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Defatted, steamed soybeans are ground together with roasted crushed wheat. This is allowed to ferment, then salted and aged for up to a year.
Sometimes, to speed up production and make a less-expensive product, the fermenting time is reduced. To compensate for the colour not having enough time to deepen, caramel colouring is added. There are also non-fermented Soy Sauces, for which the same ingredients are steeped at a high temperature for about a day, then the sauce is filtered, coloured and adjusted for flavour. Western Soy Sauce is almost always made via the sped-up process.
There are dark brands and light brands, Soy Sauces that are made without wheat and soys that are "reduced salt", but in North America and the UK most people would just use general purpose Soy Sauce.
Japan makes two versions of Soy Sauce. Tamari, more well known in the West, is made without wheat. The other one, Shoyu, is made with wheat.
A few drops of a good Soy Sauce in a glass of water will start to sink down towards the bottom. A few drops of a poorer quality Soy Sauce will dissolve almost immediately in the water.
Storage
Unopened, Soy Sauce will keep on the shelf for two years. Once opened, refrigerate, or use up within a month -- after that, its taste will diminish. It will still be fine for cooking up to 3 months, but not for use as a table condiment. Low-salt Soy Sauces should always be refrigerated after opening because they have less salt to act as a preservative.
History
The Chinese have been making forms of Soy Sauce for millennia. In the late 8th BC, several Japanese monks who had studied in China brought the knowledge of making Soy Sauce back to Japan with them. The Japanese, as is their wont, refined and perfected the technique, and the Chinese in turn learned back from them.
Literature & Lore
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, in his book The Physiology of Taste, Dec 1825, revealed inadvertently that at the time, the French really didn't know what Soy Sauce was made from: "There is reason to believe it [ed: the Roman sauce garum] was a foreign sauce, and was nothing else but the Indian soy, which we know to be only fish fermented with mushrooms."
Also called:  Sauce de soya (French) Sojasauce, Sojasoße (German) Salsa di soia (Italian) Salsa de soja (Spanish)
See Also
Soybeans
Other entries for Soy Sauce
Soy Sauce, Tosa Soy Sauce, Ume Shoyu, Usukuchi Soy Sauce
Other entries for Sauces
Aillade, Albert Sauce, Allemande Sauce, Amazu Sauce, Awasezu, A.1. Steak Sauce, Banquière Sauce, Barbeque Sauce, Beurre Blanc, Béarnaise Sauce, Black Mint Sauce, Brown Butter, Brown Sauce (English), Butter Sauce, Chile con Queso, Chiri-zu Sauce, Coronation Sauce, Creamed Horseradish, Drawn Butter Sauce, Espagnole Sauce, Finadene Sauce, Fish Sauces, Gravy, Halford Sauce, Harissa, Hoisin Sauce, Hollandaise Sauce, Horseradish Sauce, Ketchup, Ketjap Manis, Marie Rose Sauce, Matelote Sauce, Melted Butter, Meunière Butter, Mint Sauce, Mojo Sauces, Mojo (Cuban), Mole, Murri, Nikiri Sauce, Nitsume Sauce, Noisette Butter, Normande Sauce, Paloise Sauce, Panade à la frangipane, Parisienne Sauce, Pasta Sauce, Pizza Sauce, Poivrade Sauce, Ponzu Sauce, Provençal Sauce, Reform Sauce, Rémoulade Sauce, Rice Wine, Salad Dressings, Salmuera, Salsas, Sambals, Sambi-Zu Sauce, Sanbai Zu Sauce, Sauce Béarnaise, Sauce Diane, Sauce Maltaise, Soubise Sauce, Sriracha, Sushi-zu, Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce, Tabasco, Tamari, Tapenade, Tartar Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce, Tonkatsu Sauce, Vatapá, Velouté Sauce, Walnut Sauce, White Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, XO Sauce, Yakiniku Sauce, Yakitori Sauce
Other entries for Condiments
Liebig's Extract of Meat, Mayonnaise, Pastes, Relish, Spreads, Tracklements, Vinegar, Wasabi
Related Recipes
Avocado & Shrimp Spinach Salad, Cabbage & Nut Pie, Finadene Sauce
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