You've probably used it to season Asian food, whether homemade or takeout, but you may still wonder, "What is soy sauce?" A prominent cooking ingredient and condiment in many Asian cuisines, soy sauce is now universally beloved. It adds flavor to a bed of stir-fried rice noodles or can be used to marinate pork chops or flank steak for a main dish.
Soy sauce can be beneficial for gut health, but its high levels of histamines can also trigger allergies. Some substitutions may prevent unwanted reactions. Read on for more information about what soy sauce is made of, how to use it, and what sauces and flavorings you can substitute to avoid its high sodium content and allergens.
Spicy Chicken Pot Stickers with Ginger and Green Onion Dipping Sauce
Soy sauce, or shoyu, is a dark brown, salty liquid. Soybeans are, of course, the main ingredient in soy sauce, but the base recipe also usually contains wheat, salt, and water. There is also usually an acid or fermenting agent such as mold or yeast.
What Does Soy Sauce Taste Like?
Soy sauce provides a salty, savory flavor to dishes when used as a condiment. You might also find some varieties of soy sauce to provide a hint of sweetness, sourness, and/or bitterness.
Back in 17th century China, when this salty condiment got its start, soy sauce was traditionally made by soaking and cooking the soybeans in water before combining them with crushed wheat and a bacterial culture such as Aspergillus. The wheat could be roasted, or other ingredients could be added to provide more flavor. From there, it's aged and fermented—a process that can take days or months.
Today, there are ways the food production world speeds up the process without fermentation through chemical production by mixing the soybeans with hydrochloric acid, which breaks down the proteins in the soybeans. In this soy sauce-making variation, additional color and salt are usually added to achieve the desired flavor.
Types of Soy Sauce
Soy sauce varieties go beyond plain. Different types from different parts of Asia complement certain dishes. You can find hundreds of varieties in your local Asian market.
Light soy sauce: This is the variety you'll most commonly find in grocery stores and on the table at restaurants. You'll want to use it in recipes simply calling for "soy sauce" or to add flavor to dishes as a condiment.
Dark soy sauce: This variety of soy sauce is thicker and darker, resulting in a sweeter and richer flavor. Due to the sweetness, it may taste less salty than regular light soy sauce, but the sodium content is still about the same (or less). It is commonly used to make sauces for dishes such as beef and broccoli or to give fried rice a deeper flavor.
Low-sodium soy sauce: If you're following a low-sodium diet for health reasons, low-sodium soy sauce can be used interchangeably with regular soy sauce. The difference here is that sodium is removed from the sauce once brewed. As a comparison, 1 tablespoon of regular soy sauce will have approximately 900 mg of sodium vs. 550 mg of sodium.
Soy Sauce Substitutes and Gluten-Free Options
Since traditional soy sauce is made with wheat, you might be wondering how to enjoy that same flavor if you have allergy restrictions. Good news: There are plenty of gluten-free soy sauces and substitutes to complete your recipes. Feel free to use any of these in place of soy sauce for a gluten-free option:
Tamari: This is a Japanese soy sauce made solely from soybeans without any wheat. It's processed similarly and still provides the same salty, umami flavor as the wheat-included varieties.
Coconut aminos: This dark brown sauce looks like soy sauce but is made from the sap of a coconut plant (not the actual coconut) without any soy or wheat. It's fermented, and the natural sugars are released, revealing a liquid that tastes nothing like coconut but rather perfectly savory.
Liquid aminos: This dark-colored liquid can be made with hydrolyzed soybeans and/or coconut sap. If you have a soy allergy, make sure you're looking for ones without any soy.
Worcestershire Sauce: This fermented liquid condiment is made with a blend of vinegar, molasses, anchovies, garlic, tamarind, chili pepper, and salt. Used in more Western cuisine, it doesn't have the same flavor as soy sauce but will still provide a savory, umami flavor to your dishes.
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Soy Sauce Storage
Like any product you find on grocery store shelves, soy sauce has an expiration date on the package. But does soy sauce go bad? Unopened bottles can be stored in the pantry for two to three years. Once opened, the microorganisms in soy sauce make it OK to keep the opened bottle in the pantry as well, but it may start losing its original flavor after six to seven months. It's recommended to keep opened bottles in the refrigerator to keep soy sauce tasting its best.
Soy sauce, or shoyu, is a dark brown, salty liquid. Soybeans are, of course, the main ingredient in soy sauce, but the base recipe also usually contains wheat, salt, and water. There is also usually an acid or fermenting agent such as mold or yeast.
Soy sauce (sometimes called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. It is recognized for its pronounced umami taste.
Soy sauce is traditional condiment of Chinese origin and largely used in East Asia to impart an appetizing flavor to several cooked foods, as well as to help digestion. Soy sauce is made from fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae mold.
Soy sauce embraces a little of all the best flavors in Chinese cooking, and that's one of the reasons it's such an essential part of so many Chinese food dishes. You'll find sweet, savory, umami, and even a touch of bitter flavoring, and it all blends well with many other spices and oils in Chinese dishes.
: a brown, salty liquid that is made by subjecting soybeans and roasted grain (such as wheat) to long fermentation in brine and is used especially in Asian cooking and as a condiment. At its most basic, soy sauce is a fermented liquid made from soybeans and wheat.
Soy sauce might have benefits like improving gut health and reducing inflammation. Keep in mind: There's a lot of sodium in soy sauce, so ensure you eat it in moderation. Coconut aminos are an alternative to soy sauce for people who cannot eat gluten or want to cut down on sodium.
Soy is a high-quality protein – one or 2 daily serves of soy products can be beneficial to our health. Soybeans contain hormone-like substances (called phytoestrogens) that copy the action of the female hormone oestrogen. It is thought soy can reduce menopausal symptoms (such as hot flushes).
The video went viral and as a result “to get soy sauce” has come to mean: “I'm just passing by, minding my own business” or “I have no comment or opinion”. For example, to avoid getting involved in a contentious discussion, you could say: 我打酱油的 wǒ dǎ jiàngyóu de. I am getting soy sauce.
Soy sauce as a super connector gained enormous power in the 19th and early 20th centuries: It was made and offered to tighten bonds within lineages, strengthen native place relationships, and diplomatic ties. It symbolized communitarian and national solidarity, hospitality and pride.
The superb color unique to soy sauce is the result of the Maillard Reaction, which begins two or three months after brewing starts. In this reaction, glucose and other sugars combine with amino acids to produce a brown pigment called melanoidin, which gives soy sauce its beautiful color.
Soy is a common cause of allergy, especially in children. Soy sauce also contains wheat, which some people may be allergic to. People who have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder caused by eating gluten, should avoid soy sauce that has gluten.
Brigman warns that “if a mold should develop, or the soy sauce has an off or foul odor, or has changed in texture, it must be discarded.” Light, oxygen, temperature, and time are the usual culprits in diminishing freshness of a product, but soy sauce longevity can even be affected by the type of bottle it's stored in.
Soy can cause some mild stomach and intestinal side effects such as constipation, bloating, and nausea. It can also cause allergic reactions involving rash, itching, and breathing problems in some people.
Shoyu is the term broadly given to Japanese style soy sauces that are made from fermented soybeans, wheat, salt and water. In general, they are quite thin and clear and are a good all-purpose cooking and table sauce.
To put it simply, light soy sauce is used for seasoning and dark soy sauce is used for adding colour to dishes. Light soy sauce is golden brown in colour and rich in taste to add flavour during marinating and seasoning stage. It uplifts the flavour of any meat, noodles or rice dishes.
Soy sauce is made using essentially five basic raw ingredients: soybeans/soybean flakes (as the main protein source), wheat/wheat flour (as the main carbohydrate source), salt, water, and Aspergillus oryzae/Aspergillus sojae, salt-tolerant yeast and lactic acid bacteria.
Soy sauce is packed with umami flavor from fermented soybeans and contains a substantial amount of salt which makes it the perfect condiment for just about anything that needs seasoning. Overall, soy sauce provides a dish with salt, umami and a hint of sweetness, making it suitable for a wide variety of recipes.
Soy sauce can be added to dishes such as stir fries, stews, or soups. You can use it as a dip, as with sushi or sashimi. You can put it in a marinade or a glaze for meats. You can also use it to season rice and noodles.
Originally created in China thousands of years ago, soy sauce has evolved into countless varieties and spread throughout East and Southeast Asian cooking. It's called jiangyou in Mandarin, shoyu in Japanese, ganjang in Korean, and kecap manis in Indonesian.
Introduction: My name is Tish Haag, I am a excited, delightful, curious, beautiful, agreeable, enchanting, fancy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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