What's the diff? Tamari vs. Shoyu vs. Soy Sauce
Petrina Chong
>I have been puzzled by the differences between:
> Tamari, Shoyu, and Soy Sauce
>
>Are all 3 virtually identical?
>
>My thoughts:
> - I think all are made from fermented soy beans.
> - Tamari tastes best, followed by Shoyu and then Soy sauce.
> - American soy sauce has lots of artificial junk tainting it. (required?)
>
As I understand it, and from personal cooking experience, there are at
east two distinct Chinese types of soy sauce (light and dark). I
believe that the dark has been cooked and that molasses has been added
to it. Generally the dark one is the soy that's available in commercial
brands available in American supermarkets. Someone once told me that you
shouldn't eat (drink?) the light one raw, that you have to cook it first.
We generally use both the light and dark for cooking. They make a terrific
marinade for chicken and chicken wings if you add some ginger, sherry, and
a bit of honey.
I believe that Terriyaki has some wine or wine vinegar added.
Hope that's helpful.
Carol Miller-Tutzauer
naturally fermented; most also contain wheat, yeast, salt.
Shoyu -- Japanese (light) soy sauce. Generally milder and less
salty than those from China.
Tamari -- also Japanese; thick and unrefined like other soy sauces.
Also wheat-free. A salt-free tamari is also available.
While we are on the subject:
Chinese light soy sauce -- like Kikkoman's, this is what you are
most used to using
Chinese dark soy sauce -- very black but still thin. To identify
it, slosh the bottle around. If the stuff leaves a very dark
coating on the inside of the bottle, you have the dark variety.
(Hint: Go to the oriental market and compare "Superior Soy"
and "Soy, Superior Sauce" -- one is light and one is dark.)
Thai dark soy sauce -- dark like the Chinese variety but thick
like molassas and sweet. GREAT when making red-cooked meats
or stir-fried Peking-style pork. If your recipe calls for
sugar and assumes Chinese soy, just omit the sugar and use
the Thai dark soy for an interesting variation.
Virtually identical to Thai dark soy sauce (or Thai black soy)
is Indonesian sweetened soy, or ketjap manis.
Vietnamese soy sauce -- I'm not fibbing, I SWEAR, but this tastes
EXACTLY like La Choy brand soy sauce as opposed to something
like Kikkomans. If you've had both, you know the difference
to which I refer.
Indonesian soy sauce -- not the same as Indonesian sweet soy
sauce (or Thai dark soy); substitute either Chinese or
Japanese dark (i.e., unsweetened) soy sauce. Also called
ketjap asin.
Hope this helps clarify the varieties of soy sauce available.
Most of the time you have to guess what type you need from the
descriptions and context of the recipe. Not too different
from the difference between chili powder in Tex-Mex cooking vs.
chili powder in Asian recipes (the former is a spice blend while
the latter refers to pure ground hot red pepper).
Carol
Dave Jenkins
In article <46...@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>, ria...@ubvmsa.cc.buffalo.edu (Carol Miller-Tutzauer) writes:
|>
|> Lots of interesting soy sauce stuff deleted...
|>
|> Hope this helps clarify the varieties of soy sauce available.
|> Most of the time you have to guess what type you need from the
|> descriptions and context of the recipe. Not too different
|> from the difference between chili powder in Tex-Mex cooking vs.
|> chili powder in Asian recipes (the former is a spice blend while
|> the latter refers to pure ground hot red pepper).
|>
|> Carol
What IS the mix of spices in Tex-Mex chili powder? If I get Chili powder in the UK I get the Asian-type only, which is fine for Asian recipes but not quite right for Tex-Mex.
Dave Jenkins
My mission: To eschew obfuscation and thus circumvent
========== the auspication of galimatias.
David McKenzie
>I have been puzzled by the differences between:
> Tamari, Shoyu, and Soy Sauce
>
>Are all 3 virtually identical?
>
>My thoughts:
> - I think all are made from fermented soy beans.
> - Tamari tastes best, followed by Shoyu and then Soy sauce.
> - American soy sauce has lots of artificial junk tainting it. (required?)
>
>Is there anyone with knowledge of these sauces' contents and origins?
Here are a few bits of info culled from Shizuo Tsuji's "Japanese Cooking: A
Simple Art". (Far and away the best Japanese cookbook available, IMHO.)
First, 'shoyu' is just the Japanese word for soy sauce. Mr. Tsuji gives the
characters, but I obviously can't reproduce them here :-). In the U.S., it
should be used to label Japanese soy sauce (as distinguished to the various
Chinese soy sauces, which are usually heavier and saltier). In my experience,
the word 'shoyu' is often used rather loosely by natural foods companies who
want to charge extra money for their sauce.
From Tsuji: "Soy sauce is made from soybeans, wheat and salt. A mixture of
carefully selected and roasted beans and wheat is inoculated with an
Aspergillus mold. The resulting culture, which takes three days to grow, is
called koji. The koji is then mixed with brine to make a liquidy mash. Mash
is transferred
to fermentation tanks for a leisurely brewing of one year.
After brewing, raw soy sauce is separated from the "cake" (residual materials
such as bean and grain hulls) and refined. Soy sauce today is pasteurized too."
Soy sauce production techniques were introduced into Japan from China in the
eighth and ninth centuries, but a distinctive Japanese sauce did not appear
until the fifteenth century, and was not produced commerically until the
sixteenth century. "Dutch traders in Nagasaki in the seventeenth century
exported soy sauce to Europe, and it was the secret seasoning served at the
court banquets of Louis XIV of France."
On tamari: "Tamari, used in oriental cooking and sold in healthfood stores and
oriental food stores, is a thick, very dark liquid with a stronger flavor than
soy sauce, and a clear soy aroma. It is mainly made from soybeans and
cultured and fermented like miso. It is sometimes described as raw soy sauce
that has not been fully brewed, but this description is incorrect. Often
tamari imported into the U.S. is just a brewed soy sauce. Even in Japan, it is
hard to find the best tamari."
Cheap soy sauce is fermented in only 3-4 days (instead of a year) using
chemical aids and is artificially colored and flavored as well. Avoid this
stuff at all costs. (Look for 'naturally brewed' on the label.) If you want
Japanese soy, buy Kikkoman. The Kikkoman soy sauce in American supermarkets
is brewed in the U.S., but it is still made correctly, and is pretty much
identical to the imported Japanese stuff. Among Chinese soy sauces, I like
'Superior', and it only costs $0.99/bottle if you get it at a Chinese market.
(Production costs in the People's Republic are still pretty low!) Sauces from
companies like Eden and Westbrae are undoubtedly pure and carefully made, but
they aren't particularly authentic and they cost an arm and a leg.
>Finally, does anybody know where Sukyaki and Teryaki fit into the picture?
Only peripherally. Sukiyaki is a one-pot dish of beef cooked with (among
other things) shiitake mushrooms, grilled bean curd and 'fu' (wheat gluten).
The cooking sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, sake, water and sugar. It is
of recent origin, since beef wasn't introduced into Japan until the 1860s,
but it became quite popular during the Mejii period. 'Teriyaki' is properly
a sweet soy-based glaze applied to grilled or pan fried meat, chicken or
fish ('teri' is 'gloss', and 'yaki' is grilled food). In the U.S., the word
is used to refer to a dish made using teriyaki sauce. You can buy bottled
teriyaki sauce, but it is better to make your own (just simmer together
sake, mirin, dark soy and sugar in the ratio 7:7:7:1).
> Thanks, /
You're welcome.
David McKenzie
mcke...@portia.stanford.edu
Tracey Dion Claybon
From my personal experiences with chili, I believe
the primary ingredients are garlic, ground red chili powder,
onion powder, and pepper of two kinds- red and black.
Mind you the "chili" powder I'm referring to is ground-up
DRIED CHILIES.
I do reserve the right to be wrong, however. I was born
in EAST Texas -- my specialty is southern and Cajun-Creole
food -- not chili.
My family uses THAT as soup flavoring - no :-) - I'm
serious.
Hope this helps -- any other chili conneseours (sp) care to
help me here?
Tracey Claybon
tdcl...@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
Carol Miller-Tutzauer
powder, sometimes paprika to dilute the hotness, ground cumin,
garlic powder, oregano, and salt. Below is a recipe, but feel
free to modify the proportions to suit your own tastes:
2 T cayenne (red) pepper
1 T ground cumin
1 t oregano
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt (or less)
To make a milder chili powder, just substitute paprika (sweet or
mild) for some of the cayenne pepper.
Carol
riacmt@ubvms
Dave Nadler
>
> From my personal experiences with chili, I believe
>the primary ingredients are garlic, ground red chili powder,
>onion powder, and pepper of two kinds- red and black.
>
not feel like using it I substitute a combination of Tabasco sauce and
cumin. I do not have any idea what the proportions are. Keep in mind
that my chili always includes crushed red pepper, black and white ground
peppercorns, garlic, onions, more garlic and finally more garlic.
>I do reserve the right to be wrong, however. I was born
>in EAST Texas -- my specialty is southern and Cajun-Creole
>food -- not chili.
Chili is a matter of taste. Sounds good to me.
>
>Hope this helps -- any other chili conneseours (sp) care to
>help me here?
I hope I shed some more light on the subject.
Dave
--
Dave Nadler (606)257-6806
Dept. of Math/University of KY dna...@ukma.bitnet dna...@ukma.uucp
Lexington, KY 40506-0027 dna...@ms.uky.edu
"Sometimes I think I learn more when I stay home from school."
Peter Onaka
>Soy sauce -- the general class of sauces made with soy beans,
> naturally fermented; most also contain wheat, yeast, salt.
>
>Shoyu -- Japanese (light) soy sauce. Generally milder and less
> salty than those from China.
>
>Tamari -- also Japanese; thick and unrefined like other soy sauces.
> Also wheat-free. A salt-free tamari is also available.
>
>While we are on the subject:
>
Tamari in health food stores and it is not made by Japanese companies.
Shoyu basically means "soy sauce" in Japanese and comes in a variety
of levels of darkness, clarity and amounts of fermentation (many of
which I couldn't find on the mainland unless I really shopped around
Chinatowns). There are also brands of ready made teriyaki, sukiyaki,
tempura and somen sauces that contain shoyu and other ingredients.
Even after growing up eating many shoyu based dishes, I find
that I prefer the taste of Thai nampla (looks similar to shoyu) for
general seasoning (especially if you throw in a few Thai or Hawaiian
chilies!!!!). By the way, nampla is not only made from fish (as another
poster has stated), there are shrimp based namplas also.
Anyone out there enjoy the Thai nam priks? I find that most
Caucasians (including my wife) find them too fishy. While I'm on the
subject of hot foods, here's a snack I used to love when I lived in
Bangkok: pickled green mango dipped in a mixture of sea salt, sugar
and chili powder (salty-sour-sweet-hot all at the same time).
Carol Miller-Tutzauer
> Anyone out there enjoy the Thai nam priks? I find that most
>Caucasians (including my wife) find them too fishy. While I'm on the
We LOVE them. Yeah, we caucasian-types gotta get used to the strong
fish flavor. But I've really gotten to the point where I like
very strongly flavored and VERY spicy food. I got used to the
strong flavor by just making sure there were enough of those
Thai chilis in the stuff to bring tears to my eyes. Now I love
it, but it did take some getting used to -- just like eating
dried fish (strong, takes getting used to).
Something I really like alot are those Indian hot pickles -- mango,
green chili peppers, and (especially) limes and garlic cloves and
ginger. WOW!
Carol
Dan Bernstein
To keep it hot, but give it a different flavor, use *hot* paprika,
which can be difficult to find.
--
--- Aahz
"It's not because my mind is made up that I don't want
you to confuse me with any more facts.
"It's because my mind isn't made up. I already have more
facts than I can cope with.
"So SHUT UP, do you hear me? SHUT UP!"