh red chilli, spring onions. chicken doesn't taste as good

Like others have said you can add things (lots of good items listed) to balance the part that doesn't suit you palate.

You need to taste it first to see what is wrong with it which gives you a starting place to add things. Some of the things you add though will need to be cooked out as just adding them and heating the sauce won't necessarily allow them to alter the taste.

I am definitely not a cook so that's as good advice as I can give you

I make it like this (but this is partly as my kids LOVE the pineapple content)

small amount of spring onion or actual onion
fresh chopped chilli (not hot, just a hint)
could also add garlic or ginger
fry the chicken
add the sauce
add mange tout, or baby corn, or peppers etc
add a whole tin of pineapple peices including the juice

cook until veg is ready
serve
cook for l

I think Aldi changed the recipe... we ate several and enjoyed them and then a recent one was really vinegary!
(If they are OLD then maybe yours are OK?)
Top tips on here if we risk them again and find they are vinegary, thanks all!!!

If you don,t like give to a food bank.

Add to one jar of Aldi S&S sauce:

Good shake of sweet chilly sauce, a tin of pineapple chopped up with the juice added two, a squirt of lime or lemon juice, fresh or from a bottle.
Taste test.

Dump it over some chicken nuggets, add rice and enjoy