Soy Sauce Choices

Janet H · Jan 6, 2023

I've been using the same 2 brands of soy sauce for years and think it's time to up my game (and it's about time to restock. Currently I use Yamasa or San-J Tamari and last year I had a small bottle of Amber River Soy Sauce that was wonderful but now gone.

Anyone have recommendations?

thymeless · Jan 6, 2023

What cuisines do you prefer to cook? No one soy sauce will serve all cuisines. They can be adequate to experimentation and general enjoyment, but choosing one that reflects the cuisine will improve the food as well.

Your original choices are more Japanese oriented.

If you want to cook more Chinese, Pearl River Bridge is a popular selection. You'd also need some dark soy imho, and Pearl River Bridge Mushroom Dark Soy is good. A lot of people prefer the more Western quality control of sauces from Taiwan. So Amoy, Kimlan and that sort of thing. I use a lot of Ve Wong XO line of light soy, also from Taiwan. Light meaning color, not salt or calories. The XO happens to be less salt anyway, but you can add some salt if you feel it's lacking.

Hawaii is well served with Aloha Shoyu

Philippines, Silver Swan I think is popular?

If you want more Southeast Asian, the Chinese brands work for their influenced cuisine, but you'll need a sweet soy too. ABC is more Thai I think but works out OK.

Korea I have no opinion for but I know they have a few specific types too.

Janet H · Jan 6, 2023

I'm a typical US cook who fakes her way through Asian dishes and also a vegetarian. I make a number of stir-fried things that are Sichuan in nature and also regularly make dipping sauces for dumplings, sushi, etc. Udon (soups) is also on this list and I've recently started fiddling with making my own noodles.

jennyema · Jan 6, 2023

I only use Healthy Boy brand. And Rhei Maid Korean soy sauce.

corkyvike · Jan 6, 2023

I you have an HMart near you go check it out. So many soy sauces your head will spin.

blissful · Jan 6, 2023

@thymeless I didn't know Silver Swan was popular in the Philippines. Our grocery store has it in large bottles at half the price of other soy sauces. I can't complain about it at all. We use it for all our soy sauce needs.

Kaneohegirlinaz · Jan 6, 2023

thymeless said:
What cuisines do you prefer to cook? No one soy sauce will serve all cuisines. They can be adequate to experimentation and general enjoyment, but choosing one that reflects the cuisine will improve the food as well.

Your original choices are more Japanese oriented.

If you want to cook more Chinese, Pearl River Bridge is a popular selection. You'd also need some dark soy imho, and Pearl River Bridge Mushroom Dark Soy is good. A lot of people prefer the more Western quality control of sauces from Taiwan. So Amoy, Kimlan and that sort of thing. I use a lot of Ve Wong XO line of light soy, also from Taiwan. Light meaning color, not salt or calories. The XO happens to be less salt anyway, but you can add some salt if you feel it's lacking.

Hawaii is well served with Aloha Shoyu

Philippines, Silver Swan I think is popular?

If you want more Southeast Asian, the Chinese brands work for their influenced cuisine, but you'll need a sweet soy too. ABC is more Thai I think but works out OK.

Korea I have no opinion for but I know they have a few specific types too.

I use Aloha Low Sodium Shoyu for everything.
I even carry small/single serve packets in my purse that I bought the last time we were back home.

Homepage - Aloha Shoyu

alohashoyu.com

Then I bought a case!
We found a great Asian Bistro here in Cowboyville, but we do not care for their Soy Sauce on the tables. I'm prepared!

But recently I finally found Dark Soy to use along with for some dishes.
It's Lee Kum Kee brand.

thymeless · Jan 6, 2023

Silver swan uses the sped up hydrolysis process compared to the slower brewed fermentation method. That's part of why it's cheaper.

jennyema · Jan 6, 2023

thymeless said:
Silver swan uses the sped up hydrolysis process compared to the slower brewed fermentation method. That's part of why it's cheaper.

The sped up process is a big difference in gochujang, too. The best brands use the slow natural fermentation process.

taxlady · Jan 6, 2023

You might not always be able to tell by the ingredient list, which process was used, but often you can.

IC 2.0 · Jan 6, 2023

IMO, for most recipes (not necessarily cuisine specific recipes), Yamasa or Kikkoman are my go-to brands because those are the flavors that I grew up with and the brands that I've mostly seen used in professional kitchens, both in Hawaii and in California. I think either of those brands have the more "universal" flavor that most people associate with soy sauce whether it be for dipping, as a sauce ingredient, etc.

Here's a pretty good article that talks about the differences:

A Guide to Different Types of Soy Sauce - Uwajimaya

Learn about the history as well as the variety of soy sauces popular in Asian and other cuisines from Uwajimaya.

www.uwajimaya.com

taxlady · Jan 6, 2023

I guess that what I'm used to is also a reason for my choice. I always have tamari in the house. Once in a blue moon, I'll have something else as well. One of the things I like about tamari, is that you can get gluten free tamari. I don't worry about that most of the time, but it's nice to be able to use it when a guest with coeliac or a gluten intolerance will be eating the meal.

pepperhead212 · Jan 6, 2023

I prefer the Amoy and Kimlan soy sauces, for light (thin), dark, and low sodium. The mushroom soy I got was Pearl River Bridge, though there might be others I haven't tried yet. The Thick Soy, used in southern Thailand, is Healthy Boy, which actually has molasses in it, thus a totally different flavor, and the thickness.

As with fish sauce, I only buy naturally fermented soy sauce - many of the cheaper fish sauces and soy sauces have "hydrolyzed vegetable protein" in the ingredients, which I call them fake fish and soy sauces.

medtran49 · Jan 6, 2023

I like the Pearl River Bridge brand as well.

Badjak · Jan 7, 2023

I like Indonesian food, which uses a lot of sweet soy (kecap manis), ABC, A, Conimex etc. Generally, ABC comes wel out of most tests, but I prefer "A" (ABC is just a bit too sweet for me).
As for the salty soy, I'm quite gregarious, Pearl, Rivonia (local), kikkoman and whatever is availablr

Roll_Bones · Jan 7, 2023

I have Kikoman in the fridge. Does that count........lol

thymeless · Jan 7, 2023

blissful said:
@thymeless I didn't know Silver Swan was popular in the Philippines. Our grocery store has it in large bottles at half the price of other soy sauces. I can't complain about it at all. We use it for all our soy sauce needs.

My daughter requested some for Christmas for cooking various Adobo dishes. There's a reddit thread that came up while I was looking for info about it that mentioned the lack of brewing. Silver Swan uses soybean extract for its process. I'm not familiar with how that's generated and used for making soy sauce. Can be hard to find specifics.

Based on a video I saw from a Las Vegas station, i suspect Aloha takes the shortcut path too. I once saw a report from China where they were doing some blind taste tests. Many of the everyday people liked the high strength impact of hydrolyzed soy sauce in a quick taste test. Quite often though, humans like a strong taste in these sorts of "experiements" where we would prefer something different if used for a meal over a longer period.

It. I remember seeing an article on Korean soy where there was talk of blended hydrolized and fermented soy sauces. This isn't what I read above, but covers even more ground.

Know your Korean Soy Sauce - A Buying Guide

Soy Sauce Guide. Understanding different kinds of Korean soy sauce and how to buy good, healthy soy sauce.

kimchimari.com

blissful · Jan 7, 2023

@thymeless thank you for the added information. Silver Swan is strongly flavored and we do dilute it both for the flavor and to have less sodium. It's still very useful and I haven't found a substitute for the things we use it in and on.
I use it in a stir-fry sauce that I keep on hand in the fridge, and we spray a diluted soy sauce on our air-popped popcorn.
My first choice would be a home brewed soy sauce but I haven't tried to make it and it's a long time commitment to try.

Kathleen · Jan 7, 2023

I use Kikkoman and Pearl River Bridge as well. My go-to source for Asian-based ingredients has been the "Woks of Life" website. They have an incredible ingredient glossary that goes into detail on various types and brands of things such as soy sauces. I never knew there were so many varieties.

taxlady · Jan 7, 2023

The soy sauces that use the hydrolization process are estrogenic. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a risk factor for people with specific conditions. My doctor told me that due to the type of migraines that I get, that I was at higher risk of getting a stroke in my eyeball, if I ate estrogenic foods. Full, proper fermentation of soy apparently makes it no longer estrogenic. I did a lot of internet "research" on this topic.

Soy Sauce Choices

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