Chinese Sesame Paste vs Tahini: How to Thin It and What to Use Instead

What Chinese sesame paste is

Chinese sesame paste is white sesame seeds roasted until fragrant, then ground to a thick paste. Chinese Wikipedia notes that an unroasted sesame paste exists too, but the jar Chinese recipes mean is the roasted kind. A pure paste lists nothing but sesame: no salt, sugar or chili, so it seasons nothing on its own. The sauce you make from it does.

It looks and handles like natural peanut butter: brown, dense and thick, with a layer of oil that rises to the top of the jar. The taste is deep and roasted, closer to toasted sesame oil than to tahini, with a slightly bitter edge.

English sources disagree about the hulls. Omnivore’s Cookbook, Just One Cookbook and Tasting Table describe whole, unhulled seeds; Taste describes hulled ones. Both exist, and makers differ. The roast is the part everyone agrees on, and it is what separates this jar from most tahini.

The name

芝麻 zhīma: Sesame.
酱 jiàng: Paste or sauce, the same word as in 豆瓣酱 (dòubànjiàng).
麻酱 májiàng: The everyday short name, and the name of the northern hot pot dip. The 麻 here means sesame. The same character means the numbing tingle in 麻辣 (málà), but 麻酱 has no Sichuan pepper in it.

Chinese sesame paste vs tahini

Both are ground sesame. The roast is the difference, and it changes colour, taste and how the paste behaves in a sauce.

Chinese sesame paste and tahini side by side
	Chinese sesame paste	Tahini
Seeds	White sesame, roasted. Hulled or unhulled, by maker.	Usually hulled, then left raw or lightly toasted. Some tahini uses unhulled seeds.
Colour	Tan to deep brown.	Pale beige. Toasted or unhulled tahini runs darker.
Taste	Roasted and concentrated. Taste likens it to unsalted peanut butter with the intensity of fresh-pressed sesame oil. A slight bitter edge.	Milder. Raw tahini is more astringent; lightly toasted tahini is mellow with a touch of bitterness.
Texture	Thick and dense, like natural peanut butter. Usually needs loosening before it will mix.	Usually smoother and easier to stir, though it also separates.
Where it goes	Dan dan and sesame noodles, cold dishes, hot pot dipping sauce.	Hummus, lemon and garlic sauces, baking.
As a swap	Can stand in for tahini, but its stronger taste may take over a mild dish.	Can stand in for Chinese sesame paste with toasted sesame oil added. See the swaps.

Neri goma, the Japanese sesame paste, is also made from toasted, unhulled seeds. Just One Cookbook treats it as essentially the same product as Chinese sesame paste, which makes the white kind the closest swap on the shelf.

Reading the jar

Why this matters: not every jar called sesame paste is all sesame. The Woks of Life, Omnivore’s Cookbook and Make That Dish all warn that some are blended with peanut, and Gracious Vegan and Tasting Table note that some add soybean oil. A jar that is 100% sesame lists sesame and nothing else.

纯芝麻酱 chún zhīmajiàng: Pure sesame paste. 纯 means pure.
配料 pèiliào: The ingredient list.
花生 huāshēng: Peanut. If it appears on the list, the jar is a sesame and peanut blend.
二八酱 èrbā jiàng: “Two-eight paste”, the Beijing hot pot blend of sesame paste and peanut paste. It contains peanut by design (more on it below).
白芝麻酱 bái zhīmajiàng: White sesame paste. This is the jar savoury recipes mean.
黑芝麻酱 hēi zhīmajiàng: Black sesame paste. A different jar, and not a swap for these recipes.

On the shelf, Chinese consumer guides (from the Hami municipal government and Kepu China) suggest picking the jar with the least oil pooled on top: a fresh paste has little, and the oil rises as a jar ages.

How to loosen and thin it

Sesame paste separates. The oil rises, and the solids underneath settle and harden, more so the longer the jar sits and the colder it is kept. That is normal, not spoilage. The Mala Market advises stirring the whole jar thoroughly when you first open it; after that it is easier to stir each time. The Woks of Life suggests stirring it before it goes into the fridge, because once cold it becomes hard to stir.

Water does something odd to it: the first spoonfuls make the paste thicker, paler and stiff. Keep going, and it loosens into a smooth sauce. Omnivore’s Cookbook and Chinese home guides both describe this stiff stage. Don’t stop there.

Stir the jar, working the oil on top back into the paste.
Scoop only what you need into a bowl. Thinned sauce doesn’t go back in the jar. The Paper and Sohu’s home guides both say to mix it fresh, because paste with water in it spoils sooner.
Loosen it with a little oil first, if it is stiff. Chinese home guides call for a small spoonful of sesame oil, or any cooking oil, stirred in before the water. For hot dry noodles, The Woks of Life stirs 2 tablespoons of sesame oil into 3 tablespoons of paste.
Add water a tablespoon at a time, stirring in one direction. It will seize, then loosen.
Stop at a thick ribbon. The sauce should fall from the spoon in a ribbon and coat the back of it, like thick yoghurt: a sauce, not a paste. For a dip, that is roughly equal volumes of paste and water. Omnivore’s Cookbook uses ¼ cup of each for its Beijing hot pot sauce.
Season last. Pure sesame paste is unsalted. Add soy sauce, vinegar and the rest once it is smooth, then taste.

Sources split on water temperature. Chinese home guides call for cooled boiled water or bottled water, and one warns against boiling water. Many English recipes use warm or hot water; The Woks of Life thins its hot pot sauce with hot water. Whichever you use, add it a spoonful at a time.

Chinese sesame paste substitutes, with amounts

Amounts replace 1 tablespoon of Chinese sesame paste. The closer the swap is to roasted sesame, the less the sauce changes.

Chinese sesame paste substitutes, from closest to furthest, with amounts, what changes, and when to skip them
Swap	For 1 tbsp sesame paste	What changes	Skip it when
1. Japanese white sesame paste (neri goma)	1 tbsp	Very little. It is also toasted, unhulled sesame. Brands differ, so taste it first.	Rarely. Buy the white kind, not the black.
2. Tahini plus toasted sesame oil	1 tbsp tahini + ½ tsp toasted sesame oil; taste, then up to 1 tsp oil	Paler and milder. Raw tahini is more astringent. The oil adds roasted aroma but no thickness. Tahini is often looser, so add water more slowly.	The sauce is mostly sesame, like a 麻酱 hot pot dip or sesame noodles.
3. Tahini plus natural peanut butter	1½ tsp tahini + 1½ tsp natural peanut butter + a few drops of toasted sesame oil	Omnivore’s Cookbook’s suggestion. The peanut adds roasted depth that tahini lacks, and you can taste it.	Anyone at the table is allergic to peanut.
4. Natural peanut butter, unsweetened	1 tbsp peanut butter + ¼ tsp toasted sesame oil	Tastes of peanut, not sesame. Choose a natural, unsweetened one. Beijing’s 二八酱 already mixes peanut into sesame, so peanut is not foreign to these sauces.	Peanut allergy at the table. Or the dish is named for sesame.
5. Tahini on its own	1 tbsp	Milder and thinner, with little roasted note. Chinese Cooking Demystified calls it “close enough” in a strange-flavour sauce; China Sichuan Food calls it a temporary choice.	You have toasted sesame oil: use swap 2 instead.
6. Toast and grind your own	1 tbsp	The Woks of Life toasts 8 oz of sesame seeds until golden, then blends them with about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, streaming in more until smooth. It can come out grainier than a jar.	You won’t use the batch soon. China Sichuan Food keeps its homemade paste in the fridge for up to a month.
7. Toasted sesame oil on its own	A few drops to 1 tsp, to taste, and only where the paste is a small accent	Sesame aroma without body. The sauce will be thinner and won’t cling. The Mala Market’s family recipe for Sichuan cold noodles uses 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil and no paste at all.	The paste is the base of the sauce.
8. Sunflower seed butter, for a table without sesame	1 tbsp, with no sesame oil	Keeps the creamy body. It tastes of sunflower, not sesame. Check its label for sesame.	You want the dish to taste of sesame.

待试 Draft ratio. Sources agree on adding toasted sesame oil to tahini, but the ones cited here mostly give no amount (“a dash”, “a few drops”, “a bit”). The ½ teaspoon start in swap 2 is ours, and we have not cooked with it yet. Swap 4 uses ForkLiftKitchen’s ratio of 1 teaspoon of oil per ¼ cup of peanut butter.

Cooks disagree about the second-best swap. Omnivore’s Cookbook says tahini “reads thin and grassy” in dan dan noodles and prefers unsweetened natural peanut butter. The Woks of Life lists tahini alongside sesame paste in its dan dan recipe. The Mala Market rejects both for its sesame noodles: “there’s a reason they’re called sesame noodles.” Make That Dish doesn’t recommend swapping at all.

When not to swap

When the paste is the sauce. In a 麻酱 hot pot dip or a bowl of sesame noodles, sesame paste is most of what you taste, and a swap makes a different dish. Buy the jar, or toast and grind your own.
When someone at the table is allergic to sesame. Tahini, neri goma and sesame oil are all sesame. Sunflower seed butter keeps the body, or cook a sauce with no sesame tonight.
When someone is allergic to peanut. Skip swaps 3 and 4, and check the sesame paste itself for 花生 or a “Contains: peanut” line.

Where it goes: dan dan, cold noodles and the 麻酱 hot pot dip

How much a dish leans on sesame paste decides how far a swap will go.

Dishes that use Chinese sesame paste, how much they lean on it, and how well a swap holds
Dish	What the paste does	How a swap holds up
Dan dan noodles, 担担面 dàndànmiàn	Optional. The Mala Market notes that some dan dan in Sichuan has a little sesame paste and some has none. Its recipe uses 1½ tablespoons across three to four bowls, “just enough to add a hint of creamy nuttiness”; The Woks of Life uses 2 tablespoons for a pound of noodles.	Well. Any swap from 1 to 5, or leave it out.
Sichuan cold noodles, 凉面 liángmiàn	An accent, or absent. China Sichuan Food uses ½ tablespoon; The Mala Market’s family recipe uses none.	Well. Even toasted sesame oil alone works here.
Strange-flavour sauce, 怪味 guàiwèi	One voice among many: chili oil, Sichuan pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic and sesame. The Mala Market and Chinese Cooking Demystified each use 1 tablespoon.	Fairly well. Tahini is “close enough”, says Chinese Cooking Demystified.
Sesame noodles, 麻酱面 májiàngmiàn, and hot dry noodles, 热干面 règānmiàn	The main seasoning.	Poorly. Swap 1 is safest. The Woks of Life’s own sesame noodles already mix peanut butter into the paste, so swap 3 fits there too.
Northern hot pot dip, 麻酱 májiàng	The whole base, thinned and seasoned.	Poorly. This is the dish to buy the jar for.

The 麻酱 dip is a northern habit

A sesame paste dip belongs to northern hot pot, above all to Beijing’s lamb hot pot, 涮羊肉 (shuàn yángròu). The Beijing dip is commonly 二八酱, sesame paste blended with peanut paste. The split is usually given as eight parts sesame to two of peanut, though a chef quoted by UnTour Food Tours argues for more peanut than sesame, and makers vary. Sources give different reasons for the peanut: to soften the bitterness of roasted sesame (a Sohu food writer), or to add flavour and cut cost (Yimutian).

Chongqing and Chengdu hot pot usually comes with an oil dip instead, 油碟 (yóudié): sesame oil with crushed garlic, plus scallion or cilantro to taste. So if a split pot has a Sichuan side, both dips can sit on the table. Plan hot pot at home.

Where the heat goes

Sesame paste carries no chili. In dan dan noodles the sauce is spooned into each bowl before the noodles go in, so the sesame base can be the same for everyone and the heat added bowl by bowl. Cold noodles work the same way: dress a plain portion first. Both dishes are finishable. For dishes whose heat is a finish, the heat lives in the bowl.

Mix the sesame base, then let everyone at the table finish their own from the tray: the chili oil or chili crisp you already own, ground roasted huajiao (花椒面, huājiāo miàn), black vinegar and sliced scallion. Check the chili jar’s allergen line too if sesame matters at your table.

The 辣 dial for a sesame-sauced bowl: chili oil per bowl (draft ratio)
Stop	Add to the bowl
不辣 bù là · No heat	The sesame sauce as mixed, a splash of black vinegar and scallion.
微辣 wēi là · A little heat	1 tsp chili oil, oil only.
中辣 zhōng là · Medium heat	2 tsp chili oil with its sediment.
特辣 tè là · Extra hot	1 tbsp chili oil with sediment + ½ tsp chili flakes.

待试 Draft ratio: these amounts become final when the house ladder has been cooked and logged. See the kitchen log.

The tingle is a separate dial: ⅛ to ½ teaspoon of ground roasted huajiao per bowl. See both dials on the heat ladder, or set the heat for everyone at your table. The Heat Card puts the ladder on one page, and it is free to download with no email needed.

Storing an opened jar

Follow the label on your jar first. Beyond that, sources disagree.

Fridge or cupboard. The Woks of Life, Omnivore’s Cookbook and Chinese Wikipedia keep opened paste in the fridge, since its oil can go rancid. The Mala Market’s stone-ground paste says to store it in a cool, dark place. Kepu China suggests a clean container somewhere cool and dry, or the fridge.
How long. Estimates for an opened jar run from about 3 months (a Chinese consumer guide) to 6 months in the fridge (Omnivore’s Cookbook). Date the lid. If it smells rancid, throw it out.
Stir before chilling. A cold jar sets hard. Stirring the oil back in first, and taking the jar out a while before you cook, makes it easier to scoop.
Homemade paste goes in a clean jar in the fridge. China Sichuan Food suggests up to a month.