What is Seasoning Sauce?

The secret to great tasting Thai food

When people watch my cooking videos, one of the most common questions I get is “what is seasoning sauce?”.

In the West it seems like most people have heard of fish sauce, everyone has heard of soy sauce but hardly anyone has heard of seasoning sauce!

So what is it? To sum it up briefly, seasoning sauce is actually quite similar to soy sauce. Compared to soy sauce though, Thai seasoning sauce has a much more intense taste and is quite a bit saltier.

In Thailand, we use this sauce all the time!! The vast majority of Thai dishes use seasoning sauce so if you are planning on doing quite a bit of Thai cooking then you need to get yourself a bottle!

Just a few dashes really bring out the flavour in stir fries like Pad Krapow Gai , noodle dishes and soups.

The green cap sauce: Golden Mountain seasoning sauce (ซอสปรุงรสฝาเขียว)

​In Thailand, when we speak about seasoning Sauce we are usually referring to Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce or as we like to call it, the green cap sauce (ซอสปรุงรสฝาเขียว)!! There are other brands but this is undoubtedly the most popular and is the one I always prefer to use.

Whenever I or other Thai chefs talk about seasoning sauce, we are referring to Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce (ซอสปรุงรสฝาเขียว)

What does seasoning sauce actually taste like?

Imagine soy sauce with the volume turned up: saltier, more savoury, with a faint sweetness and a deep roasted note that plain soy doesn't have. If you've ever had Maggi seasoning (the little brown bottle found in kitchens across Europe and Asia), Golden Mountain is its Thai cousin: similar idea, but lighter and slightly sweeter. A few dashes go a long way; it's a seasoning, not a sauce you pour.

The flavour difference is easiest to taste side by side: fry two eggs, dash light soy on one and Golden Mountain on the other. The seasoning sauce egg tastes noticeably rounder and more savoury; that's the extra umami at work. Fried egg with a dash of green cap sauce over rice is a genuine Thai comfort food, and the fastest way to understand what this bottle does.

What is seasoning sauce made of?

Seasoning sauce starts life much like soy sauce; it is built on fermented soya beans. Golden Mountain is roughly three-quarters fermented soybean sauce, with salt, a little sugar and flavour enhancers added to round it out. The fermentation breaks the soya proteins down into amino acids, which is where all that deep savoury flavour comes from. The makers, Thai Theparos, have been producing it in Samut Prakan since 1954, so it has been on Thai stoves for generations.

In Thai we call it ซอสปรุงรส (sot prung rot), which translates roughly as "sauce for seasoning," a clue to how we treat it. People search for it under other names too: salsa sazonadora in Spanish, or simply "Thai seasoning soy sauce" in English. It is all the same idea: a concentrated soy-based seasoning, not a dipping sauce. And despite how savoury it tastes, Golden Mountain contains no MSG; the umami comes from the fermented soya itself.

Seasoning sauce vs soy sauce vs fish sauce

This is the question I am asked most, so here is how the three sauces really differ. Soy sauce and seasoning sauce are cousins (both fermented soya), but seasoning sauce is saltier, a touch sweeter and more rounded. Fish sauce is a completely different thing: made from fermented anchovies, it is briny and pungent where seasoning sauce is smooth and savoury. In a Thai kitchen we reach for all three, often in the same dish.

Sauce	Made from	Taste	Best for
Seasoning sauce (Golden Mountain)	Fermented soya beans + sugar	Salty, savoury, slightly sweet, deep umami	Stir-fries, fried rice, marinades
Light soy sauce	Soya beans + wheat	Salty, simpler, less sweet	Everyday seasoning, dipping
Fish sauce (nam pla)	Fermented anchovies + salt	Briny, pungent, very savoury	Dressings, curries, dipping sauces
Maggi seasoning	Hydrolysed vegetable protein	Similar umami, slightly different	The closest everyday substitute

The short version: if a recipe asks for seasoning sauce and you only have light soy, the dish will still work, though it will be a little less rounded. Swap in fish sauce and you change the character completely, because that fishiness comes through.

How I use seasoning sauce in Thai cooking

Seasoning sauce goes in during cooking, not as a finishing drizzle at the table. A little goes a long way; one or two dashes is usually plenty, and I almost always use it alongside other sauces rather than on its own. Here is where it earns its place:

Stir-fries are where I reach for it most, especially punchy ones like pad krapow gai, where a dash deepens the whole wok. It is also one of the core sauces in a good fried rice (khao pad), alongside a little oyster sauce and light soy. For marinades, I brush it onto pork or chicken before grilling; it gives that savoury, slightly caramelised edge. And in soups and braises, just a spoonful lifts the background savouriness without making the dish taste of soy.

If you want to understand what it does in one mouthful, fry an egg, add a dash over the top and eat it over jasmine rice. That simple plate is genuine Thai comfort food.

Where to buy seasoning sauce in the UK

Any Asian supermarket will have Golden Mountain: look for the yellow label and green cap, usually under £3 a bottle. Larger Tesco and Sainsbury's branches increasingly stock it in the world food aisle, and it's easy to find online. Healthy Boy brand seasoning sauce is a fine alternative if Golden Mountain is out of stock; Thai kitchens use both.

One bottle lasts months in the cupboard (no fridge needed), so it's a cheap experiment that earns its shelf space quickly.

What to use if you can't find it

The closest substitute is Maggi seasoning, which most big supermarkets carry. Failing that, use light soy sauce with a small pinch of sugar; you'll lose some of the roasted depth, but the dish will still work. What you shouldn't do is substitute dark soy sauce, which is sweeter, thicker and will change both the colour and the character of the dish.

Bragg Liquid Aminos is another close match if you happen to have it, and works at a straight one-for-one swap. Whichever stand-in you use, add it gradually and taste as you go, as seasoning sauce is potent and substitutes vary in saltiness, so it is easy to overshoot.

Is seasoning sauce vegan? And the salt question

Good news for plant-based cooks: Golden Mountain is vegan and vegetarian: it is made from soya, with no fish or animal ingredients, which is exactly why it works so well as a stand-in for fish sauce. Do check the label on other brands, though, as some seasoning sauces add animal-derived flavour enhancers.

The thing to watch is salt. Seasoning sauce is very high in sodium: around 1,200 mg in a single tablespoon, more than half an adult's recommended daily maximum. That is not a reason to avoid it, just to respect it: a dash or two seasons a whole dish, so you rarely need much. If you are watching your salt, go easy and taste before adding more.

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