Soy Sauces
Soy sauce originated in China sometime between the 3rd and 5th century from an older meat-based fermented sauce named jiang. Its use later spread to East and Southeast Asia. Like many salty condiments, soy sauce was probably originally a way to stretch salt, historically an expensive commodity. In the 12th century, the Chinese sage Wu Tzu-mu listed the six foodstuffs essential to life: rice, salt, vinegar, soy sauce, oil, and tea.
Chinese soy sauces are primarily made from soybeans, with relatively low amounts of other grains. Chinese soy sauce can be roughly split into two classes: brewed or blended.
- Brewed: Light or fresh soy sauce is a thin opaque, lighter brown soy sauce, brewed by first culturing steamed wheat and soybeans with Aspergillus, and then letting the mixture ferment in brine. It is the main soy sauce used for seasoning, since it is saltier, has less noticeable color, and also adds a distinct flavor.
- Blended: Additives with sweet or umami (savory) tastes are sometimes added to a finished brewed soy sauce to modify its taste and texture.
Dark and old soy sauce is a darker and slightly thicker soy sauce made from light soy sauce. It is made through prolonged aging and may contain added caramel color and/or molasses to give it its distinctive appearance. This variety is mainly used during cooking, since its flavour develops during heating. It has a richer, slightly sweeter, and less salty flavor than light soy sauce.
Dark soy sauce is also available in mushroom and shrimp flavours. Mushroom broth is added in the finishing and aging process then the sauce is exposed to the sun. This gives a richer flavour than plain dark soy sauce. For shrimp flavour, fresh soy sauce is simmered with fresh shrimp and finished with sugar, baijiu (a type of distilled liquor) and spices.
Most Chinese food take-out soy sauce in North America is not really soy sauce; it is not fermented, but is a combination of ingredients, depending on the manufacturer, including corn syrup, water, salt, caramel color, vegetable protein, and sodium benzoate.