It’s one of the most distinctive and popular flavors on earth. But even people who love it and use it all the time don’t always know exactly what soy sauce is…and what makes it so delicious.
To celebrate National Soy Sauce Day on October 1st, we’re setting the record straight.
Soy sauce is soy sauce, right? Definitely not. Some chemically produced “soy sauces” are made in a matter of hours by treating soybeans with hydrochloric acid. Kikkoman Soy Sauce is traditionally brewed from water, soybeans, wheat and salt—slowly fermented like a fine wine for several months. Chemically produced soy sauces have a one-dimensional flavor and aroma that masks and overpowers foods. Traditionally brewed Kikkoman has a delicate, sweet-savory flavor that complements and enhances whatever you pair it with. Chemically produced soy sauce (right) is dark and opaque, with a harsh flavor and aroma. Kikkomon® Soy Sauce (left) has a delicate color, flavor and aroma that complement and enhance other ingredients without overpowering them.
That may be true for many sauces, like BBQ sauce, salsa, or tartar sauce, which follow a “recipe,” combining ingredients and sometimes cooking them. But a traditionally brewed soy sauce like Kikkoman isn’t about combining ingredients. It’s about transforming them through a slow, carefully controlled fermentation process. In our case, even though we produce our soy sauce in pristine, state-of-the-art facilities, our traditional brewing process has remained unchanged for more than three centuries. We blend carefully selected soybeans and wheat, add a proprietary starter, and three days later, a brine of salt and water. The rest is up to nature—and time. Over the next several months, fermentation magically turns those simple raw materials into a sauce no “recipe” could ever duplicate.
