I think we're all getting a little muddled up here over soya sauce. First of
all, there are many types of soya sauces(Japanese, Northern Chinese,
Southern Chinese, SE Asian etc) and i'm sure each has it's own unique taste
and 'preferred storage method and even sell by/use by date as advised by the
manufacturers and/or the local people who use it. As most of us here in this
NG are living in the 'West', where tempreture, climate and storage
conditions might be different, my simple answer is read the label for
storage & use, if there isn't any info there, keep it somewhere cool and out
of direct sunlight and please transfer it to a glass bottle/container if
you're thinking of keeping it for long periods of time/years. Plastics
bottles/containers are not suitable for keeping sauces for long periods of
time. Hence catering sizes are always in plastic containers because they get
used up fairly quickly. The same would apply for olive oils, wines etc. Some
might say it's a marketing ploy having a nice labeled bottled etc. but i
much prefer to have my good sauces, oils & wines in a glass bottle, rather
then having it ruin by a plastic container many years later. I recently
tasted a home made 10+ year old dark soya sauce kept in a glass bottle, it
tasted as good if not better. It retained it's beany flavour and if
anything, it has a more mature beany flavour compared to a 2 year old
bottle. This of course is the beauty of home made soya sauces.

The taste of soya sauce or anything that's 'brewed' will change over time
depending on what's put into it. Modern manufacturing processes of course
has more chemicals, E numbers etc. while traditionally brewed sauces has
less or non. Each will taste different over time and of course, depending on
how it's kept. If you keep it in the fridge, i would advise doing a taste
test. Taste it chill and taste it at room temp. Is there a difference in
taste?

In general, hand made Japanese Soya sauces are made with wheat and soya
beans and left to 'mature' for up to 1 year before 'decantering' to obtain
the raw/pure soya sauce. After this, you can do whatever you want with it.
Large manufacturers(Japanese & Chinese) use pressurised vats to quicken the
brewing process and often put it through another process to add flavours and
preservatives to create 'varieties' of soya sauces.

The Chinese methods differ in the amount of wheat used during the
fermentation process. Some use very little while others(Northern Chinese)
are similar to the Japanese. In Southern China & SE Asia, the hand made
method has a brewing and maturing process of only 3 months as it uses the
sun and higher amounts of salt/brine in it's fermentation solution. This
creates a different tasting sauce to the Japanese. But the same applies to
all, from this raw or basic sauce, it is then made into many grades of soya
sauces by further mixing and blending etc. Each brand or company(hand made
or machine processed) often creates it's own grading system. The below is a
common Chinese grading system.

Light soya sauce - salty, cheapest and most common.
Medium soya sauce - 3 grades, normal, medium, superior
Sweet soya sauce - 3 grades, normal, medium, superior

Others use the A or AA or AAA branding to distinguish the quality. Apart
from that, there's also the local Chinese names for different types of soya
sauces like the following in Cantonese - Sang Chow, Lou Chow, See Yao, See
Yao Wong, etc.. There's also sweeter and darker sauces by many different
names like caramel sauce, flour sauce, kicap manis etc. which some people
consider not a 'real' soya sauce as thickeners have been added to give a
sweet taste.

If you do find a hand made bottle in your shop and you have a good nose,
sniff at the bottle cap and if you can pick up a good smell of maturing
beans, chances are it'll taste good as well. On a parting note, a vast
majority of soya sauces these days use some form of modern process which
will alter it's 'true' taste, so if you ever get a chance to taste some hand
or home made soya sauces, you'll find that it'll taste more 'natural' and
beany. But of course, there'll always be some who've only tasted salty &
processed soy and will swear by it. Can't please everyone all the time.

DC.





Rona Yuthasastrakosol > wrote in message
...
> "Peter Dy" > wrote in message
> om...
> >
> >
> >
> > I dunno. I'm with Ian on this one. Refrigerators are overrated. When
my
> > sis lived in Beijing, which is not some backwater town, but an immense
> city,
> > her apartment didn't have a refrigerator. Thus, from the Xia Dynasty
> > starting in the 21st century BC to the 21st century AD, China has been
> > refrigerator-free. All its food culture has been geared towards that
> fact,
> > which is why we have all those wonderful fermented and dried products.
> >
>
> I would think that in China, because products like soy sauce are used very
> frequently, they are probably used up before any significant deterioration
> occurs. The same would hold true in Japan, where my friends kept their
> daily use soy sauces in cupboards, while premium soys were kept in the
> fridge (by premium soys, I mean the ones that cost a minimum of
Y1500/litre
> which they used less often). Keeping the same bottle for 3 years is not
> likely to occur in these countries (I assume) so there is not as much need
> to preserve the flavour through refrigeration.
>
> Personally, I don't use soy sauce that often right now so I don't even
have
> any in the house. However, in the past I have noticed that "old" fish
sauce
> does have a much different flavour from when first purchased. It may have
> to do with evaporation, resulting in a stronger, more
concentrated-flavoured
> product, but it is different and a little unpleasant when used directly on
> food, though the difference is not as noticeable as when used as an
> ingredient in a dish.
>
> > I don't know exactly why Kikkoman would reply as they did, but maybe it
is
> > to appeal to American sensibilities or to show how Japanese are
> "advanced".
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
>
> I think (though I may be mistaken) that Kikkoman made and sold in Japan
has
> the same "refrigerate after opening" label on it so it wouldn't be in
order
> to appeal to American sensibilities. To me, Japanese soy sauce is usually
> much lighter in flavour so I would imagine changes in flavour would be
more
> noticeable. Perhaps that is why they suggest refrigeration while Chinese
> soy sauce don't (assuming they don't, I don't have any on hand to check).
>
> rona
>
> ---
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>
>