Discover the Secret Ingredient
Like us!Recipe Highlights - the 3 advantages of a true Singaporean heritage delicacy.
- Labour intensive, homemade 24-hour boiled gourmet soup with herb base;
- Homemade gourmet chilli sauce with 13 ingredients, and
- Hand sliced beef cuts (not machine cut) for maximum tenderness and flavour makes this a dish of the highest quality.
Hock Lam Beef's (HLB) secret ingredientWith 13 ingredients in the gourmet soup base and homemade chilli sauce, many wonder about the secret ingredient that makes this recipe so special. At Hock Lam Beef, generations ago, we realised that the secret ingredient was the effort in preparing everything by hand in-house. This effort distinguishes this original recipe from its competitors.
Altogether, the business has maintained its standards and quality since 1911, when the business moved into its first store, where previously Anthony’s granddad used to sell his delicious noodles on foot around Chinatown.
Having no low-cost compromises allows full quality control of the ingredients and avoids artificial flavours and ingredients. It may cost a little more, but we prefer doing it this way.
Having the oldest surviving recipe includes the advantages of being able to create the gourmet soup base and 13-ingredient chilli sauce without resorting to factory prepared ingredients. The soup is then boiled for at least 24 hours to extract the full flavour from the beef and beef bones used as a base. The additional advantage of the recipe is that it includes techniques for preparing hand sliced beef cuts, instead of less tender machine cut beef, which then requires tenderiser and loses the natural beef flavour.
These 3 advantages of the original recipe, homemade 24-hour boiled gourmet soup, homemade gourmet chilli sauce and hand prepared beef cuts without tenderiser makes this a dish of the highest quality, and a true Singaporean heritage dish.