outside of the jar are lightly glazed, the wine is said to be aged in a micro-oxygen environment whereby minute amounts of oxygen can travel through the pores of the jar.
The day of visit finished on a high note when I was invited to a dinner arranged by a retired local official. He opened a bottle of young ShauXing wine that had a dark—amber colour with a full round body. It had the tastes of sweetness, acidity, bitterness, umami and astringency and tannin all blended in harmony. It was not available commercially, I was told. I can imagine how the wine would be like if left to age. The commercially available blends simply pale in comparison.
Soy Sauce
Soy sauce (JiangYou in Chinese which translates literally to mean soy paste oil) is a common condiment in the Chinese kitchen larder. 22 It originated in China, and the predecessor of soy sauce was said to be a fermented liquid from fresh meats, full of the taste of umami, for the consumption of the imperial household and people of means. By the third century BC, soybeans and wheat, the main ingredients of soy sauce, were plentiful and were food for common people. Fermented soybean produce was also available. 23 The Buddhist monks were credited with introducing the fermentation methods abroad to Japan as early as in the eighth century, but it wasn’t until the twelfth century that there is the first documentary evidence of the popular use of soy sauce among the general public.
The traditional and natural way of producing the sauce is by fermenting soybeans (the main source of protein), wheat, or barley (the main source of carbohydrate) with salt, water, natural yeasts, and microbes from the open air for around six to twelve months. The raw ingredients used, the natural micro-organisms near the production site, the quality of the water used, and the differing local fermentation methods all affect the flavour of the sauce. It has geographical characteristics and is a product of the place it comes from, reminiscent of the concept of terroir in wine making. The production of soy sauce is often a boutique operation; this variety of soy sauce fetches a premium price and is sought after by people in the know.
With the advancement of manufacturing technology, mass production of industrially fermented soy sauce, chemically blended soy sauce, a blend of the two, and low-sodium soy sauce dominate the supermarket sales in China and in the West. In order to compare and contrast the naturally fermented soy sauce with the industrial version, one should use the raw ingredients as the starting point. These days, defatted beans (in the form of pressed soybean oil meal or solvent-extracted oil meal) have replaced soybeans, and wheat has been substituted by wheat bran or flour. Defatted beans are a low-cost source of protein; they also shorten the fermentation period, which means that there is less time for colour and aroma molecules to develop. The colour of the sauce becomes more intense with a longer fermentation period. For the industrial chemical method that takes less than a week to complete, caramel or other artificial colourings have to be added to darken the colour.
Because it is impossible for around three hundred flavour compounds identified from the soy sauce fermentation process to be present in a short period of time, flavour enhancers such as MSG could be added to the industrial version. There is less glycerol in soy sauce made from defatted beans, and so maltose or other artificial sweeteners also have to be used in the industrial version to give the product the desired level of sweetness. In addition, a preservative has to be added to soy sauce made from defatted beans because it is not as stable and is prone to yeast invasion when exposed to the air.
The two common varieties of soy sauce available in the West are the light and dark soy sauces. The light one has the generic name of “soy sauce” on the label unless specified otherwise. It is
The day of visit finished on a high note when I was invited to a dinner arranged by a retired local official. He opened a bottle of young ShauXing wine that had a dark—amber colour with a full round body. It had the tastes of sweetness, acidity, bitterness, umami and astringency and tannin all blended in harmony. It was not available commercially, I was told. I can imagine how the wine would be like if left to age. The commercially available blends simply pale in comparison.
Soy Sauce
Soy sauce (JiangYou in Chinese which translates literally to mean soy paste oil) is a common condiment in the Chinese kitchen larder. 22 It originated in China, and the predecessor of soy sauce was said to be a fermented liquid from fresh meats, full of the taste of umami, for the consumption of the imperial household and people of means. By the third century BC, soybeans and wheat, the main ingredients of soy sauce, were plentiful and were food for common people. Fermented soybean produce was also available. 23 The Buddhist monks were credited with introducing the fermentation methods abroad to Japan as early as in the eighth century, but it wasn’t until the twelfth century that there is the first documentary evidence of the popular use of soy sauce among the general public.
The traditional and natural way of producing the sauce is by fermenting soybeans (the main source of protein), wheat, or barley (the main source of carbohydrate) with salt, water, natural yeasts, and microbes from the open air for around six to twelve months. The raw ingredients used, the natural micro-organisms near the production site, the quality of the water used, and the differing local fermentation methods all affect the flavour of the sauce. It has geographical characteristics and is a product of the place it comes from, reminiscent of the concept of terroir in wine making. The production of soy sauce is often a boutique operation; this variety of soy sauce fetches a premium price and is sought after by people in the know.
With the advancement of manufacturing technology, mass production of industrially fermented soy sauce, chemically blended soy sauce, a blend of the two, and low-sodium soy sauce dominate the supermarket sales in China and in the West. In order to compare and contrast the naturally fermented soy sauce with the industrial version, one should use the raw ingredients as the starting point. These days, defatted beans (in the form of pressed soybean oil meal or solvent-extracted oil meal) have replaced soybeans, and wheat has been substituted by wheat bran or flour. Defatted beans are a low-cost source of protein; they also shorten the fermentation period, which means that there is less time for colour and aroma molecules to develop. The colour of the sauce becomes more intense with a longer fermentation period. For the industrial chemical method that takes less than a week to complete, caramel or other artificial colourings have to be added to darken the colour.
Because it is impossible for around three hundred flavour compounds identified from the soy sauce fermentation process to be present in a short period of time, flavour enhancers such as MSG could be added to the industrial version. There is less glycerol in soy sauce made from defatted beans, and so maltose or other artificial sweeteners also have to be used in the industrial version to give the product the desired level of sweetness. In addition, a preservative has to be added to soy sauce made from defatted beans because it is not as stable and is prone to yeast invasion when exposed to the air.
The two common varieties of soy sauce available in the West are the light and dark soy sauces. The light one has the generic name of “soy sauce” on the label unless specified otherwise. It is
Similar Books
