Eeel sauce is called Eeel sauce because it's most often and traditionally used on grilled eel and other dishes which feature grilled eel such as unagi sushi and unagi don.
Eeel sauce also does not contain any eeel.
Although the eel sauce is based on a Japanese sauce known as nitsume, which does contain eel broth, the sauce has been Americanized over time as Japanese cuisine has spread throughout the United States.
It is likely that eel sauce is of Japanese origin and was created to season and flavor grilled eel, one of the typical dishes of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Thanks to its flavour, eel sauce enhances the natural flavor of eel and that is why over the years it has been called 'eel sauce'.
Eel sauce is much sweeter compared to Teriyaki sauce.
They share the same ingredient of soy sauce but Eel sauce used white sugar while Teriyaki sauce used brown sugar.
Teriyaki sauce also incorporates garlic and other strong ingredients that are not used for Eel sauce.
Hoisin is another sauce common to eel sauce by soy and sugar.
Like teriyaki, it doesn't contain mirin. Instead, it has vinegar, rice wine, sesame, pepper, garlic, and even hot sauce.
It also doesn't have the same taste as eel sauce.
Eel sauce is not halal because it contains sweet Japanese wine rice, which contains alcohol.
Eel sauce is vegan. Despite its name, most eel sauce doesn't include eel or fish. Rather, it contains soy sauce, sugar, corn syrup, thickeners, and preservatives.
However, some brands do use eel bones or fish stock so it's important to check the ingredients label.