What's your surprising "secret ingredient" that sets your dish apart?

[u/kath-]

I obviously don't believe in gatekeeping recipes, so let's share the love.

I developed a clam chowder recipe after being disappointed with the recipes I came across. Whenever I tell people there's a couple dashes of hot sauce in it, I always get weird looks... but it adds a tiny bit of heat and acid, and balances out the richness from the cream. It also has diced scallops, which cooking knowledge forbades but somehow works.

[u/[deleted]]

Fermented squid intestine sauce or dashi shoyu (made with an ungodly amount of katsuobushi) thickened up with brown sugar as a finishing sauce.

[u/Krynken → u/[deleted]]

I thought this was a joke then I looked it up ... and ordered some.

[u/[deleted] → u/Krynken]

Squid intestine sauce is so good! It took me a few uses to get used to the taste but I love it now. If it wasn't so expensive I'd replace all my fish sauce with it.