What is the difference between classic soy sauce and spicy soy sauce? The best soy sauce

Soy sauce is one of the best types of seasoning for dishes. It has very few calories, yet it is many times healthier than mayonnaise. However, this applies only to a high-quality product, and on store shelves there are a huge number of counterfeits that are not only not useful, but even harmful to the body. How to figure out which soy sauce is the best?

Origin of the product

It is believed that it was first made by the ancient Chinese. The monks, following religious requirements, looked for ways to replace dairy products with soy. This is how vegetarian cheese was invented - it replaced milk with tofu (soybean curd). The product was seasoned with soy sauce.

Soon after its invention, it became known in Japan. In the 17th-19th centuries, Japanese cuisine was at the peak of its development, and such a novelty came in handy. It was there that it acquired its modern form. A little later, the sauce began to be sold in Europe, and in the 1990s in Russia.

Types of soy sauce

The product is divided into several main categories, each of which has its own characteristics:

Koi-kuti. The most famous option in its homeland, Asia. It has the darkest shade and is commonly used to create thick meat-based gravies. It also goes great with any other meat dishes. Its taste is very rich, pronounced, and quite salty.
Tamarin. An option for those who do not like excessive salt content or have a tendency to edema, but at the same time love the exquisite taste of soy sauce. This variety contains the most soybeans, so it does not need additional salt.
Usu-kuti. The lightest of all types of soy sauce, so it practically does not change the aesthetic qualities of the dish, if this is important to you. But it also has the weakest taste of all those listed. This is a plus if you need to highlight delicious dishes made from delicate fish or seafood - for example, sushi and rolls that are popular today.

The product packaging always indicates its type, so you can choose exactly the soy sauce you need.

Best Brands of Soy Sauce

Kikkoman

This Japanese company has been producing sauce for more than three hundred years, impeccably following the technologies developed in ancient Japan. Therefore, if you are interested in the taste of a classic product, pay attention to this brand. It has a natural color, and does not contain any preservatives, dyes or flavors - after all, a high-quality sauce does not need them, it will give everything itself.

There are two main varieties of Kikkoman soy sauce - classic and sweet. Both are cooked exclusively using natural methods, but differ in taste, as a result of which they can be suitable for different categories of dishes. For example, sweet goes perfectly with salads and meat (especially as a marinade), and classic can be classified as a universal seasoning.

There is also another type of Kikkoman sauce, which is divided into heavily and lightly salted. Its main purpose is to complement sushi, and this product is produced in a specially designed dispenser bottle. Also, in some shopping centers where there are sushi departments, they are packaged in small jars.

The price for a small jar of up to 150 ml is approximately 1,500 rubles. The cost of a full container exceeds 17,000 rubles, which is not affordable for every sushi lover. That is why the packaged product is much more popular among ordinary people.

Heinz

The name of this company is well known to many, and it is not surprising - it produces a lot of different products, from ketchup to soy sauce. According to the manufacturers, the latter is made according to the original recipe. There really is nothing artificial in the composition - no preservatives, no flavorings, and only natural caramel as a coloring agent. Caramel has another advantage - it gives soy sauce an incredibly delicate flavor.

There is only one type of Heinz soy sauce and it comes in a 200ml glass bottle. The price for the product is 9-10 thousand rubles, which is a very average figure, so many can afford it. At least the balance between price and quality is quite appropriate here.

Blue Dragon

In Russia, only a few large hypermarkets sell this brand. Its composition is completely natural, the only exception from the original recipe is lactic acid. The brand produces light and dark soy sauce to please all lovers of this product.

UMI

Adherents of a healthy lifestyle note this sauce as one of the most natural and delicious, because it is based on natural fermentation. It goes well with sushi and also serves as a substitute for salt in many dishes, both hot and cold.

It contains no genetically modified components, and soybeans are collected from the largest plantations in Japan. The composition contains wheat, which makes the taste more intense. In addition to the classic one, there is also a mushroom variety of the product. This sauce also contains no harmful additives, only mushroom extract.

Sen Soi

One of the most popular brands in Russia, located in the low price segment. Available in four types - Classic, Sushi, Spicy and Light. According to reviews, its taste most closely resembles the taste of the original product, but it contains sugar and a preservative.

This is not a very common product among us, but nevertheless, it deserves attention. The soy sauces of this company have a fairly natural composition and are produced in conveniently shaped glass bottles.

Which sauce is better not to buy?

According to the results of test purchases, Vietnamese brand was recognized as the worst known brand of soy sauce. Maxchup.

The company's specialization is the production of various types of sauces - oyster, soy, tomato. Each of them is based on Thai recipes. Soy sauce has a spicy taste that goes quite well with many dishes. The positives end there. But the number of extraneous additives confuses connoisseurs. The composition contains flavor enhancers, stabilizers, preservatives and even modified starch. Many of these substances can cause severe allergies. Therefore, the answer to the question - which soy sauce is the best? – definitely not Maxchup.

Much the same can be said about Mivimex sauce, although at least it does not contain GMOs.

How to choose a quality sauce for your family?

By following a few simple rules, you can buy good soy sauce, even if its price is significantly less than several thousand rubles. So, what you should pay attention to:

Packaging material. A quality product is never bottled in plastic containers. The bottle or jar should be glass and transparent, and the liquid in it should be a natural dark color. Although there is light soy sauce, it is not very widespread.
Price. It is worth understanding that a real product prepared using the correct technology cannot cost 50 or 100 rubles. After all, not only good products were spent on it, but also a lot of work in collecting beans and processing them.
You should not buy bottled soy sauce at the market., even if the price seems very attractive to you. It is impossible to know what quality the ingredients are in such a product. This is a reason to buy products from trusted brands, as well as from trusted suppliers.
Nutritional value. Here you need to pay attention, first of all, to the amount of protein - there should be at least 7 g of protein per 100 g of product, otherwise it is a fake, in which there are much less soybeans than needed.
Compound. The first thing that catches your eye is the presence or absence of components with the prefix E. It is better to leave a product containing one or more of these ingredients in the store. Natural soy sauce does not require preservatives and can be stored for several years. Ideally, the composition includes only soy, salt and wheat. Sugar and vinegar are also not necessary.

How is a quality sauce made?

The product creation technology includes the following stages:

evaporation of beans and roasting of wheat grains;
pouring these ingredients into a large container;
long-term infusion (up to a year).

This is traditional technology. Unfortunately, manufacturers of numerous fakes are not going to wait for years and speed up the fermentation process with all kinds of chemical means. Thus, the sauce reaches the shelves within a week, but there can be no question of any quality.

And that's not so bad. The cheapest soy sauces are prepared by boiling the beans in hydrochloric or sulfuric acid, and the resulting broth is then quenched with alkali. The use of such a product causes great harm to health.

It's safe to say that choosing the right soy sauce is a very important point for sushi lovers or those who want to reduce the amount of salt in their diet. After all, we want not only to reduce the calorie content of food, but also to increase its benefits.

Video

Until relatively recently, the only available seasonings for dishes were salt and pepper. Today the abundance of options is simply amazing. And soy sauce is becoming increasingly popular. This is one of the most important products of Asian cuisine, which allows you to place accents and highlight the merits of the dish. The product is obtained through fermentation, and the base is soybeans. For this purpose, special fungi are used. It looks like a dark liquid with a pungent odor. When you buy it for the first time, you may be somewhat discouraged by the taste of the product. However, this is only until you get to know the sauce better.

From time immemorial, it is truly the king of Japanese cuisine, where it is used everywhere. Thanks to him, almost any appetizer acquires a special piquancy and sophistication. You can make any sauces based on it. Add your favorite spices and get new tastes every time. All housewives note how different the taste of the finished product is if you add just a little sauce. It is also an excellent base for marinating meat, vegetables and seafood.

Main advantages

This is an ideal product that allows you to make a dish spicy, tasty and healthy at the same time. All nutritionists unanimously recommend it. Just one spoon of this amazing sauce replaces salt and many other seasonings at the same time. In addition, it does not contain cholesterol, and the calorie content is only 55 kcal per 100 g. But there is one difficulty, how to choose the highest quality, tasty and healthy product. Today we want to talk about which soy sauce is the best.

Industrial production In fact, the technology is very simple, and therefore there are many manufacturers who want to make money by producing soy sauce. Initially it was done like this. The soybeans were evaporated, roasted wheat and salt were added to it, after which the mixture was distributed into bags or vessels and left in the sun to allow the natural fermentation process to occur. As you understand, such production took a lot of time.

Today, market demands are increasing every day, and the manufacturer must keep up with them in order to remain in demand. Therefore, they will come up with ways to speed up the process. To do this, bacteria were added to the mixture of wheat and soybeans, making it possible to prepare the fermentation product within a month.

Modern production However, speaking about which soy sauce is the best, it should be noted that there are manufacturers for whom there is no other truth than profit. Therefore, they actively use the achievements of the chemical industry. And this is done very simply. In the first case, soybean concentrate is diluted with water, supplemented with dyes and flavors, and the finished product is poured into bottles. In the second case, soybeans are boiled with hydrochloric acid. During the cooking process, harmful alkalis are formed that cannot be removed from the finished product.

How to keep your family safe

If you love Japanese cuisine, then you should definitely know which soy sauce is the best. With the abundance of offers on the market today, it’s easy to get confused, so always adhere to the following rules:

A plastic bottle with hieroglyphs is definitely not the best option. This is usually what a fake looks like. The sauce should only be sold in glass. The bottle must be transparent and the contents must be dark brown. There are some light-colored varieties, but they are less common on the Russian market.

Never buy sauce on tap at the market. The price in this case will be attractive, but no one can vouch for the quality of the product. It’s better to buy proven brands, the expert’s opinion about which you know well. By the way, if you know exactly which soy sauce is the best, then purchase it only from trusted suppliers, otherwise you may come across a fake.

Composition - it is necessary to study it especially carefully. If the list contains unclear dyes and preservatives, or rather, ingredients labeled E, then it is better to leave it on the shelf. The natural product does not require preservatives and can be stored for many years in a row. The label should only list soy, wheat and salt. Additives in the form of sugar, vinegar, yeast, and peanuts also do not do the product any favors. This sauce is considered unnatural.

Nutritional value is another important indicator to pay attention to. The protein in this product must be at least 7%, otherwise it is not worth purchasing.

Price is not the main indicator, but it is worth paying attention to. A natural fermentation product that took a whole month to produce cannot be cheap. Even taking into account large quantities, we must not forget about the manufacturer’s profit. Therefore, if the price is lower than the market price, then you should not be tempted by it.

Main types

Judging by the assortment in stores, it may seem that there are dozens of them. Sweet and salty, spicy, with herbs and honey, with meat and vegetables. There are actually only three types, and it's up to you to find out which soy sauce is the best. We will now make life easier for the buyer by talking about these types.

Most popular - koi-kuti. It has a rich dark color and is perfect for meat sauces and thick gravies. Therefore, if you are wondering which soy sauce is best for meat, then choose this variety. It has a high salt content, but it has an excellent, bright and expressive taste and the darkest color.

- Tamarin is an ideal choice for those on a low-salt diet but who love the taste of soy sauce. When choosing which soy sauce is the best, control purchase tested many samples and customer reviews. As a result, this particular type was recognized as the best for its high concentration of soybeans and minimal salt content.

- Usu-kuti. If you do not want the dish to change its color, then it is best to choose this variety. It is lighter, with less pronounced taste properties, but nevertheless ideal if you need to emphasize the delicate taste of fish or seafood. Therefore, if you are looking for which soy sauce is the best for sushi, then pay attention to this mark on the package.

Soy sauce from Maxchup

This product is produced in Thailand. In our ranking it takes fifth place, since its popularity among consumers is quite high. The assortment is simply incredible: for shish kebab, barbecue, roast, Mexican, salads and marinades and many others. All sauces are packaged in 200 ml glass bottles. The price is quite affordable, about 400 rubles per bottle. But the composition is simply scary. Flavor enhancers, which can cause intestinal disorders, coexist with stabilizers and preservatives, among which there are active allergens. There is also no data about the naturalness of flavoring additives; most likely, the taste of garlic, mushrooms and other dishes is the result of chemical reactions.

Trademark UMI

This product is produced in Vietnam, but it is not much different from the traditional Japanese one. Two varieties of this brand are very popular on the market: mushroom and classic. Contains sugar, salt, water, soybean extract. Mushrooms are characterized by appropriate additives. No dyes, preservatives or stabilizers. Consumers emphasize the familiar, salty taste, normal consistency, as well as a very affordable price. In our rating it takes fourth place, since it has quite acceptable quality, but does not fully correspond to the original recipe. You don’t have to look any further for a good and inexpensive soy sauce; feel free to buy products from this brand.

"Blue Dragon"

Country of origin: Great Britain. A very interesting and high-quality product, but it did not gain much popularity in Russia. You can only find this sauce in large shopping centers. No chemical additives, stabilizers or other chemical “delights” were found in the composition. The only thing in which it differs from the original is the acidity regulator. When choosing which soy sauce is best for salad, pay attention to the products of this brand. Today there are both dark and light Blue Dragon. That is, the manufacturer is trying to meet the true Japanese taste standard.

Heinz brand

This product is produced in the Netherlands. This is a well-known company that markets various ketchups and mayonnaises, as well as other sauces of all stripes and shades. The manufacturer could not resist starting to produce soy sauce. The company claims that the product does not contain dyes or preservatives and is made according to the original recipe. Just look at the label and it becomes clear that these words are true. The only additive is caramel as a coloring agent. That is why if you are looking for the best soy sauce for marinade, then pay attention to this product. It is caramel that gives the unique dark color and delicate, enveloping taste. This sauce is presented in one flavor and packaged in 200 ml glass bottles. Its price is about 9,000 rubles. The cost is quite high, however, the consumption of soy sauce is relatively small and one bottle will last you for a long time.

According to ancient traditions

This is how brand name soy sauce is made Kikkoman, for 300 years using the same Japanese recipe. The manufacturer maintains all proportions of soybeans, water, salt and wheat. There are no preservatives or flavor enhancers in the composition. We have reached number one in our ranking and can safely name the ideal soy sauce. Which is the best, the reviews tell you best. Kikkoman is the optimal balance of taste, color and consistency.

Original taken from

From time immemorial

It is truly the king of Japanese cuisine, where it is used everywhere. Thanks to him, almost any appetizer acquires a special piquancy and sophistication. You can make any sauces based on it. Add your favorite spices and get new tastes every time. All housewives note how different the taste of the finished product is if you add just a little sauce. It is also an excellent base for marinating meat, vegetables and seafood.

Main advantages

Industrial production

In fact, the technology is very simple, and therefore there are many manufacturers who want to make money by producing soy sauce. Initially it was done like this. The soybeans were evaporated, roasted wheat and salt were added to it, after which the mixture was distributed into bags or vessels and left in the sun to allow the natural fermentation process to occur. As you understand, such production took a lot of time.

Modern production

However, speaking about which soy sauce is the best, it should be noted that there are manufacturers for whom there is no other truth than profit. Therefore, they actively use the achievements of the chemical industry. And this is done very simply. In the first case, soybean concentrate is diluted with water, supplemented with dyes and flavors, and the finished product is poured into bottles. In the second case, soybeans are boiled with hydrochloric acid. During the cooking process, harmful alkalis are formed that cannot be removed from the finished product.

How to keep your family safe

Main types

The most popular is koi-kuti. It has a rich dark color and is perfect for meat sauces and thick gravies. Therefore, if you are wondering which soy sauce is best for meat, then choose this variety. It has a high salt content, but it has an excellent, bright and expressive taste and the darkest color.
Tamarin is an ideal choice for those who are on a low-salt diet but love the taste of soy sauce. When choosing which soy sauce is the best, control purchase tested many samples and customer reviews. As a result, this particular type was recognized as the best for its high concentration of soybeans and minimal salt content.
Usu-kuti. If you do not want the dish to change its color, then it is best to choose this variety. It is lighter, with less pronounced taste properties, but nevertheless ideal if you need to emphasize the delicate taste of fish or seafood. Therefore, if you are looking for which soy sauce is the best for sushi, then pay attention to this mark on the package.

Soy sauce from Maxchup

Trademark UMI

"Blue Dragon"

Heinz brand

Just look at the label and it becomes clear that these words are true. The only additive is caramel as a coloring agent. That is why if you are looking for the best soy sauce for marinade, then pay attention to this product. It is caramel that gives the unique dark color and delicate, enveloping taste. This sauce is presented in one flavor and packaged in 200 ml glass bottles. Its price is about 9,000 rubles. The cost is quite high, however, the consumption of soy sauce is relatively small and one bottle will last you for a long time.

According to ancient traditions

This is how Kikkoman brand soy sauce is made, using the same Japanese recipe for 300 years. The manufacturer maintains all proportions of soybeans, water, salt and wheat. There are no preservatives or flavor enhancers in the composition. We have reached number one in our ranking and can safely name the ideal soy sauce. Which is the best, the reviews tell you best. Kikkoman is the optimal balance of taste, color and consistency.

Products under this brand are divided into two subcategories: the first, in turn, is divided into sweet and classic. The taste of both can become the basis for the preparation of marinades and sauces. The sweeter one is most often used for dressing salads, but the classic taste is a universal additive for any dish.

The second category divides sauces according to the amount of salt. That is, you can choose more or less salty, depending on your taste preferences. The cost of a small 100 ml bottle is about 2000 rubles. If you want to appreciate the taste of Japanese cuisine, then try this unique product. It will definitely take root in your kitchen.

Many buyers have recently become indignant: they buy soy sauce, but it turns out to be so tasteless, salty and strong-smelling that it spoils all their culinary creations. In order not to be among the dissatisfied, learn to distinguish natural and healthy soy sauce in the store from its chemical substitute, because the latter can not only worsen the taste of your dish, but also contain dangerous chloropropanol.

It is no longer possible to imagine modern cuisine without soy sauce. We use it to dress salad, marinate meat, create an appetizing crust on chicken, add it to fish, oriental dishes, and eat it with sushi and rolls. Nutritionists also actively support soy sauce, advise replacing harmful table salt with it and say that it not only gives a more piquant and subtle taste to food, but also has a positive effect on our health due to its high content of iron, zinc, B vitamins and amino acids. It is not for nothing that in China, Japan and other eastern countries, where it is a constant and necessary seasoning for food, diseases of the cardiovascular system are much less common than in America or Europe. However, legitimate praise applies only to soy sauce, which is made the old fashioned way through natural fermentation, and not to those surrogates that in recent years have begun to be produced chemically using accelerated technology.

Natural and healthy

Discovered in China more than 2,500 years ago, soy sauce is one of the oldest condiments in the world. When Buddhist monks came to Japan in the 6th century, they took his recipe with them. Over the centuries, the Japanese have made improvements to the taste of the original Chinese soy sauce by adding wheat and extending the fermentation period. The result was very successful. This is how Japanese soy sauce was created.

Despite the passing of millennia, the technology of its manufacture has remained almost unchanged. Soybeans are boiled in water or steamed, then mixed with flour from roasted wheat or barley grains, salted, and a long fermentation process begins, which lasts from 40 days to 2-3 years. As soon as the sauce reaches its condition and acquires a balanced, soft taste, it is filtered and packaged. No preservatives are added to the natural product, since it itself has powerful aseptic properties and does not spoil for a long time.

Chemical seasoning

For many centuries, soy sauce was made by natural fermentation, until in the 20th century chemists came up with an accelerated technology for breaking down proteins using hydrogen chloride. Some manufacturers could not resist this temptation - they began to give the beans a “chemical attack” and get the finished sauce not in six months, but in just a few weeks. However, they encountered another problem: with this technology, the seasoning does not have time to acquire the desired color, aroma and taste, so they are created artificially using additives - most often corn syrup, salt and caramel coloring. Naturally, in terms of quality and taste characteristics, a chemical surrogate will never compare with natural soy sauce. Moreover, as a result of artificial hydrolysis, a dangerous carcinogen called “chloropropanol” is formed in the product. Unscrupulous chemical manufacturers do not monitor its concentration, so its quantity can go off scale. According to the EU, the most harmful substances are found in unnatural products from Vietnam. A lot of chloropropanol has also been found in chemical sauces from Tajikistan, China, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Purchase rules

Is it possible to distinguish a natural sauce from a chemical one in a store? If you take a quick look at jars of liquid seasoning, you are unlikely to recognize a tasty and healthy product among them. Therefore, take the bottle in your hands and read the composition of the product. If the ingredient list consists of four components: water, soybeans, wheat and salt, then you have the right sauce, prepared through natural fermentation. You can buy it with complete peace of mind. If it contains any other ingredients (dyes, flavor enhancers, preservatives, flavorings), do not expect anything good from such a sauce - it is a chemical. By the way, the price tag can also tell you something about the product. Since artificial hydrolysis technology is cheap and fast, sauces made using it are inexpensive.

Feel the difference!

Even if an unscrupulous manufacturer hid the chemical essence of his product and you bought it, the very first tasting will put everything in its place. The taste of artificial soy sauce will not be very pleasant - sharp, overly salty, bitter and overshadowing the main product. Such a surrogate will then make you thirsty and leave a chemical taste in your mouth. Natural sauce is completely different. It is soft, refined, has a special light sweetness and multi-faceted taste - rich, but not overpowering. The color of the seasoning also matters. While naturally brewed soy sauce has a slightly clear reddish-brown hue, non-fermented soy sauce is dark, cloudy, and syrup-like. While you were looking at and tasting the product, your sense of smell probably caught its aroma. If it is slightly sweet, spicy and appetizing, then there is no doubt that it is a good sauce. Because artificial has a characteristic chemical pungent odor.

Sweet or salty?

After making sure that the product is natural, choose the option that suits you best. For example, in Europe today lightly salted light soy sauce is very popular - its taste is as rich and rich as the classic one, and it contains less salt, which is why adherents of a healthy diet love it. You can find other types of products on sale. For example, sweet sauce (in addition to the four main ingredients, it contains sugar and vinegar), soy sauce for sushi and sashimi with seasonings that enhance the taste of seafood. Overall, there is plenty to choose from to find the perfect product for you.

Over many centuries, the technology for making traditional soy sauce has remained virtually unchanged. Soybeans are boiled, mixed with crushed wheat grains and Aspergillus fungal spores and other microorganisms are added to the mixture. Then the mixture is poured with a salt solution and left for fermentation, while the fermentation process can last from 40 days to 2-3 years, and on average takes about 6 months. At the end of the fermentation process, when the sauce acquires a balanced, soft taste, it is placed in a special cloth and pressed, and then filtered and pasteurized. At the same time, no preservatives or stabilizers are added to the natural sauce, because it itself has powerful aseptic properties and does not deteriorate for a long time.

Chemistry and life

Preparing traditional soy sauce is a long and labor-intensive process, so the cost of the finished product is quite high. In the 20th century An accelerated technology for protein breakdown was invented, allowing the sauce preparation time to be reduced to several weeks or even 3 days. In this case, sauces are prepared not from fermented wort, but from soy protein that has been hydrolyzed by acids.

But such a “chemical attack” does not pass without leaving a trace. “Hydrolysis” sauce does not have time to acquire the desired color, aroma and taste, and to achieve them, artificial additives are used: corn syrup, caramel coloring, salt, flavorings. Therefore, the smell, taste and consistency of such a product differs from sauces prepared using traditional technology, and a “chemical” surrogate will never compare in taste and quality with natural soy sauce. Moreover, during the production of the sauce, hydrolysis of its composition can form a dangerous carcinogen, chloropropanol. But hydrolysis sauces are cheaper, they last longer, so a lot of them are produced, and the demand for them is growing every year.

"The Fifth Taste"

Soy sauce has a distinct base flavor called “umami,” or “pleasant taste,” in Japanese. Umami is the so-called. “the fifth taste” that a person can feel (except for sour, sweet, bitter and salty). Umami is the secret to the distinctive taste of naturally brewed soy sauce. It is obtained thanks to monosodium glutamate, which appears naturally in the sauce as a result of fermentation. Therefore, adding a few drops of good soy sauce enhances the aroma and taste of all ingredients in any dish.

Purchase according to all the rules

Today there is a large assortment of soy sauces on sale, and understanding this abundance is not easy. What should you pay attention to when purchasing? Let's start with the fact that in addition to just cheap "chemical" sauces, there can also be outright counterfeits of well-known brands on sale, so it is better to buy soy sauce in large and reliable stores, where the products undergo proper quality control. But if you want to buy a truly tasty and healthy product, choose only natural sauce prepared using traditional technology. When buying soy sauce, read the label carefully, and in order to distinguish the “correct” sauce from unhealthy ones, remember the following rules.

Rule 1

Good soy sauce packaging should only be glass. Sauce in plastic bottles may react chemically with the packaging. This not only spoils the taste and degrades the quality of the product, but can also lead to the formation of substances harmful to health. The bottle must be transparent - this will allow you to better see the color of the contents.

Rule 2

Naturally brewed sauce is clear, light brown or red-brown. “Chemical” sauces are dull, dark in color and often cloudy, and can have a syrup-like consistency.

Rule 3

The composition of the “correct” soy sauce includes only 4 ingredients. These are soybeans, wheat, salt and water. If the label indicates that the sauce contains any other ingredients (dyes, preservatives, flavor enhancers, flavorings, etc.), you can be sure that this is not a natural, but a chemical product.

Rule 4

Pay attention to the protein content. A good soy sauce should have at least 7% protein. A lower protein percentage indicates that wheat was the main ingredient in the sauce and too little soybeans were used.

Rule 5

The label of a quality sauce prepared using traditional technology should indicate “naturally fermented,” “naturally fermented,” or “naturally brewed.” This means that no acid or other chemical ingredients were used to produce the sauce.

INthe choice is yours!

Soy sauce is produced in many countries, but the most common types are Chinese and Japanese. Japanese soy sauce has a full, rich taste and delicate aroma. Chinese soy sauce comes in dark and light varieties.

Dark Chinese sauce has a delicate flavor and fruity aroma, but compared to Japanese sauces, it is saltier and has a less intense aroma. In addition to the main ingredients, dark Chinese sauce contains caramel coloring, which gives it a sweeter taste. Light Chinese soy sauce is produced using accelerated technology, often contains various flavoring additives and has a lighter taste.

There are also other varieties of soy sauces on sale that contain various flavoring additives. For example, sweet soy sauce, in addition to the main ingredients, includes vinegar and sugar, and soy sauce for sushi or sashimi contains seasonings that enhance the taste of seafood.