Barker's Meal Sauce - Easy Sweet'n Sticky product reviews

I usually make lots of stir-fries for dinner and they usually all seem to have the same taste, so when I first saw the Barker's easy sweet and sticky meal sauce I knew I would just have to give it a try. The description definitely caught my eye with a large array of meals you could use the sauce in and the sweet and sour flavouring it states that it has.

The packaging is very eye-catching with all the small illustrations of the ingredients and the bold lettering. As someone who likes art and aesthetically pleasing designs, this whole jars layout was simply charming. Overall every colour and font were tied together perfectly and made for a very elegant design. The texture was very sticky when looking at it before cooking the meal but after it was cooked in with the stir fry it adopted the consistency and texture of soup or curry. It mixed well with the other ingredients in the stir fry and it absorbed well into the meat and vegetables. The flavour the sauce gave the stir fry was amazing and super-strongly flavoured. It was mostly sour with small hints of an exotic fruity sweetness which reminded me of the taste of a pineapple or a bowl of tom yum. overall it was delicious and very enjoyable.

Overall this is such a good sauce and it has a very good strong flavour which is great in stir-fries. It is reasonably priced and great quality. I would recommend trying if exotic flavours are your forte and I would consider purchasing this sauce in future. My children absolutely loved it which is always highly enjoying in our household when that happens.

When I am struggling for something to do for a weeknight dinner, a meal sauce is an easy shortcut to a tasty and fast plate of food. I often tend to opt for an oriental style sauce, as those flavours are both universally appealing, and relatively hard to replicate well at home. I saw this Sweet and Sticky meal sauce from Barker's of Geraldine and thought that it would be one of the ones which appealed to my whole family. We love the true taste of sweet and sour, and I knew it would give me a huge range of dishes in which to use it.

When I received the jar, as with the other sauce I tried, I was very impressed with the look of it. The packaging had it's usual premium Barker's look and feel, and the jar included a couple of meal ideas on the side, so if you were grabbing this in a rush on the way home, dinner would be really easy to fix. The sauce itself looked reasonably thin, but I liked that it wasn't too 'jammy' in texture (usually a sign of far too much sugar) and neither was it a luminous or lurid orange. Instead the colour was more of a light red, with obvious bits of ingredients inside, rather than everything being made with artificial flavours. The jar was a very generous size, saying that it served four to six, which I think would be generous.

When I first tasted the sauce cold straight from the packet I was a little alarmed as the chilli came through quite strongly. Neither of my kids enjoy spice, so I was hoping this sauce wouldn't be a hard sell for them. I decided to try the sauce on a vegetable noodle dish. I only used half of the sauce for our 6 portion meal, so the rest went back in the fridge for another use. I was very surprised by the sauce. The chilli had completely died down, and instead what was left was a lovely mild sweet and sour sauce. The sauce wasn't overly sweet, which I really liked, and the sourness was well balanced. The flavour of the veges came through and was enhanced, without being overpowered. This was definitely a sweet and sour sauce, as opposed to a sticky marinade, but really enhanced the noodles, and was polished off by my whole family.

Two days later, I used the remaining sauce I had saved to add to stir-fried veggies alongside some breaded garlic chicken and rice. Again, the flavours blended together well, with this not overpowering anything else. Once again, my whole family polished the lot off.

Overall, what a yummy sauce. Not the really sticky, sugar-laden sweet and sour of a takeaway, but rather a more gentle and lighter addition to a meal. From stir-fries to rice dishes, I could see this sauce working over a variety of things, making it great to keep on-hand in your pantry. Another winning sauce from Barker's.

I've always enjoyed a good sweet and sour sauce, so when I saw a sweet and sticky sauce, I knew that I needed to give it a try. Given that most of my meals are vegetarian, I wasn't too sure what to make with this, so gave myself some time to think it over. The design on the bottle is nice and in line with their labels across the range of products that Barkers sell. The kids and I opened this up and as is our tradition, all gave it a little try. Immediately none of us were too keen on it, but we reminded ourselves that it could taste completely different once it had been cooked.

I popped some rice in the rice cooker and then coated some nutmeat in this sauce, leaving it to sit for a bit to try and soak in some of the sauce. We also prepped some veges and cooked up some egg to slice up and garnish our dish with. Once the meal was served, we all dug in. The kids weren't too keen on their meal, they said the sauce didn't taste nice enough for them to want to have some again in the future. I gave it a go and found it hadn't really gone as sticky as I would have expected it to and the flavour just wasn't a hit. I don't think we will be getting this one any time soon.

Barker's Meal Sauce - Easy Sweet'n Sticky was not as sticky as I would of hoped for or thought it would be. Would be interesting to see how it works with pork ribs. I decided to make the Sweet and sour chicken and I found it was rather runny and didn't thicken as it cooked. I added pineapple well drained to the meal and also some mixed veges. I served it with rice to soak it all up. I had thought maybe the pineapple thinned out the sauce a bit but I made sure to drain it well so unsure if that was it or not. The flavour was nice, and I did enjoy it but it wasn't enough for me to want to rush out and buy this flavour from their range again.

I do look forward to reading some of the reviews on how it went if anyone uses it for sticky ribs and if they were sticky or just coated in the flavour and runny sauce . However like I have mentioned with the other flavours the label is great and eye catching, it gives two choices of recipes to make with another suggestion of going to the website for anther recipe. All great natural New Zealand products. Sadly this flavour was not a win for me this time nor my family.

My partner and oldest son who love there sweet and sour flavours were also disappointed, they felt it didn't hit the mark and was a little bland for their liking and also runny. They ate it all but didn't say lets buy that again. There are other flavours they preferred above this one. I wouldn't recommend this flavour to friends sadly.

When easy sweet n sticky sauce came out from Barker's I knew we had to try, we love Barker's range of different products. This seemed to be a good opportunity to try something from a jar as I have failed to find an easy jar sauce I like for sweet n sour chicken. The jar is a nice slim jar still holding 500g, the label is simple but appealing to the eye, it tells you the name of the sauce big and clear, also says gluten free and vegan friendly (gluten free jumped at us since our meals are gluten free). Another plus on the jar it gives the normal nutrition information, ingredients but it also gives two revipes to use it with a picture, ingredients to make it an the name if the dish.

We decided to make sweet n sour chicken on rice, I followed the ingredients and off we went. Opening the jar was a normal muscle workout but once opened the flavors smelt really good, a quick taste it seemed ok not as sweet as I would make but we carried on. Added the sauce to the chicken, vegez and pineapple. Using some of the pineapple juice to rinse the jar to get all the sauce instead of water then added to dish. O co all was ready played up rice and the sweet n sour on top, without telling the family I used a jar it was wait and see.

Hubby said it tasted a little strange and he said if didn't taste like my normal meal, the 10 and 12 year old started they didn't like it, the younger ones 2 and 3 year olds weren't a fan. I gave it a go and I agreed def homemade was a winner over this, def wasn't sweet like a sweet n sour should be, I felt it was bland and maybe better for those that don't like it too sweet. As for my family its not a sauce we will buy.

The children thought Sweet 'N Sticky was a wonderful name for a sauce. Miss Eight asked if it was something we would be having for dessert - I think it conjured up images for her of a steamed pudding with sauce on top. Mr Ten predicted that it would be an oriental cook-in sauce which would probably be made with chicken or prawns. In fact, neither of them was right. Moreover, when given the chance to taste a little on a spoon, they were not keen on trying it at all - they preferred to leave it to the adults!

When we checked the ingredients, it did not appear that this was a product specifically targeted to adult palates, so it may have been the proportions of the different items that made it more grown-up friendly. We tasted the sauce too before using it, and all three of us liked it. It had the added benefit of not being too sweet, and there was an underlying zing to it, so perhaps that was what gave it a more sophisticated flavour than that of a conventional sweet-and-sour sauce. This was more like a sauce we would make in our own kitchens.

Because we had already tried one of these sauces and knew that the helpings were very generous, we decided to make two different dishes to have on two consecutive nights. With vegetables, the dishes would both stretch to feeding three adults. Meanwhile, because we were using regular ingredients, the same dinner could be given to the children but minus the sauce. They could always use bottled tomato sauce instead!

Our first meal consisted of crispy roast pork pieces served on noodles and accompanied by a red cabbage winter salad. Rather than cook the pork in the sauce (as this would have stopped the crackling from forming), we simply heated the sauce and poured it on top of the meal. Doing it like this also meant the children could have the same food combination, thus saving time. We loved the tangy flavour with the pork, and it was also nice with the salad. Instead of soft noodles we could have added rice or even crispy noodles; the effect would have been similar. Miss Eight did taste a little of the sauce on her own pork, but said she was still not keen - although she might eat it if she was really hungry!

Next day we put the remainder of the jar into the slow cooker along with slices of pork fillet, chopped leek, and chopped onion. We deliberately included vegetables that were not too strongly flavoured so that they would not overshadow the flavour of the sauce. It chugged away for several hours; when we went to serve it, the pork was soft to the point of almost melting and the added vegetables had all but disappeared into the sauce. This time we served it on a base of cauliflower rice, something I have discovered recently and which makes a welcome alternative to ordinary rice. Again, the children tasted it; Miss Eight liked it done this way better as it was more dilute due to having been integrated with the other ingredients. Mr Ten said it was marginally better but not really his thing. Luckily, we had fried their portion of pork and vegetables separately, so they just got a stir fry instead!

I would use this product if I were cooking dinner for several friends but would probably avoid using it if there were children to be included. It is ok to use an alternative with your own family, but it can be tricky when you are entertaining. Personally, I liked the sauce and so did my daughter and son-in-law, but we recognised also that it is not for everyone.