| Now we are moving onto one of the most important types of Chinese sauces: soy sauce or 酱油 (jiàng yóu) as it’s called in Chinese. The Chinese name literally translates to “sauce” 酱 jiàng “oil” 油 yóu. In case you don’t already know soy sauce is made from soy beans (hence the name), wheat and wheat bran. It has a delicious mildly salty flavour and is a popular condiment in not just China but many other Asian countries such as Japan where it’s a common dipping sauce for sushi. It’s important to note that the specific flavours and uses of soy sauce do differ according to the type of soy sauce you buy. For example, if you buy a Japanese soy sauce meant to accompany sushi, it’s going to have a different flavour to a Chinese soy sauce. To put it simply if you’re cooking Chinese food, you should use a Chinese soy sauce. However, if needed you can use a different type but be mindful that this may change the flavour of the dish slightly.  We’re going to be having a look at some of the most common varieties of Chinese soy sauce and most importantly explaining the difference between light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce 生抽 shēngchōu First up is light soy sauce, which you can also refer to as “regular soy sauce” because when a recipe is calling for soy sauce this is the one they’ll be referring to. To make matters a bit confusing often light soy sauce won’t be labelled as “light”, however generally speaking if it doesn’t say “dark” or “sweet” etc. on the bottle it’ll actually be light soy sauce. Light soy sauce is normally lighter (as you might guess from the name) and thinner than dark soy sauce, though this can vary brand to brand. It is used to add flavour to dishes and if you’re cooking Chinese food then this is the type of soy sauce you want stocked in your kitchen. It is most commonly used in stir fries, noodle dishes, as a dipping sauce and as a dressing for cold dishes. Dark soy sauce 老抽 lǎochōu Now dark soy sauce as we’ve already said is normally darker in colour, thicker and also sweeter than light soy sauce. Rather than primarily being used to add flavour to a dish, dark soy sauce is used to add a dark colour to a dish. It is commonly used in marinades, braised dishes or to achieve a darker colour in noodle and fried rice dishes. Reduced salt soy sauce 减盐酱油 jiǎn yán jiàngyóu As the world becomes ever more health conscious you will of course see more “healthy” variations of essential cooking ingredients becoming available and soy sauce is no exception. Most supermarkets now sell a reduced salt soy sauce, which have generally about 40% less salt than standard soy sauce. This is a great option if you’re worried about your salt intake, want an easy way to reduce the salt level in a dish or have more control over the salt level in a dish. Reduced salt soy sauce can basically be used interchangeably to replace light soy sauce in a recipe. |
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