Soy sauce can be added directly to food, and is used as a dip or salt flavor in cooking. There are several precursors of soy sauce that are associated products with soy paste. Like many salty condiments, soy sauce was originally a way to stretch salt, historically an white soy sauce commodity. During the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, fermented fish with salt was used as a condiment in which soybeans were included during the fermentation process.
Shoyu exportation began in 1647 by the Dutch East India Company. The earliest soy sauce brewing in Korea seems to have begun prior to the era of the Three Kingdoms c. Thirty-five barrels from that shipment were then shipped to the Netherlands. The first soy sauce production in the United States began in the Territory of Hawaii in 1908 by the Hawaiian Yamajo Soy Company. La Choy started selling hydrolyzed vegetable protein based soy sauce in 1933. Soy sauce is made either by fermentation or by hydrolysis. Some commercial sauces have both fermented and chemical sauces.
Flavor, color, and aroma developments during production are attributed to non-enzymatic Maillard browning. Variation is usually achieved as the result of different methods and durations of fermentation, different ratios of water, salt, and fermented soy, or through the addition of other ingredients. Soaking and cooking: The soybeans are soaked in water and boiled until cooked. Koji culturing: Equal amounts of boiled soybeans and roasted wheat are mixed to form a grain mixture. A culture of Aspergillus spore is added to the grain mixture and mixed or the mixture is allowed to gather spores from the environment itself.
This fungus also has a high proteolytic capacity. This fungus is used for brewing tamari, a variety of soy sauce. Other microbes contained in the culture: Bacillus spp. This organism is likely to grow in soy sauce ingredients, and to generate odors and ammonia.
Lactobacillus species: This organism makes a lactic acid that increases the acidity in the feed. Brewing: The cultured grain mixture is mixed into a specific amount of salt brine for wet fermentation or with coarse salt for dry fermentation and left to brew. Over time, the Aspergillus mold on the soy and wheat break down the grain proteins into free amino acid and protein fragments and starches into simple sugars. This amino-glycosidic reaction gives soy sauce its dark brown color. Pressing: The fully fermented grain slurry is placed into cloth-lined containers and pressed to separate the solids from the liquid soy sauce. The isolated solids are used as fertilizer or fed to animals while the liquid soy sauce is processed further. Storage: The soy sauce can be aged or directly bottled and sold.