Soy sauce

Soy sauce, also known as soya sauce in British English, is a salty, umami-rich liquid condiment that originated in China. It is traditionally produced by fermenting a paste made from soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and a mold called *Aspergillus oryzae* or *Aspergillus sojae* (kōji). The sauce as we know it today was developed around 2,200 years ago during China’s Western Han dynasty. Since then, it has become a key ingredient in East and Southeast Asian cuisines and is now used worldwide as a condiment.

Soy sauce can be used directly on food, often as a dipping sauce or as a seasoning in cooking. It is commonly paired with rice, noodles, sushi, or sashimi, and sometimes mixed with ground wasabi for dipping. Bottles of soy sauce are frequently found on restaurant tables in many countries. The sauce is indefinitely shelf-stable.

In China, soy sauce (jiàngyóu) is nearly as old as soy paste, a fermented soybean product that appeared during the Western Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) and was recorded on bamboo slips from the Mawangdui archaeological site. Early precursors include qingjiang (清醬), noted in AD 40 in the *Simin Yueling*, and later jiangqing, chizhi, and chiqing, documented in the *Qimin Yaoshu* in AD 540. By the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD), the term jiàng yóu became standard, appearing in the books *Shanjia Qinggong* and *Pujiang Wushi Zhongkuilu*. Originally, soy sauce helped stretch salt, which was historically expensive. During the Zhou dynasty, a fermented fish-and-salt condiment included soybeans; by the Han dynasty, this evolved into soy paste and its by-product soy sauce, with fish-based sauces developing separately into fish sauce. In the 19th century, Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams noted that the best Chinese soy sauce was made by boiling beans soft, adding an equal amount of wheat or barley, letting the mass ferment, then adding salt and three times as much water, and leaving the mixture for two to three months before pressing and straining.

In Japan, a fish sauce called gyoshō predated soy sauce. When Buddhist practitioners arrived from China in the 7th century, they introduced vegetarianism and soy-based products, including soy sauce, known as shōyu in Japan. The Dutch East India Company began exporting shoyu in 1647.

In Korea, soy sauce brewing likely started during the Three Kingdoms era. Jangdoks (fermentation pots) appear in 4th-century Goguryeo murals from Anak Tomb No. 3. The *Samguk sagi* records that ganjang (soy sauce) and doenjang (soybean paste), along with meju and jeotgal, were prepared for King Sinmun’s wedding in February 683. The *Sikhwaji* section of *Goryeosa* notes that ganjang and doenjang were included in relief supplies after a Khitan invasion in 1018 and during a famine in 1052. Joseon texts like *Guhwangchwaryo* and *Jeungbo sallim gyeongje* detail brewing procedures, while *Gyuhap chongseo* explains how to choose brewing dates and preserve the sauces.

In the Philippines, soy sauce was first recorded through the traditional dish adobo in a 1613 document by San Buenaventura. Food historian Raymond Sokolov suggested that ingredients like soy sauce were likely already present in native cuisine before colonial records.

In Europe, the Dutch East India Company listed soy sauce as a commodity in 1737, shipping seventy-five large barrels from Dejima, Japan, to Batavia (now Jakarta), with thirty-five barrels then sent to the Netherlands. In the 18th century, diplomat Isaac Titsingh published accounts of soy sauce brewing, focusing on the Japanese version. By the mid-19th century, Japanese soy sauce had largely disappeared from the European market, and the condiment became associated with Chinese products. Europeans could not produce soy sauce due to a lack of *Aspergillus oryzae*. Instead, European cookbooks from the late 18th century included recipes using ingredients like portobello mushrooms. A Swedish recipe for "Soija" appeared in the 1770 edition of Cajsa Warg's *Hjelpreda i Hushållningen för Unga Fruentimber*, flavored with allspice and mace.

In the United States, soy sauce production began in the Territory of Hawaii in 1905 with Yamajo Soy Co, which became the Hawaiian Soy Company Ltd in 1909. La Choy introduced hydrolyzed vegetable protein–based soy sauce in 1933. Until authentic Chinese cuisine gained popularity in the 1970s, some Americans pejoratively called the sauce "beetle juice," a slur that had heavily declined by 1976.

Soy sauce is produced either through fermentation or chemical hydrolysis, and some commercial sauces combine both methods.