What soy sauce is natural. Choosing the right soy sauce Trademark UMI
Good day dear Muscovites!
I am writing a review for the first time, therefore, as they say, "I'm not a magician, I'm just learning ...".
Today, there are two main methods for making soy sauce: the natural fermentation method (which has been used for thousands of years. This sauce is very tasty and healthy) and the acid hydrolysis method (it turns out an “ersatz” product a la soy sauce with a dubious taste and the formation of unhealthy sauces in the sauce). substances, but quickly and cheaply). Natural soy sauce is bottled only in glass bottles (no plastic, and even more so “bottling sales”), where it can be stored without loss of taste and aroma. The composition of the natural fermentation sauce includes only water, soy, wheat and salt (no additives, preservatives, dyes and other "chemistry").
My family and I love soy sauce. We use it “without fanaticism”, but we cannot imagine some dishes and marinades without soy sauce. Always take soy sauce in supermarkets. Cheap - and the taste is not the same, and you don’t really want to poison yourself with chemistry. Expensive (natural fermentation) - good for everyone, but the prices for it are exorbitant. And not to say that the toad is strangling, but .... expensive in one word.
Found what I was looking for on iHerb. Naturally fermented organic soy sauce Kikkoman, without preservatives, additives, dyes. Ingredients: water, soy, wheat, salt. Glass bottle 296ml. Price $ 3.54 (which is two times (or even more) cheaper than a similar product in supermarkets).
Registration and payment for an order on iHerb did not cause any difficulties. In addition to soy sauce, the order included spices, vitamins, dietary supplements, skin care products (but more on that next time).
IHerb collected and sent the parcel the next day after payment (via International Airmail without tracking number). The parcel spent 20 days on the road and safely reached the addressee.
A photo. Review Culprit
The solemn tasting of soy sauce in the family circle was held at the "URA". The sauce has a very rich and rich taste, which is very different for the better from the taste of soy sauces previously purchased off-line. We use the sauce with pleasure and pleasure in salads, with fish and meat dishes, as one of the components in the marinade for meat, and, of course, with sushi and rolls. You get used to good things very quickly, so another bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce is already on its way to us, and soy sauce, once bought in a supermarket, has long been sad in the refrigerator.
Pros:
- naturally fermented sauce
- very tasty
- great price
- natural product without "chemistry"
Minuses:
- a little upsets the cost of delivery (but if you divide it into all the goods of the order, then it's normal)
Tradition is tradition. Pira cat
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It is said that soy sauce first appeared as a condiment or salt substitute in Ancient China in one of the monasteries, where a group of monks decided to take a strict fast and give up everything flour, milk and salt. Gradually, a sparse dark-colored liquid reached Japanese culinary specialists, where to this day it is considered the “queen” of many dishes.
How Soy Sauce Is Made: From Simple Fermentation Mechanisms to Mass Production
In 1965, in one of the provinces of Japan, the book "Yosyufushi" appeared, which for the first time describes in detail the recipe for making soy sauce. Carefully selected soybeans are evaporated. Add wheat grains to them. The mixture is poured with salt water and placed in a sealed container with the addition of mold fungi. It is they who process the resulting wort, carrying out aminoglycoside reactions, as a result of which the sauce acquires dark color. In closed containers, the liquid is infused for about 2-3 years, then pressed to separate waste from the sauce and poured into sterilized jars. Cooks often added garlic, dill and many other spices to the tincture to enhance the piquant taste.
Today, the consumption of soy sauce is too high, and traditional recipes modernize. Wort and sourdough are practically not prepared even in China and Japan - in the countries that are the "authors" of this seasoning. Instead, the sauce is made by hydrolyzing soy protein: the beans are boiled with acids and then quenched with alkali. Thus, the product can be prepared in a few hours, which allows manufacturers to constantly replenish the stocks of sauce on supermarket shelves.
The harm and benefits of soy sauce
The modern way of preparing soy "drink" is dangerous because during hydrolysis chloropropanols can be released - substances that cause the growth and appearance of cancer cells. The story of the discovery of a strong concentration of these substances in the sauce occurred in the USA and Australia in 2003. Manufacturers were then called to account.
But such cases are rare. The danger of excessive consumption of soy sauce lies in a completely different ...
Addiction to this product threatens the development of hypertension (increased arterial pressure), disturbances in the heart rhythm, as well as the appearance of pathologies thyroid gland. It is not recommended to frequently use the sauce for pregnant women, as the isoflavones contained in it adversely affect the development of the brain of the embryo.
For everyone else, the sauce is recommended for use. It has a lot of amino acids and vitamins, it is not inferior in its nutritional value to the proteins found in meat. With ease, the sauce replaces both seasoning and salt, so for diabetes and obesity, it is the only product that enhances the taste of the finished dish.
How not to make a mistake with the choice?
So that the purchased soy sauce gives only pleasant impressions from dinner, and the body receives only benefits, choose products in glass containers. Pay attention to the composition: it should not contain emulsifiers, yeast, sugar, and other components that enhance and speed up the fermentation process and extend the shelf life. Ideally, there should be only soybeans, salt, wheat grains.
Look at the color. High-quality and natural soy sauce has a brownish or gently light shade. It does not run down the sides of the bottle very quickly, nor is it excessively viscous or "liquid". And, of course, trust only trusted brands and stores ...
Remember: diluted or improperly prepared soy sauce will only harm your body.
More recently, we wrote about the beneficial properties of such a protein-rich product as soy. Now we decided to directly touch on the topic of one of its derivatives - soy sauce. The ubiquitous sushi bars, which seem to have filled the entire globe and have taken root in Russia better than in their native Japan, instilled in us not only the culture of consuming rice with salted fish, but also revealed the charm of soy sauce. And now we are ready, as before mayonnaise, to add it to everything. But are all soy sauces equally good? - Let's figure out what's what.
Soy sauce is in the kitchen of almost every housewife: we not only use it with Japanese dishes, but also add it everywhere. It seems that it's easier - I went to the store and bought it. But no! All sauces that we sell as soy sauces are divided into three groups. To buy a useful one, you need to know what it is cooked from. Often soy has nothing to do with it ...
How do they do
The steamed soybean, from which the oil has been squeezed out, is mixed with wheat or flour and the sourdough is added. In a warm, humid atmosphere, the mixture quickly becomes covered with mycelium (a special mold called “koji” in Chinese). Then the koji is poured with saline, and a long fermentation process begins. Proteins are broken down into amino acids, carbohydrates into sugars. Some of the sugars react with the proteins to form a natural brown dye that gives the sauce its color.
Important: Soy fats are often pre-removed with chemical solvents. The unsafe solvent hexane is usually used.
Composition of the product
The ideal sauce contains 4 components - soy, wheat, water and salt. All! This is the best and most expensive soy sauce.
Components that may still be in the composition: sugar, dye (most often E150 caramel), ethyl alcohol or other alcohol, a preservative that stops fermentation, citric or other acids. They are acceptable, but the quality of the seasoning falls with them.
Components that cannot be included: glutamate and other flavor enhancers.
Important:
on the label, manufacturers try to indicate that it is a fermented or fermented sauce (which is the same thing). Some write that the sauce is "boiled" or "naturally brewed". This is a mistranslation - soy sauces are not cooked.How do they do
Proteins are subjected to chemical hydrolysis with hydrochloric acid.
Important: this is the worst option. Hydrolysis often produces the powerful carcinogen chloropropanol. It is found in so many seasonings: more often - from Asia, less often - from Europe.
Composition of products
Long, contains many nutritional supplements:
There are always flavor enhancers, they are disguised as yeast extract, vegetable protein hydrolyzate, guanylates (E626-629), innosinates (E630-633), ribonucleotides (E634, E635);
There are always dyes (caramel E150, sunset yellow E110, etc.);
Usually there is a preservative E211 (benzoate) or E202 (potassium sorbate);
Of the 4 components of a natural sauce, 3 may be present: soy, salt and water, but wheat is almost always absent.
Important: about fermentation - the main process in the preparation of the sauce - not a word. On the label only about its merits - quality, originality, etc.
How do they do
No more than 10% of the fermentation sauce is dissolved in 90% water. And in order to give the liquid solution more taste and rich color, add more dyes, sugar, acids. Most often do without flavor enhancers.
Composition of products
Water, sugar, salt, soy extract (water, soybeans, Wheat flour, salt) - 9%, dye - caramel, lemon acid, preservative - potassium sorbate. On the label of such a sauce, you can read that it is "made from fermented soybeans." This is only 10% true - so much of it is from real sauce, the rest is from the evil one.
Important: sometimes mixed soy sauce is found: a mixture of a small amount of fermentation sauce with hydrolytic sauce. In the composition, they can write like this: "A mixture of sauces in the proportion: hydrolyzed soy sauce 93%, soy sauce of natural fermentation 7%." The quality of the product is appropriate: "chemistry" with a small proportion of real sauce.
Soy sauce definitions such as “classic”, “premium”, “traditional”, etc., should not be taken seriously. They are not regulated by law and are even found on chemical hydrolysis seasonings.
To date, there are two fundamentally different technologies for the preparation of soy sauce. These are the natural fermentation method and the acid hydrolysis method. In addition, soy sauce can be prepared using soy concentrate, which can be obtained either by natural fermentation or by acid hydrolysis. Let's take a closer look at each of these methods of making soy sauce.
A) The method of natural fermentation.
Eastern peoples have been using soy sauce for almost three millennia, and the recipe for its preparation remains unchanged to this day. The production of soy sauce is in many ways similar to the preparation of wine: here, too, it is based on the process of natural fermentation. Steamed soybeans are mixed with roasted ground wheat grains, filled with water and salted. The resulting mass in special bags is hung out or laid out in the sun. In this state, soy mass can stay from six months to two years. The flowing liquid is collected, filtered and bottled. This is how soy sauce has been prepared in the East for centuries.
Thanks to modern technologies the process of natural fermentation can be significantly accelerated if the dry wheat-soy mixture is enriched with special microorganisms - fungi of the genus Aspergillus. It was these microorganisms that caused the fermentation of soy protein during traditional way making soy sauce. They fell into the soy mass directly from the air, and it took a long time for their number to reach the required limit. If such a starter is added to the dry mass, then fermentation takes no longer years, but still no less than a month.
B) Method of acid hydrolysis.
This method is used by modern manufacturers who seek to speed up and reduce the cost of the soy sauce production process as much as possible. Soybeans are boiled with sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, then the acid reaction is quenched with alkali. At the same time, there is a high probability of the formation of substances harmful to health, in particular, the strongest carcinogen chlorpropanol, which is then difficult to isolate and remove from the finished product.
Differences between natural soy sauce and acid hydrolysis sauce.
natural soy sauce
Sauce produced by acid hydrolysis
due to corn syrup, salt and dyes, and not due to the maturation of the product and natural ingredients.
C) Use of soy sauce concentrate.
Some manufacturers prepare soy sauce by diluting with water a concentrate obtained either by natural fermentation or by acid hydrolysis. This is a very simple and inexpensive technology. Like any product prepared on the basis of a concentrate, such soy sauce cannot be called natural and high quality.
Almost all soy sauce presented at food fairs in large cities is produced by the acid hydrolysis method or based on soy concentrate.
Natural soy sauce, which retains all the unique nutritional properties of soy and does not contain any substances harmful to health, can only be obtained by natural fermentation. It is this method that underlies the technology for the production of soy sauces of the Sen Soi brand.
With its unique taste and aroma soy sauce conquered the culinary experts of Japan and China more than two thousand years ago - these countries are considered the birthplace of the product. And after Europe, this product was also tasted in our country - today soy sauce is added to a variety of dishes by both famous chefs and simple housewives.
What is his secret?
Unlike other almost tasteless soy products, this sauce has a bright, savory flavor that goes well with almost any dish, except for sweets.
Choice of soy sauce is an important and responsible matter, because not only the taste of your dish will depend on your choice, but also ... the state of health.
Soy sauce may be natural and chemical, and if the first is for the good, then the second is an extremely ambiguous and sometimes even harmful product.
How to choose a natural product?
To choose the right soy sauce, it is important to know that it is produced, albeit simply, but for a very long time: soybean and wheat grains are poured with salt water and left to ferment for several months. In natural soy sauce do not add any artificial flavor enhancers - all the flavors and aromas inherent in this product are produced naturally. In addition to the components already mentioned, good soy sauce may contain natural additives such as garlic extract, dill, etc. They slightly change the taste of the seasoning, making it richer and richer.
Sometimes, in order to speed up the ripening process, certain microorganisms are added to the sauce, which, however, do not harm either the quality or the taste of the product.
Unfortunately, some manufacturers choose the easiest way, thanks to which they get a kind of analogue of soy sauce, which not only loses its beneficial features, but it turns out tasteless and even harmful. The cooking process boils down to the fact that soybeans are boiled in sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, and then "extinguished" with an alkaline solution, resulting in a strong toxic carcinogen - a surrogate that undermines our health.
Types of natural sauce.
- Dark- has a thick texture, pronounced aroma, ideal for meat marinades and fish.
- Light coloured- lighter texture, salty taste without a characteristic aroma, excellent as a salad dressing and base for sauces.
What should I pay attention to when buying soy sauce?
- Don't be tempted by the overly low price. A product that takes such a long time to prepare simply cannot be cheap. Plus, you need to take into account the cost of packaging and transporting the sauce.
- Be sure to read the composition of the product: soy sauce obtained by natural fermentation should contain only soy, wheat and natural additives, which have already been mentioned above. On the label, there should also be an inscription that the sauce is "produced on the basis of natural (natural) fermentation." On artificial seasoning, such an inscription, as a rule, is absent. In addition, the content of sugar (fructose), vinegar, yeast and other components in the sauce indicate that you have an unnatural product.
- The label should also indicate for which dishes a particular type of sauce is intended. After all, a product that perfectly emphasizes the taste of meat is absolutely not suitable for fish.
- Natural soy sauce should only be bottled in a glass bottle - only in it will it fully retain its original taste and aroma. In addition, the container must be transparent so that you can see its contents in detail.
- Quality sauce can be various shades of brown - from light to dark, but not black.
- The natural sauce has a very soft, rich, sometimes sweetish taste and its smell is not repulsive, unlike the non-natural sauce, which has a characteristic chemical pungent odor, too salty and bitter taste, interrupting the taste of the main products.
The article was prepared based on the publication "Culinary tips from our kitchen".
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