What is soy sauce?
A: Soy sauce is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin.
Soy sauce is traditionally made from what?
A: A fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus
oryzae or Aspergillus sojae
molds.
It is considered to contain a strong what?
A: Umami taste.
Soy sauce in its current form was created about 2,200
years ago during what?
A: The Western Han dynasty of ancient China.
It is often eaten with what?
A: Rice, noodles, and sushi or sashimi, or can also be mixed with ground wasabi for dipping.
Bottles of soy sauce for salty seasoning of various
foods are common where?
A: On restaurant tables in many countries.
Soy sauce can be stored at what temperature?
A: Room temperature.
Like many salty condiments, soy sauce was originally a
way to stretch what?
A: Salt, historically an expensive commodity.
During the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, fermented
fish with salt was used as a condiment in which soybeans were what?
A: Included during the fermentation process.
By the time of the Han dynasty, this had been replaced
with the recipe for what?
A: Soy paste and its by-product soy sauce, by using soybeans as the
principal ingredient.
Records of the Dutch East India Company list soy sauce
as a commodity in 1737, when seventy-five large barrels were what?
A: Shipped from Dejima, Japan, to Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on the
island of Java.
Thirty-five barrels from that shipment were then
shipped to where?
A: The Netherlands.
Why were Europeans unable to make soy sauce?
A: Because they did not have access to Aspergillus oryzae, the fungus used
in its brewing.
Soy sauce made from ingredients such as Portobello
mushrooms were disseminated where?
A: In European cookbooks during the late 18th century.
The first soy sauce production in the United States
began where?
A: In the Territory of Hawaii in 1908 by the Hawaiian Yamajo Soy Company.
La Choy started selling hydrolyzed
vegetable
protein
based soy sauce in what year?
A: 1933.
Soy sauce retains its quality longer when kept away
from what?
A: Direct sunlight.
A study by the National University of Singapore showed
that Chinese dark soy sauce contains what?
A: 10 times the antioxidants of red
wine.
Soy sauce does not contain the level of isoflavones
associated with other soy products such as what?
A: Tofu or edamame.