Soya sauce

Soy sauce (also called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. Soy sauce in its current form was created about 2,200 years ago during the Western Han dynasty of ancient China, and spread throughout East and Southeast Asia where it is used in cooking and as a condiment. Soy sauce (醬油) is considered almost as old as soy paste—a type of fermented paste (Jiang, 醬) obtained from soybeans—which had appeared during the Western Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) and was listed in the bamboo slips found in the archaeological site Mawangdui (馬王堆). There are several precursors of soy sauce that are associated products with soy paste. Among them the earliest one is Qingjiang (清醬) that had appeared in AD 40 and was listed in Simin Yueling (四民月令). Others are Jiangqing (醬清), Chizhi (豉汁) and Chiqing (豉清) which are recorded in Qimin Yaoshu (齊民要術) in AD 540. By the time of the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD), the term soy sauce (醬油) had become the accepted name for the liquid condiment, which are documented in two books: Shanjia Qinggong (山家清供) and Pujiang Wushi Zhongkuilu (浦江吳氏中饋錄) during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD). Like many salty condiments, soy sauce was originally a way to stretch salt, historically an expensive commodity. During the Zhou dynasty of ancient China, fermented fish with salt was used as a condiment in which soybeans were included during the fermentation process. By the time of the Han dynasty, this had been replaced with the recipe for soy paste and its by-product soy sauce, by using soybeans as the principal ingredient, with fermented fish-based sauces developing separately into fish sauce. The 19th century Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams wrote that in China, the best soy sauce is 'made by boiling beans soft, adding an equal quantity of wheat or barley, and leaving the mass to ferment; a portion of salt and three times as much water are afterwards put in, and the whole compound left for two or three months when the liquid is pressed and strained'. Chinese Buddhist monks introduced soy sauce into Japan in the 7th century, where it is known as shōyu (醤油, shōyu). The earliest soy sauce brewing in Korea seems to have begun prior to the era of the Three Kingdoms c. 57 BC. The Records of the Three Kingdoms, a Chinese historical text written and published in the 3rd century, mentions that 'Goguryeo people are good at brewing fermented soy beans.' in the section named Dongyi (Eastern foreigners), in the Book of Wei. Jangdoks used for soy sauce brewing are found in the mural paintings of Anak Tomb No.3 from the 4th century Goguryeo. In Samguk Sagi, a historical record of the Three Kingdoms era, it is written that ganjang (soy sauce) and doenjang (soybean paste) along with meju (soybean block) and jeotgal (salted seafood) were prepared for the wedding ceremony of the King Sinmun in February 683. Sikhwaji, a section from Goryeosa (History of Goryeo), recorded that ganjang and doenjang were included in the relief supplies in 1018, after a Khitan invasion, and in 1052, when a famine occurred. Joseon texts such as Guhwangchwaryo and Jeungbo sallim gyeongje contain the detailed procedures on how to brew good quality ganjang and doenjang. Gyuhap chongseo explains how to pick a date for brewing, what to forbear, and how to keep and preserve ganjang and doenjang. Records of the Dutch East India Company list soy sauce as a commodity in 1737, when seventy-five large barrels were shipped from Dejima, Japan, to Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on the island of Java. Thirty-five barrels from that shipment were then shipped to the Netherlands. In the 18th century, diplomat and scholar Isaac Titsingh published accounts of brewing soy sauce. Although earlier descriptions of soy sauce had been disseminated in the West, his was among the earliest to focus specifically on the brewing of the Japanese version. By the mid-19th century, Japanese soy sauce gradually disappeared from the European market, and the condiment became synonymous with the Chinese product. Europeans were unable to make soy sauce because they did not understand the function of Aspergillus oryzae, the fungus used in its brewing. Soy sauce made from ingredients such as Portobello mushrooms were disseminated in European cookbooks during the late 18th century. A Swedish recipe for 'Soija' was published in the 1770 edition of Cajsa Warg's Hjelpreda i Hushållningen för Unga Fruentimber and was flavored with allspice and mace.