Soy sauce (US), soya sauce (Commonwealth), or shoyu (醤油 shōyu) (in Japan) is a fermented sauce made from soybeans (soya beans), roasted grain, water and salt. Soy sauce was invented in China, where it has been used as a condiment for close to 2,500 years. In its various forms, it is widely used in East and Southeast Asian cuisines and increasingly appears in Western cuisine and prepared foods.
History
Soy sauce originated in China and spread from there to East and Southeast Asia.
Records of the Dutch East India Company first list soy sauce as a commodity in 1737, when seventy-five large barrels were shipped from Dejima, Japan to Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on the island of Java. Thirty-five barrels from that shipment were forwarded by ship to the Netherlands.
In the 18th century, Isaac Titsingh published accounts of brewing soy sauce (shōyu) in Japan. Although many earlier descriptions of soy sauce had been disseminated in the West, this was amongst the earliest to focus specifically on the brewing of the Japanese version.
By the mid-19th century, “soy sauce” became synonymous with the Chinese product. The volume of Chinese production overwhelmed all other competitors in the Western market. Europeans of that time were unable to make soy sauce because they didn’t understand the function of a crucial ingredient — kōji.
Production
Traditional: Authentic soy sauces are made by mixing the grain and/or soybeans with yeast or kōji (麹, the mold Aspergillus oryzae or A. sojae) and other related microorganisms. Traditionally soy sauces were fermented under natural conditions, such as in giant urns and under the sun, which was believed to contribute to additional flavours. Today, most of the commercially-produced counterparts are instead fermented under machine-controlled environments.
Although there are many types of soy sauce, all are salty and “earthy”-tasting brownish liquids used to season food while cooking or at the table. Soy sauce has a distinct basic taste called umami by the Japanese (鮮味, literally “fresh taste”). Umami was first identified as a basic taste in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University. The free glutamates which naturally occur in soy sauce are what give it this taste quality.
Artificially Hydrolyzed: Many cheaper brands of soy sauces are made from hydrolyzed soy protein instead of brewed from natural bacterial and fungal cultures. These soy sauces do not have the natural color of authentic soy sauces and are typically colored with caramel coloring, and are popular in Southeast Asia and China, and are exported to Asian markets around the globe. They are derogatorily called Chemical Soy Sauce (“化學醬油” in Chinese), but despite this name are the most widely used type because they are cheap. Similar products are also sold as “liquid aminos” in the US and Canada.
Some artificial soy sauces pose potential health risks due to their content of the chloropropanols carcinogens 3-MCPD (3-chloro-1,2-propanediol) and all artificial soy sauces came under scrutiny for possible health risks due to the unregulated 1,3-DCP (1,3-dichloro-2-propanol) which are minor byproducts of the hydrochloric acid hydrolysis.
Health Information
Positive: A study by National University of Singapore shows that Chinese dark soy sauce contains 10 times the antioxidants of red wine, and can help prevent cardiovascular diseases. Soy sauce is rich in lactic acid bacteria and of excellent anti-allergic potential.
Negative: Soy sauce does not contain the beneficial isoflavones associated with other soy products such as tofu or edamame. It can also be very salty, so it may not be a suitable condiment for people on a low sodium diet. Low-sodium soy sauces are produced, but it is impossible to make soy sauce without using some quantity of salt.
