Hunan vs Szechuan Cuisine

Hunan cuisine vs Szechuan cuisine, what’s the difference?

The only way to describe the flavors of these cuisines is fireworks in your mouth (not necessarily in a bad way!). With copious amounts of chillies, garlic, and onions, these foods are anything but boring. A whiff of these foods will surely make your stomach growl and mouth water. Not only are the foods of these cuisines enticing; they are addictive.

Hunan Cuisine

Hunan cuisine hails from the Xiang River region and western Hunan Province. Its main ingredients are chili pepper and garlic. It has a very hot and straightforward taste. Hunan (also known as Xiang) actually originated from more than one region. It is comprised of food from the regions near the Xiang River, Dongting Lake, and the western Hunan Province. Hunan translates to “south of Lake Dongting.” Hu means lake, and nan means south. This is a reference to the location where Hunan food originates.

Hunan is known for its heavy use of chili peppers, garlic, and shallots. It has a distinctive hot taste. Chili peppers are so important to Hunan cuisine that they have their own class of flavoring! The Hunan Province is well known for its rice production and agriculture. It has a subtropical climate that is hot and humid in the summer. Conversely, it is cool and damp in the winter. This makes the Hunan Province an agriculturally rich land and is why Hunan cuisine tends to have a large variety of fresh ingredients.

Szechuan Cuisine

Szechuan cusine hails from the Sichuan Province in southwestern China. Its main ingredients are chili peppers, garlic, and Szechuan peppercorn. It has a sweet/spicy and complicated taste. It is famous for the distinctive tingly numbing sensation it produces when eaten. Szechuan (also known as Szechwan or Sichuan) originated from the Sichuan Province which is located in the southwestern part of China. Szechuan is known for its heavy use of chili peppers, garlic, and Sichuan peppercorns. Szechuan is the former romanization of Sichuan. So while we still refer to the food from that region as Szechuan the correct romanization would be Sichuan. Sichuan translates to “four rivers.” This is a reference to the four major rivers in Sichuan Province: Jialing, Jinsha, Min, and Tuo.

This numbing flavor is known as ma la in Chinese which translates to “numbing hot.” The distinctive numbing flavor comes from the Szechuan peppercorn. While you would think that the Szechuan peppercorn was related to either black pepper or chili pepper, it’s not. In fact, it’s not actually even a pepper! Szechuan peppercorn is a spice that is made from the husks of the seeds of the prickly ash shrub from the genus Zanthoxylum in China. It is the primary ingredient in Szechuan cuisine and is also one of the ingredients in the popular Chinese five-spice powder.

It is actually the combination of chili peppers with the Szechuan peppercorn that produces the distinct and unique numbing sensation that Szechuan is so famous for. The Szechuan peppercorn has an aroma that is similar to lavender, and it has a citrus like taste. Szechuan cuisine has seven basic flavors which are hot, sour, pungent, sweet, bitter, salty, and aromatic. This is why Szechuan has a more complicated taste than Hunan cuisine. It has many types of spiciness while Hunan can be seen as a purely hot spicy cuisine.

Hunan dishes has a much hotter flavor, and Szechuan dishes have a more sweet and spicy flavor. That’s the main difference, but it’s a little more complicated than that. They can be confusing to differentiate at first glance, but the main difference is in their composition, texture, and type of spiciness.

Hunan vs Szechuan Ingredients

Hunan-the most common ingredients in Hunan are chili peppers, garlic, and shallots. Typically, Hunan consists of shredded ginger, sherry, soy sauce, scallions, chili peppers, chicken broth, wine vinegar, garlic, cornstarch, salt, shallots, sugar, and anise pepper.

Szechuan-the most common ingredients in Szechuan are sesame paste, ginger, and peanuts. Typically, Szechuan consists of chili paste, egg whites, cornstarch, rice, cooking wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, sesame paste, Worcestershire sauce, crushed chili peppers, onions, peanuts, vegetable oil, minced ginger, carrots, and red bell peppers. Szechuan definitely has a more complicated taste! Szechuan cuisine involves the use of a lot of chili bean paste. It is a spicy, salty paste made from fermented broad beans, soybeans, salt, rice, and of course, chillies.

Ingredient preparation

Hunan typically uses fresh ingredients. It is notably different from Szechuan cooking because the ingredients tend to change with the seasons since it uses mainly local ingredients.

Szechuan relies more on dried, pickled, and salted ingredients. The ingredients tend to be the same regardless of the season.

Preferred Protein

Pork is usually the most preferred meat in Hunan cuisine, followed by beef. This cuisine has a lot of fish dishes. A notable difference between Hunan and Szechuan is that Szechuan has fewer fish dishes. This is because the Sichuan Province is landlocked, and so they have less accessibility to fish.

Beef is the beloved meat of the Szechuan cuisine followed by pork. Rabbit meat is more popular in the Sichuan region than any other part of China. Being a landlocked province, this cuisine doesn't have many fish dishes. Just like in the Hunan cuisine there are many vegetarian tofu-based dishes in Szechuan cuisine due to its popularity in China. The Szechuan dishes served in the US are notably much milder versions than their counterparts in China.

Chili peppers

Hunan normally uses fresh chili peppers.

Szechuan normally uses processed chili paste.

Vegetables

Hunan normally contains a lot more vegetables and has a much crunchier texture.

Szechuan has fewer vegetables and is less crunchy. Its crunch tends to come more from nuts like sesame seeds, cashew nuts, and salted peanuts.

Preserved Foods Used

Hunan cuisine uses smoked and cured foods more frequently in its dishes.

Szechuan cuisine uses pickled, dried, and salted foods in its dishes.

Appearance

Hunan normally has a sauce that is dark brown in appearance.

Szechuan normally has a sauce that is much redder in appearance.

Spiciness

Hunan tends to be purely hot due to the large amounts of ground chilis and garlic.

Szechuan tends to be different types of hot such as “hot and sweet” or “hot and sour.” The hotness also has a distinguishing tingly sensation due to the Szechuan peppercorn used.

Hunan vs Szechuan Preparation

Hunan relies on frying, braising, stewing, marinating, and smoking. Meat is usually marinated for long periods of time. Sometimes, it is even left to marinate overnight. The meat is typically fried, and then later combined with all the other ingredients (including the sauce). Normally, all the ingredients, sauce, marinade, and meat are combined right before they are served.

Szechuan relies on stir-frying, braising, steaming, and marinating. Meat is marinated for only a few minutes and is typically cooked along with the other ingredients (including the marinade). Normally, all the ingredients, sauce, marinade, and meat are combined when they are first cooked.

Final Thoughts

While many people think that Hunan cuisine is just a hotter version of Szechuan cuisine there is actually so much more to both of them than just hotness. It can be easy to confuse them for one another, but if you just keep a few things in mind, it will be much easier to differentiate them.

Hunan dishes are cooked using more elaborate cooking methods. It uses chilis as the distinguishing sauce ingredient. The taste has more of a plain and purely hot flavor. Hunan dishes also tend to be oilier than Szechuan.

Szechuan cuisine is cooked using more standard cooking methods. It uses chilies mixed with Szechuan peppercorn as the distinguishing sauce ingredient. The taste has more of a complicated and tingly numbing flavor. Szechuan cuisine also tends to be less oily and more “sweet and spicy” than Hunan.