How to distinguish good soy sauce from bad

I believe that when you go to the supermarket or the market to buy soy sauce, there are often a variety of soy sauce types, making it difficult to tell which type of soy sauce to buy. When buying soy sauce, you also need to pay attention to certain skills, because soy sauce can be good or bad. Good soy sauce has more umami flavor, and adding a little bit can have a good effect in enhancing the flavor. So how do we distinguish the quality of soy sauce?

1. According to the type: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce

Light Soy Sauce

Color: Light soy sauce is lighter in color, reddish brown.

Taste: Light soy sauce is used for general cooking and tastes salty.

Uses: Light soy sauce is used for seasoning. Due to its light color, it is mostly used in stir-frying or cold dishes.

Old soy sauce

Color: Dark soy sauce has caramel added to it, and the color is very dark, brown, and shiny.

Taste: It has a delicious and slightly sweet taste when eaten.

Uses: Generally used for food coloring. For example, it is better to use it when making braised dishes or other dishes that need coloring.

2. Product Type: Brewed soy sauce, prepared soy sauce

How to distinguish between brewing and preparation?

1. Look at the implementation standards

The implementation standard for brewed soy sauce is GB18186-2000, etc.; the implementation standard for formulated soy sauce is SB/T 10336-2012. There are also some standards that start with , which means they are standards set by the company itself, and it depends on the situation.

2. Look at the ingredient list

Check the ingredient list. If "hydrolyzed vegetable protein", "hydrolyzed soy protein", "hydrolyzed protein" or "acid hydrolyzed vegetable protein" is used, it is a prepared soy sauce.

3. Fermentation method: high-salt dilute state is better than low-salt solid state

Generally speaking, high-salt dilute fermentation has higher costs and better quality. This is mainly because the raw materials used in the high-salt dilute state fermentation process are soybeans or wheat, while the low-salt solid state uses defatted soybeans (soybean meal) and bran. The former uses better materials. In addition, the high-salt dilute state fermentation cycle is also longer, generally 3-6 months (the low-salt solid state fermentation cycle is generally 15-45 days), and the fermentation is more complete.

4. Product grade: Special grade is the highest grade

According to the national standard, brewed soy sauce is divided into four grades: special grade, grade one, grade two, and grade three according to quality indicators such as color, aroma, taste, soluble salt-free solids, and amino acid nitrogen. Among them, the special grade is the highest grade and has the highest content of amino acid nitrogen (required ≥0.8g/100ml).

5. No MSG is better

At normal dosage, MSG is a safe and legal food additive without any safety issues. However, for soy sauce of the same grade, products brewed with pure grains and without added MSG will have greater advantages in quality.

According to statistics, of the more than 500 kinds of soy sauce products sold on the market, about 75% contain "monosodium glutamate", also known as MSG. Adding MSG to soy sauce can increase its freshness and the content of amino acid nitrogen (the main indicator of soy sauce quality).