Soy sauce is a general term for light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and other types of soy sauce. According to the production process, it is mainly divided into brewing soy sauce and preparing soy sauce.

Brewed soy sauce is made by fermenting soybeans as raw materials, and has a more stable and mellow taste, because the brewing process is divided into light soy sauce and dark soy sauce.

soy sauce

The color is brighter and the texture is thinner, but because of the salty taste, it is generally used for seasoning, such as stir-fry or cold salad, to increase the saltiness and freshness.

Soy sauce

The color is darker and the texture is thicker. Because the color is darker, it is easy to color food, so it is generally used for dishes that require coloring such as braised.

The soy sauce is prepared by adding some other ingredients on the basis of brewing soy sauce. From December 2018, it will be removed from the "National Food Safety Standard Soy Sauce" standard. It is no longer allowed to use "soy sauce" as the food name. There are relatively few on the market, so I won't say more.

When buying soy sauce, many people will find that soy sauce is divided into high-salt dilute state and low-salt solid state during brewing and fermentation. Subconsciously, they think that low-salt soy sauce tastes less salty than high-salt.

In fact, low-salt and high-salt are just different fermentation processes, and have nothing to do with the salt content of the finished product. On the contrary, the "high-salt dilute state" is more popular because of its long fermentation period and good flavor, and the cost is higher than the "low-salt solid state" process.

So the use of low-salt solids does not mean that this soy sauce is good.

How to choose a good soy sauce?

First of all, it is recommended to choose 0-added soy sauce, which generally refers to the common additives of soy sauce without adding MSG, preservatives and coloring agents.

The advantage of 0 addition is that it is relatively healthier, but the taste may not be as fresh as the soy sauce with additives. Remember to tighten the cap after using it. The refrigerator is better.

Common additive ingredients

MSG (sodium glutamate): The purpose of adding MSG in soy sauce is to increase freshness.

Preservatives (sodium benzoate/potassium sorbate): Preservatives are added to soy sauce to prevent mildew from soy sauce.

Moldy soy sauce will produce aflatoxin, which is a carcinogen, so it is necessary to add preservatives reasonably. After all, small doses are not harmful to the body. If mold develops, it is life-threatening.

Coloring agent (caramel color): Caramel is a coloring agent with a wide range of applications in food. The coloring agent is added to soy sauce to increase the coloring ability of soy sauce. At present, 90% of the soy sauce on the market has added coloring Agent.

Secondly, it is recommended to choose special grade, first grade soy sauce, which tastes more fresh, but the price is higher than the second and third grade.

At present, soy sauce is divided into special grade, first grade, second grade, and third grade according to the content of amino acid nitrogen. The higher the amino acid nitrogen, the higher the grade of soy sauce and the more delicious the taste.

Note that the grade of soy sauce only judges the level of its umami taste, not the quality of soy sauce. In addition, it is not that the premium soy sauce does not contain additives, so you still need to check the ingredient list before buying.

Generally, soy sauce will indicate whether it is light soy sauce or dark soy sauce on the bottle, but there are many other soy sauces, such as children's soy sauce, straw mushroom soy sauce, Weijixian soy sauce, etc. Outside the scope of application, you can also judge by turning the bottle upside down. Under normal circumstances, the color of the bottom of the soy sauce is relatively shallow, and the bottom of the soy sauce is relatively thick.

Some people think that straw mushroom soy sauce and seafood soy sauce are relatively fresh.

In fact, whether it is straw mushroom soy sauce or seafood soy sauce, you can add a small amount of scallops or straw mushrooms at most, and it is the MSG and flavor enhancers that can enhance the freshness and flavor. Don't be fooled by his "good-looking skin" when buying.

The low salt of children's soy sauce is purely a gimmick. Take the common soy sauce in the market as an example. Look at his ingredient list:

There are 1106 milligrams of sodium in every 15 milliliters of children's soy sauce, which is approximately equal to 2.76 grams of salt (1 gram of salt is approximately equal to 400 milligrams of sodium). Do you think this is low salt?

Of course, very few imported soy sauces have a lower salt content than adult soy sauces, but the children's soy sauces currently on the market are not much better than adult soy sauces. Therefore, if you want low salt and low sodium to be healthy, you should eat less.