I tried finding the best Soy Sauce in the world.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 มิ.ย. 2024
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In this video, we are doing a deep dive into soy sauce, one of the most loved fermented liquids in the world.
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📃 Recipes with Soy Sauce:
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Black Pepper Beef ➡️ www.cookwell.com/recipe/canto...
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📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:
▪ Chemical and Sensory Characteristics of Soy Sauce: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
▪ The Noma Guide to Fermentation: amzn.to/4bKyeRo
▪ On Food & Cooking: amzn.to/423Qq3H
▪ Business Insider ➔ • Why Only 1% Of Japan's...
▪ Eater (Soy Sauce) ➔ • How Soy Sauce Has Been...
▪ Eater (Tofu) ➔ • How Tofu Is Made - The...
▪ Great Big Story ➔ • Five Generations of Ma...
▪ National Geographic ➔ • A 750-Year-Old Secret:...
▪ Japan by Food ➔ • Centuries-Old Secret: ...
▪ Time Out Singapore ➔ • How it's made: soy sau...
• How Tofu Is Made - The...
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
2:01 History of Soy Sauce
6:49 How is soy sauce made?
12:38 What is the flavor of Soy Sauce?
20:44 Sushi Test
25:23 Fried Rice Test
28:29 Dipping Sauce Test
30:52 What is the 'best' soy sauce?
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Music: Provided by Epidemic Sound
Filmed on: Sony a6600 & Sony A7C
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Edited in: Premiere Pro
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Here is the table with all of the Soy Sauces I used throughout this video: ethanchlebowski.notion.site/9b5dc7db971d40b0bb200fc0cbb78b33?v=1799613d5b98498496a427be88546891&pvs=4
Also I already have a couple solid deep dive ideas lined up for the next couple of months, but what should we get into this summer?
I would've really liked to know what would be the taste difference between the Korean regular vs. soup.
We love our carbon steel pans, but it was surprising to hear someone refer to carbon steel as "light." Woks specifically are thin metal, so those aren't too heavy I guess, but otherwise carbon steel skillets are only light compared to cast iron 😂
What about Maggi
Hi! I can't seem to find the soy sauce tasting notes sheet? Forgive me if im just missing it, but has it been shared anywhere?
Just added it to this comment, thanks for the reminder!
Perhaps the best soy sauce is the one we made along the way
I would love to make soy sauce with you baby
The soy sauce we made was terrible
I am considering making my own. I resemble this comment.
I was thinking exactly the same thing!!
I was thinking a different thing.
Fear not the man who has 1,000 soy sauces. Fear the man who use 1 soy sauce 1,000 times.
Fear more the man who has used 1000 soy sauces 1000 times
I was hoping I'd find a comment like this - am not dissapointed
The hater of my least favorite soy sauce is my friend.
- Sun *sip sip sip sip* Oooh
@@richmondvand147 Wow this really blew up lol
You're famous!@@jiraphat2200
My parents (Japanese) typically use kikkoman, but like special soy sauces for sashimi or sushi. Relatively recently, we've been a able to get dashi-soy sauce, which our whole family loves. It's got more dashi flavour and isn't so salty, and goes so well with sushi and sashimi. You can also make shoyu-koji by fermenting shoyu with koji yourself, and it imparts a beautiful sweet-umami, rounded and very complex flavour.
Sounds rubbish...
I use soy from the teets of the soyboy...
@@zoot4358 bahaha, yeah we all know no soy sauce is ever going to be as good as straight from the soy boy! But mortals can try
Which Kikkoman flavor do you guys use? Just the regular one?
What brand is the dashi soy sauce you're referring to
@@anonymoose2474 regular
I absolutely love that you made this video. I’m from Hawaii and we use (in our household) multiple different soy sauces because of the reasons you just made. Each soy sauce has its place in the kitchen depending on what you’re making and what you’re trying to accomplish. And unless you’re familiar with different soy sauces you’re really missing out on different flavor profiles.
I am addicted to aloha soyu and its so hard to find in the states but its the best soyu I've ever tried
@@sketchmastertask3093 I grew up with that being our everyday shoyu and it’s still my go-to. I’ve been finding them at Asian markets near me. Maybe try one and see if they have it there?
Thank you so much in sharing your truth. Was raised on Oahu until I was married 53yrs ago. I totally agree with you. I wish I could get back and purchase my favorite’s again but it is not possible for me to come back home again until my funeral so no hope. So sad. Please enjoy your favorite’s for me. Would love to know what your favorite’s are. Blessings to You. 🙏♥️
What if I use one and alter it with sugars etc? I use soy only varieties like Tamari. What are your favorites and uses for them? I'm very curious.
100%! I keep at least 4 different kinds of soy sauce.
Please make a deep dive video on butter! There are so many kinds at the store, it's hard to know what to choose from. I recently started making homemade butter too, so hopefully that can also be included.
Amazing video as always, thanks for all the work you put into this!
If only people would stop using salted butter. It's literally just salt and butter. You can just salt the recipe. And when you spread it on your food, you're not accidentally oversalting your food at the same time. (If you want the most delicious butter for finishing food, find natural process butter, like Amish roll butter. The difference is wild.)
@@KevinJDildonikNobody needs to stop using salted butter… You would just need to use less to no additional salt in your recipe. If someone doesn’t understand the difference between salted and unsalted butter, then they’re probably using Pinterest recipes and no type of butter is saving that dish.
It’s on the list! Likely going to wait until the fall on this one, so it drops during peak baking season. Want to do tests with sautéing in butter vs baking with butter vs sauces, etc.
@@KevinJDildonikAdam Ragusa did a video on this; salted butter used to have way more salt in it than it does now. I’ve literally used salted butter in baking recipes before and the resulting product was not any more salty
@@KevinJDildonik I am now only going to use salted butter just to spite you.
18:02 "Soyces" Somebody has been saying soy too much 😂😂
laughed out loud, thanks for pointing it out I didn't realise.
Also 7:14 "transfoym"
I caught that too. I laughed pretty good
33:51 confusing "Soy sauce" for "Episode"
Yeah he's been saying it too much
i think he has a speech impediment, he mispronounces things left and right. "susi" "shasimi" either that or he is just a little dumb.
Being married to a Thai women I have learned so much about sauces. Using a Chinese or Japanese soy sauce in a Thai dish changes the flavors substantially. These cultures have cultivated these sauces to work with there cuisines. This really opened my mind and learned to appreciate where ingredients come from.
As a thai, i cant agree more. The fat kid brand light soy sauce has that distinct flavour no other brand has! Not saying that one is better than others. They are all just distinctive.
@@zoelin83 LOL i call it fat boy brand too! its healthy boy but i can swear it use to be fat boy or its the mandela effect xD its my favorite brand, specifically the mushroom one made with shiitakes
@@colbicolbiWTF Recently new brands were launched, some worth trying but the fat boy light soy sauce is irreplaceble! It's healthy boy indeed but from the logo, that boy doesnt seem too healthy. Haha
I bought three very different shoyu (Japanese soy sauces) from a company online called Japanese Taste. They're in Tokyo, I believe. These were a Christmas gift for my wife, who is a fabulous cook. Anyways, all are artisanal, family-made sauces and one is the four year old you featured here. Yes, they were expensive. We use ordinary Kikkoman for cooking. But these very special shoyu have very complex flavors and aromas, each different from the others, and are terrific for drizzling over sushi or rice. Used sparingly, the high price doesn't matter. And we like that we are supporting small family businesses keep age-old traditions alive. Great video, Ethan!
Great share Paul, which one was your favorite and why if you don't mind me asking?
Great video! Some observations: 1. Most Asian recipes call for (a little bit of) salt in addition to the soy sauce; westerners have somehow gotten into their heads that soy sauce is used in place of salt. That’s probably why the La Choy (and to a lesser extent the Kikkoman, since it’s brewed here) are saltier. (Imported Kikkoman is less salty than the domestic stuff.) 2. Kikkoman is just a much better soy sauce than people think it is. It’s the daily driver even for a lot of Japanese people. We’re really lucky to have a traditionally brewed soy sauce made in the US that’s available basically everywhere. 3. Thai soy sauces are much milder because they tend to be used in combination with fish sauce and often oyster sauce. 4. Didn’t see one in the video, but for dipping and sauces I highly recommend a Japanese double fermented saishikomi. They make a regular batch of the (koikuchi) shoyu, then brew another one, replacing the brine with the first batch. So you get extra savoriness and flavor without extra salt. It’s really lovely. 5. Which reminds me, the “light” shoyu (usukuchi) is probably best avoided unless a recipe specifically calls for it. I find it pretty harsh. Fortunately, almost all the shoyu we get in the US is the “dark” (koikuchi), which isn’t any darker than Chinese/Korean/Thai “light” soy sauce.
Westerners might have been omitting salt because of Western medical advice telling them to eat less salt, too.
@@erzsebetkovacs2527 Exactly that imho as well, since salt is perceived as "an enemy" to be avoided. Meanwhile, China and Japan have high rates of stomach cancers for a reason.
for some brands they're over salted almost to the point of how the hell can you eat that. Thats probably where thats from esp when its the cheap shit, buy mid range stuff and that goes away I find at least with NA stuff, then yeah I salt. You're 100% correct though glutamates do not equal salt
@@SterbenCyrodill last I checked salt doesn't give you cancer lol (otherwise Europe would be in a LOT of trouble). Could be the nukes that were dropped... or maybe the use of some gnarly toxic chemicals that are weirdly allowed for consumption, as for China... eh maybe dont eat stuff from there - due to being uber poor they tend to get real desperate and do all kinds of werid things to produce and meat - like filling their animals full of anti-biotics so they gain water weight and so on.
I feel like Ethan kind of only scratched the surface here and didn't really dive too deep like he's done in similar past videos. Even the tests weren't that great. Multiple dashi with different soy sauces would've been interesting to try for instance.
I love that after the variety of experiments you conducted and the research you did, the eventual answer you found to the thesis question “which soy sauce is better and why” ended up being: “?????????” Always love your videos.
I feel like I'm done watching his comparisons.
He should do a strictly blind test to begin with to get his assessments and *then* do a brand by brand assessment. He's poisoning the well from the outset by knowing the brands/prices/etc.
I went to a Tequila distillery in Mexico one time, and the first thing the tour guide asked us was... "what is the best tequila in the world?" and a bunch of people yelled out a bunch of expensive brands... but the guide simply said, "it's the one you like." - it rings true with everything... Ethan can't tell you which one you'll like, you have to experiment just like he suggested at the end.
This was always going to be the answer
Surprised that the cheap shit (La Choy) was a viable choice all the way through.
Exactly, a worthless video.
These in depth deep dive videos you’ve been doing have replaced any of my Netflix watching time. Seriously amazing
I've watched like three of your videos now and I'm truly blown away by the level of effort and content you're able to fit into these videos. You've earned my subscription. I look forward to seeing more of your content.
Wait till you understand you learned nothing and his videos are just full of questions on which he takes 10 mins to answer and fills them up with irrelevant information to make you feel like he said something smart.
Southeast Asian married to an East Asian and living in the US here. We always try to cook dishes from our home country that’s not easy to get here in the US. I've got a wide variety of soy sauces in my kitchen, each with its own specific use - stir fry, dipping, sauce, porridge, soup, you name it. It's crucial to know when to use each type; it's not just about the taste. For instance, Kecap Manis is completely different from the rest, it’s specific to South East Asian dishes and will completely ruin the taste if you use it for sushi.
Thanks for the great content! It's really informative, and I can imagine the effort behind it. ❤️
So what your saying is I should go with japanese Korean & a chinese soy sauce? lol
@@MRSketch09actually yes, especially if you are following a recipe, the difference in salt could really affect the dish. It's not too different from having to stock different vinegars which vary in intensity
@@MRSketch09 TL;DR: yup, at least to make typical/popular recipes that use soy sauces.
actually depends, if you want to make a chinese-style fried rice then yes, but if you want malay/indonesian-style ones which is predominantly sweeter, you cannot use east asian sauces to make it. That being said, a lot of popular recipes would use non-sweet soy sauce and they tend to pair better with east asian soy sauces rather than the sweet south east asian ones. If you decide to try kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) try cooking “Ayam Kecap”, this will not work with just non-sweet soy sauce and sugar!
I haven't really tried the combination on my own, but with kecap manis, I reckon you can combine soy sauce and brown sugar, and just omit the salt salt in the recipe. However, physically, kecap manis is very thick, closer to molasses, so you may need to do some reduction. Although the end result may not be comparable to kecap manis. But as an alternative it "should" work
@@MRSketch09 as a south east Asian in asia, yes, eat one does a different thing to us. What Ethan says is true, there is no one best soy sauce for anything. The soy sauce I use for my chicken rice is not the same as the one i used for my fried rice. You can but it doesn't taste the same as what we are used to. There is no such thing as bad soy suace
A Japanese acquaintance once gifted me a bottle of soy sauce from Yuasa, the birthplace of soy sauce in Japan. Nothing wrong with Kikkoman, it is a decent soy sauce, but just try a drop of Kikkoman versus a drop of Yuasa... Amazing. Over the last fifteen years, I have imported bottles a couple of times, for myself and as gifts. If you ever get the chance, to grab a bottle: don't hesitate!
Kikkoman sucks
@@shawnthomas7404 you know a better one?
@shawnthomas7404 eh, it's fine. It's the bud light of shoyu.
got a link as example? i cant decide which yuasa soysauce
What brand do you recommend?
Love how good you are with citing your sources. I wish every channel I watch did this.
Thai black soy sauce is also called sweet soy sauce in thailand. It's usually eaten with hainanese chicken rice. Thai people mostly use sweet soy mostly for sweetness and color rather than salty and umami flavor. Salty and umami soy sauces in thailand are not that dark in color. When making fried rice most places would put both thin soy and dark soy for color.
Ethan, I’m a huge home cook and I use soy sauce a LOT. This video was incredibly informative and I truly appreciate the level of effort and research put into it. Just wanted to say thank you, your content is awesome.
Awesome! Thank you!
Tdlr?
"I'm a huge home cook" sounds really funny
The hydrolized style of soy sauce is what Maggi is. The Swiss developed that process, the French took it with them and introduced it to Vietnam, which is why it gets used there, since it is such a different taste from genuine local soy sauces.
Very interesting, I'm Vietnamese and I wondered why in our fried rice, we tend to use Maggi over other soy sauces.
Arome Maggi? I would never call that soy sauce honestly. It's a whole different product!
@@FutureCommentary1Europeans don't call it soy sauce either, Maggi is Maggi
@@FutureCommentary1 Though it's not soy sauce anymore, nowadays they use 100% wheat as far as I know
@Commentary1 Yep, Vietnamese here and Maggi is Maggi. Not a soy sauce sub, it's its own thing.
Love the way the recipes are organized/presented on your new website! Definitely going in my bookmarks.
I really appreciate the videos with the history and science built into the product comparison. This was fascinating - and thanks for the summary table. If you're looking for ideas, I think mustard might be very interesting.
FYI the Korean soup soy sauce exists bc it’s used to flavor lighter soups without altering the color too much.
Great video doing a deep dive on this topic. As a Thai, I have all main types of Thai soy sauces at home, plus Japanese and Korean soy sauces to use when I cook their recipes.
I wanted to share all the 4 types of Thai soy sauce here. (The cap colors are standardized across all Thai brands.)
1. Thin soy sauce (white cap): Basic soy sauce. Milder taste. All purpose cooking (usually used alongside seasoning soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce)
2. Thin seasoning soy sauce (yellow cap): Is the white cap+some added seasoning ingredients. slightly saltier and more umami than the white caps. Used for all purpose cooking, dipping, or quick splash onto cooked food such as fried eggs and congee.
3. Seasoning soy sauce (green cap): Is the chemical processed soy sauce+added seasoning ingredients. Saltiest among all 4. Great for marinating and all purpose cooking.
4. Black soy sauce / sweet soy sauce: Deep color with sweetness and saltiness, umami flavor. Used for color and for adding sweetness to some savory dishes such as Pad See Yew, Pad Krapow, and Thai dry noodles. Also used for making dipping sauces for crispy pork belly and Chicken rice sauce.
And you're right that it could probably used in baking. The brand once went viral for their ice cream pop-up shop, where they put this sauce on top of vanilla soft serve ice cream (it tastes unbelievably good!)
Thank you. I've often wondered why so many and how you use them.
Is the cap color for black soy sauce black?
ye, you forgot to mention the cap color of kecap manis
Thank you for sharing brother. 🙏
Yellow cap ftw It is truly the best
Thanks for helping me elevate my cooking!
It's so funny to see someone talking about La Choy -
One of my favorite meals to make myself as a kid (we were poor) was white rice + butter + la choy soy sauce
So it's the taste of my childhood, though its definitely... mostly just salty haha. It's no longer carried in a lot of stores so I have to special order it. Pure nostalgia makes it one of my favs, lol.
Sometimes it depends on what you're using it for. We often use Golden Mountain for finishing, Maggi for dipping, and Lee Kum Kee for cooking.
I only use Lee Kum Kee when I'm cooking, I love it so much
Yeah lee kum kee dark is just the best for cooking with
Maggi does have a distinct taste. However, Maggi is not soy sauce because it is made from hydrolyzed wheat protein and additives, while soy sauce contains soybeans. Believe it or not, Switzerland is where MAGGI originates,
You pretty much got it right, Maggi & Golden Mountain are “finishing/dipping sauces” that can be used straight out of the bottle. Where as Soy sauce is for cooking, and to make it into a dipping sauce you’d need to mix it with a few things.
I always use Kikkoman, and so do my parents, and so did my grandparents.
Its become a very nostalgic and familiar flavor for me, to the point where other soy sauces just don't taste quite right.
Yeah, I'm the same... I stick to Kikkoman too, and probably always will. ;-) It's just so familiar and comfy to me.
I used to use kikoman and it was so salty, even the low sodium ones. Once I started going to the asian markets and getting other asian soy sauces, I can't ever have kikoman ever again.
I usually do use Kikkoman, but I do have a bottle of that mizu barrel-aged soy sauce that I sometimes break out when I want something more than just saltiness. It's less salty and sweeter so I usually have to add salt when I use unlike with the kikkoman, but it's a much more complex flavor. It all depends on how much of a spotlight you want on the soy sauce or whether it should just be background character in the food.
@@johannawebley4101 Kikkoman is Japanese brand though, but I get what you meant
@@way9883 I know, but other varieties are much better. I feel like people go for it cuz it's the known name, like Tabasco for hot sauce but there are so many other better hot sauces out there.
Currently in the gym, listened to Adrian Von ziegler and TH-cam decided that "In this video were doing a deep dive into the world of soy sauce." is what I needed for my next set
Wow! this was fantastic! Amazing job... thank you Ethan!
As an Indonesian, seeing Bango was wild. We use them pretty much daily and use it for a lot of things, from fried rice to dipping sauces. What I personally do is usually mix chilli sauce / sambal with the soy sauce.
It even works well with just plain white rice (a classic broke college delicacy XD)
I ALWAYS put chili oil in my soy sauce. Gotta have that heat!!
but it wasnt used. it's kinda important in there though because I think it was such an oddity since most soy sauce is salty and sour. so sweet soy sauce was really a specific specimen.
Hi Ethan, I'm indonesian and I'd say the Bango brand is Kecap Manis- different from most soy sauces in the video because it is intended to be sweet.
It's made with black soybeans to start, fermented similarly to other soy sauces (probably most similar to ones of SE Asia or southern China origin), and then mixed with palm sugar. It is used as the main flavoring for Indonesian-style Fried Rice (Nasi Goreng), braises (Semur), and sauce for skewers (Sate/Satay). Also, famous struggle meals here are white rice with kecap manis and rice crackers (Kerupuk) with kecap manis lol
We also have salty soy sauce (Kecap Asin), we use less of it than the sweet type, and we cook with it similarly to the other sauces in the video. My favourite use of it is in the broth for Fujian/Hokkien noodles (Bakmi).
All said, SE Asia food is as diverse as the people, so you're very welcome to explore! There's definitely something for everyone. Great video as always!
I'm Chinese so we have our own fair share of soy sauces but the indonesian sweet soy sauce is so addicting!
What's the ratio of soy sauce and palm sugar in Kecap Manis?
Do you know what brand of soy sauce they pack in indome mi goreng noodles please?
@@some1156 likely proprietary, but Indomie is produced by Indofood who has their own kecap manis brand so you can try it if you can find it
@@erzsebetkovacs2527 when I checked the label, it's around 8g/15mL which means it's half sugar by weight lol, it's soy mash flavored brown sugar syrup basically
btw sweet soy sauce can be brewed too, im not sure about the bango sweet soy sauce since their taken by unilever company, but traditional sweet soy sauce are brewed along with the fermented soy paste but not with big wooden barrel, but with pot like pottery kinda like chinese ceramics, like ketjap tjap jawan in pekalongan they kinda taste like sweet and salty soy sauce combaine together, they are called ketjap sedeng (medium tasting soy sauce)
This was mind blowing !
Dude should make a video about finding the best fish sauce next.
I agree. I got a bottle of fish sauce and it smells so bad not sure if it's supposed to be like that.
"Some soyces" 😂 18:02
Glad someone else caught that 😅 had to rewind it to make sure I wasn't crazy
He does things like this a lot because he reads off a script to create the voice over.
Sometimes he'll even say things that are clearly a written typo. It's pretty funny.
@@anishannayya1Yeah, there's quite a few minor flubs like this thru the video. It's cute, not a problem.
@@anishannayya1 I don't think that's a typo. I think it's just saying the word soy sauce 1000 times in a week and then your brain merging the words.
Also "transfoym" 7:15 😂
Hello Ethan, I wanted to share some insights on the Chinese style of soy sauce, which comes in various types, each suited for different culinary applications.
普通酱油 (Ordinary Soy Sauce) is a type that sits between 生抽 (Light Soy Sauce) and 老抽 (Dark Soy Sauce) in terms of characteristics. It has a darker color, more intense flavor, and a slightly bitter and saltier taste. It requires longer heating to develop a rich, soy aroma, so it's best not to add it right before the dish is finished cooking.
The production techniques for soy sauce vary slightly between the northern and southern regions of China. In the colder northern areas, "solid-state fermentation" is more common, while the warmer and more humid conditions of the south favor "liquid-state fermentation."
The first extraction of soy sauce is called 头抽油 (First Extract Soy Sauce), followed by 二抽油 (Second Extract) and 三抽油 (Third Extract) for the subsequent fermentations.
生抽 (Light Soy Sauce), made from a blend of the first, second, and third extracts, is ideal for enhancing the umami flavor and for use in cold dishes.
Notably, 头抽酱油 (First Extract Soy Sauce) contains the highest amount of umami substances, making light soy sauce with a higher proportion of first extract of superior quality.
"味极鲜" is another type of light soy sauce, which includes flavor enhancers to make its taste even more prominent and richer. It can be used as a substitute for MSG or chicken essence to enhance the flavor and texture of dishes.
老抽 (Dark Soy Sauce) is made by further processing and concentrating these extracts. It is darker in color, richer in flavor, more viscous, and saltier. Its primary use is for coloring dishes, such as in braised meats, marinated dishes, and stews, sometimes with added caramel color to deepen the shade even further.
蒸鱼豉油 (Steamed Fish Soy Sauce) is also a type of soy sauce, made from soybeans. It is designed to enhance the flavor of dishes, often including sweeteners to balance its salty taste, making it particularly suitable for seafood.
While there are many more types of soy sauce, these are some of the basics that can significantly influence the outcome of your cooking. Each type has its unique purpose and can elevate your dishes in different ways.
BTW 金蘭 which you used in the video for fried rice is ok. I used to work in a Chinese restaurant and the Sifu always used a big mysterious plastic can without any label on it. I think that is the mixture of soy sauce or something but that special sauce for fried rice is GOAT
This is so neutrally written and detailed that I thought I was reading a ChatGPT response
Love it! It really is crazy how much variation there is when it comes to the production process in a single country's soy sauce varieties, let alone across different countries.
I would have loved to get even more granular in this video and thought of about 100 more tests I could have done haha. For example, some day if I get a test kitchen with lots of willing taste testers, I'd love to revist the fried rice test with even more variations and also different types (vegetable fried rice, shrimp fried rice, chicken, etc.)
TLDR
@@MegaTroubleII I typed most of the part in Chinese and like a small proportion in English then I asked GPT to translate it for me cuz it is very hard to translate some of the Chinese terms in English, especially in the field that I'm not that familiar about
Great video as always!! I want to add a note, for the sweet soy sauce (15:56) mainly used with fried rice, noodles, and condiment in my country.
Cheers from Indonesia !!! 🇮🇩❤
Living in Thailand and cooking for my family, this is how i do it;
Thai soy sauce for cooking.
Kikoman for dipping.
Chinese sour soy sauce for dumplings.
Kecap manis bango, or bango brand sweet soy sauce, is in fact, an entirely different kind of soy sauce originated from central java region.
As an Indonesian, we use it as entirely different sauce, only some times mixed together with soy sauce for cooking. We call soy sauce "kecap asin", and sweet soy sauce "kecap manis".
We do not use it for baking. Though it is sweet, it's still considered as savory sauce.
also to add, kecap use black soybean combined with palm sugar instead of yellow soybean like other soy sauce.
It’s more often used to cook fried rice. Imagine if it’s being used in baking :)
Maybe you _should_ also bake with it.
@@yuyutubee8435 no.
Kecap is the stuff that comes in a little packet with Mi Goreng noodles, isn't it? I'd heard (westerner here) that it was a local variation on Ketchup, or perhaps the origin of ketchup that sailors tried to replicate when they arrived home.
Indonesian sweet soy sauce, or kecap manis, is a staple of Indonesian cuisine. Kecap manis is a common ingredient in grilling and stir-frying. Kecap manis is rarely used for soups during the cooking process, though people might add it later as a condiment on the dinner table. Kecap Manis is also used side by side with its counterpart, Sambal sauce, and mixed both for sweetness and spicyness.
It's also where the English language gets "ketchup" from (kecap) and over time they transformed the more fish/soy based sauce into the modern tomato ketchup.
Ketjap manis is especially good in stews when combined with ginger. It's heavenly. But then again, that's why Indonesian cuisine is top of the world.
My parents were Dutch and we always had a bottle of Ketjap Manis in the house. My dad rubbed it on steaks before the BBQ.
@@debilthomes501 That's smart indeed, ketjap manis and sambal is the perfect marinade for a lot of meat.
I find it incredibly difficult to source good Indonesian soy sauce in the US. You always see ABC brand, but the flavor is quite unattractive to me. Sometimes, if I am lucky, I can find Conimex (technically Dutch instead of Indonesian). It has a very distinct and well-balanced flavor. Doesn't work as a substitute for Chinese or Japanese soy sauces, of course. But in Indonesian dishes it works so incredibly well. Highly recommended if you can get your hands on it. Of course, if you are in Europe, it's often super easy to find. So, there's that.
Fascinating video! One of my most burning culinary questions at last addressed (if not settled). Thanks!
love these deep dives, thanks for the work
The Bango sauce is from Indonesia and called kakap manis, manis literally means sweet. It is specifically meant to be used in fried rice/noodles and satay sauces.
We've got a bottle of sweet soy at home that I'll often use as a quick substitution for teriyaki or that kind of flavoring. Sweet glaze basically, or a sweet addition to rice, etc. Very different stuff from regular soy or tamari - kind of surprised it was on the list at all
kecap not kakap brother, kecap is ketchup and kakap is snapper. And its really sweet so we don't use it on it own. We sometimes use it with onion, cilantro, pepper, chili, and so many other alternative to balance the taste. So if you sipping it on its own i agree that what you can taste is sweet (in my childhood sometimes i like to poke the sauce and take it strait to my mouth XD)
I grew up on fried egg and kecap manis. Shit is bomb.
Your former coloniser here. I'd like to thank you for the ketjap manis, ketjap asin, kroepoek, all the sambals, atjar tjampoer, babi pangang, sate, satesaus, rendang, and that mixture of cocos and peanuts, what's it calked again?
Oh, and spekkoek of course!!
@@fukpoeslaw3613 I thought spekkoek is brought by Dutch
I’ve been loving your deep dives into specific ingredients. I’m super excited to watch this
I was recently in Japan and noticed in a grocery store that there was an entire shelf of various Kikkoman brand soy sauces, some in fancy bottles, some quite expensive. I should have counted the varieties, but there were probably at least 20.
I had always used Kikkoman and La Choy through most of my adult life - that is until Covid. I bought a bottle of the 4-year aged Shoyu and it has been my go-to ever since. I do keep regular Kikkoman and Light Kikkoman on hand for different dishes but I usually dip and flavor after cooking with the Shoyu.
Your videos are always top notch; full of information and presented so nicely, thanks for these consistently amazing videos.
In Korea, every soy sauce must have a label showing their T.N (Total Nitrogen) level. Higher the better.
The normal Korean soy sauce that Ethan had has TN of 1.7, which is the highest of the non-specialty, mass manufactured one in Korea. A.K.A - the best normal soy sauce in Korea.
The soup one has TN of 1.2. But the Korean soup soy sauce has different brewing method, and only goes in soups cause the taste is lighter and saltier so the TN doesn’t matter too much. We don’t use it the way Ethan did in the testing. We would use the “normal” ones for that.
But great video! Well researched!
lol using 국간장 for fried rice got me, it literally has its main singular use in the name
I didn't know about that TN level, that's interesting. Do you know of what the ratio of Soybeans to Wheat typically is for the TN 1.7 variety? I wanted to use the soup soy sauce in a nonconventional way to see how the flavor came through!
Now we need a Japanese to chime in snippets of knowledge about their own soysauce.
Ethan, gotta say dude, your content is awesome. Always so well put together, researched, tight script, good looking food, great technique. Thanks for sticking to the more informative side of food science than going down the ol’ tik-tok’erization of TH-cam food content.
Soo well put together! Well done!
Fantastic video- I will have to revisit to retain so much great information. Just after watching this, I went to my pantry where I do have 3 different varieties of soy sauce, did a taste test and was floored by the differences in taste, and when I examined the sodium levels/carbs, etc. it really hit home everything you've said here. Thank you for a great video, Ethan!
I distill my own whiskey and age it in small 1 or 2L oak barrels. Sometimes i put soy sauce or balsamic in the old whiskey barrels and let it oak for a few months. It can make some interesting flavor profiles. The small barrels have a high surface area to fluid volume so it doesn't take long to get some interesting flavors.
Slightly off topic but I heard a really interesting radio interview with the designer of the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle, the little curved glass one with the red double spout lid. If I remember correctly he did 200 iterations before settling on the current design. It is admittedly stylish. I wish I could hear it again. It was on Australian ABC Radio National.
As a home cook and a guy who works in a kitchen professionally, I think kikkoman is the best all purpose soy sauce due to flavor profile and simplicity of ingredients. Having only 5 ingredients, being water, soybeans, wheat, salt, that bacteria that makes them ferment as ingredients is very simple and avoids a lot of chemical stuff, which matters to me. The flavor profile is also less salty than la choy. Unless you're going for something specific where kikkoman isn't appropriate, I think it is an excellent choice.
Hey, Ethan, I also wanna add that in a lot of Chinese and Japanese cooking, soy sauce is not always gonna be used by itself as an application. If you really wanna get good soy sauce, you gotta cook and season it. A lot of times, soy sauce that's used as a condiment to pour over or used to dip, like Cantonese steamed fish and cheung fun, is often a blend that's made in house or seasoned and cooked with aromatics, such as ginger, garlic, and/or scallions, and a bit of sugar or vinegar. Same with gyoza dipping sauce, stir fry some garlic and ginger and some vinegar. I definitely recommend Lucas Sin's videos on Cantonese steamed eggs and fried egg over rice as an example.
Yeah when he starting dipping I was like 🤨
I personally love to mix light and dark soy sauce in 1:1 ratio with garlic, spring onion, ginger, coriander roots, coriander seeds and a chunk of vietnamese cinnamon. I then add a bit of water and heat it over low flame for 1-2h until it becomes thick and velvety. The resulting sauce is just wonderful for dumplings after straining. It imparts so many dark, earthy flavors it's simply unbelievable
I've tried 5 or 6 soy sauces through my adulthood and no matter what I do I always go back to Kikkomans. I'm born and raised American and I think the nostalgia shines through. That being said I'll definitely be picking up some different sauces when I hit the store next
Try Yamasa brand Japanese soy sauce, as I noted in my comment. You'll never go back to Kikkoman if you compare them side by side. And, pick up some black bean paste at an Asian store, which allows boosting the fermented/umami flavor without overdosing on salt.
@@olenfersoi8887 will do
I grew up on Kikkoman, but was never a huge fan except for sushi. I tried the Japanese Kikkoman a few years back from Ranch 99 and found something I loved. It is slightly salty but the flavors are so complex compared to some others I have tried. As noted in other comments, Aloha Hawaiian soy sauce is tasty for cooking with.
Just ridiculously good content dude. Ethan is better than 99 percent of cooking content on network TV or streaming services. I've been watching for years man and I'll keep comin back!
I use a runny more salty one at the begining of my cooking, and a thick complex taste to make it just right at the end, before serving. It works every time.
Another type of shoyo you could try is Aloha shoyu. My mom's family is from Hawaii and I grew up always using Aloha shoyu since it was what she grew up with since it was founded in Hawaii by five Japanese families back in like the 60s. I like the more sweet flavor to it compared to very salty like La Choy might be considered.
🤣 As soon as I saw the name of the video, I scoured that screenshot to see if Aloha Shoyu was represented and went 😭. Hahaha. I'd argue it's a little saltier, which is why I love it. But glad to see someone else pulling for it too! 😆🥰🌺
I grew up with Kikkoman's, and hated it. Then I was assigned to Pearl Harbor, and some friends said I had to try Aloha shoyu. I was immediately hooked! I couldn't get enough of it.
Unfortunately, now where I live in the mid-west it's not available. So I've settled on any of a variety of Filipino soy sauces.
Yep! 100% agree with you! This is the absolute best Shoyu. My parents moved to the Big Island many years ago and became great friends with their native neighbors who introduced them to actual home-made soy sauce (Aloha Shoyu was the store-match). The entire reason I watched this video was because I was hoping he would 'find' this magical Hawaiian soy sauce. It's the best! In my opinion.
Liquid aminos has a very close taste to Aloha…at least the one I get does.
You don't have it in your shootout here, and it's $7.50 a bottle, but the very finest soy sauce you can get is Kimlan Super Special Soy Sauce.
Just watch it in the bottle as you tilt it back and forth; it stains almost like dark soy sauce does and it lingers on the glass. It's brewed with licorice root for depth of flavor. It's very smooth on the palate with none of that medicinal shock you get from the soy sauce you grew up with.
Try one bottle and you'll never go back.
That is my go-to everyday soy sauce. It's very nice. I also have the $41 one in the thumbnail. It's less salty but with a very rich umami flavor. I reserve that one for sushi/sashimi.
I'm happy that you chose to use coconut aminos in your video, Ethan. That is the only base "soy sauce" I use because I have to watch my sodium intake. I do have tamari as well, but it's a pretty low sodium one.
This is super cool, I hadn't heard of coconut aminos before!
BTW Soy Sauce in Cookies and Brownies is totally a thing. Any place where you can imagine a salted caramel like flavor, and it pairs very well with coffee, vanilla, and chocolate flavors.
The quantity and quality of your work Ethan just... Hats off 👏👏👏
Literally kills it every time!
I use Chinese (light and dark) for fried rice and for stir-frying, Korean for other kind of recipes likes sauces since that’s what I can get in bulk at Costco, and Japanese for sushi.
That's quite an arsenal! Are you Asian / do you use these sauces most of the time? It would take me a very, very long time to go through that many bottles (I'm European). Although I guess they keep forever anyway...
@@pierrex3226 Not Asian, but I cook a lot with soy sauce, even in non-Asian dishes. Brings more depth than just salt.
Love this vid. This is next level education for beginner level chefs AND ABOVE.
i dont really like soy sauce too much but im open to trying new ones so i had to watch this video when it popped up in my recommended. this video was so well made and i thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you
I like to use Thai Golden Mountain sauce as a base and mix in various flavor enhancers to create an "umami sauce." Golden Mountain sauce already has Disodium-5 Inosinate and Disodium-5 Guanylate, which enhance the umami taste reception of Glutamate, which I add using MSG. You can do the same with plain soy sauce as a base. Soy sauce already has a lot of amino acids, but you could also add other flavorings to soy sauce to provide any extra enhancement: yeast extract, mushroom extract, bouillon paste, miso paste, tomato paste, liquid smoke, caramelized sugar, etc. They all combine to concentrate and optimize (according to your own taste) that savory experience (umami, but also kokumi and other taste reception involving browning and caramelization)
Try adding black garlic to your mix if you haven't already. The taste profile is very different from normal garlic and adds a great umami depth to dishes.
The amount of effort that must go into these videos blows my mind
Ginger+blindfold+camera= mind blown....jk enjoyed
Hi Ethan, great video here. As a intensive soy sauce enjoyer and home chef, I would say I have encountered memorable soy sauces. This video shows a tip of the iceberg from this fermented elixir. Each country who has their own line of soy sauce fermentation worked their own way out of their nation's history and cultural habits, I'm mostly familiar with the Chinese scene so I will have a briefing on its recent background: initially in the 1960s there were local brands but generally there was only one type of soy sauce, somewhere between 生抽 (light soy sauce) and 老抽 (dark soy sauce). As its economy stabilized and started to feed people, Chinese market gradually realized soy sauce has different applications in cooking and specialized soy sauce is needed. From there the soy sauce really derived into uncountable varieties in China. Out of the general soy sauce, the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce were firstly derived, as light soy sauce tilts over for more umami and saltiness and dark soy sauce gives the food coloring efficiently. The matching between soy sauce and cuisines went on, and specialized soy sauce for specific cuisines stepped into the market: 红烧酱油(soy sauce for braised dishes) can color well while reasonably better season the dishes than dark soy sauce; 蒸鱼豉油 (seasoned soy sauce for seafood) specializes on seafood, the signature is the lingering sweetness and umami that can boost the seafoods' flavor; 味极鲜 (a soy sauce that blends with MSG) is a great choice for cold dishes, etc. Meanwhile, almost each province and sometimes cities have their own line-up and embraced by the locals. For example, in Tianjin, the local 光荣(glory) soy sauce is used in seafood stew dishes and braised pork dishes. Kimlan is welcomed in HK and worldly renown along with the Lee Kum Kee. Out of my experience, Kimlan is not for cold dishes because the bitterness usually blows back and ruins the balance. Pearl River light soy sauce is my go-choice for cold dishes and vegetable stir-fries, dark soy sauce from Lee Kum Kee for coloring and and its seasoned seafood soy sauce. Geographically and professionally speaking, soy sauce remained to be an unassorted mystery, even for the local users in Asia.
There are many variations in Korean soy sauce the soup soy sauce is light in color but high in sodium specifically used for soups only so that the color of soups don’t change but will bring out the saltiness
These are my favorite kind of series you do! keep it up
This have become my favorite series that you do. Love the content.
lovin the level of detail and educational value!!!! SUBBED
This was a wonderful video that broke down a subject I often think about but never research, which is the difference in soy sauces around the world. Thanks buddy.
I'm pumped for this video, because I'm currently brewing my own soy sauce. It's almost done, and I can't wait to try it. Greetings from Germany.
Where in Germany? I will come visit. 😊
6:08 - While wheat does impart a mild "wheaty" flavor to beer, it isn't the primary reason for the differences in aroma and flavor between IPAs and wheat beers. It mostly comes down to the different strains of hops and yeast used for the two styles.
Also most IPAs absolutely do include wheat as part of their grain bill. I’m not sure why Ethanol states they don’t have wheat.
@@TSBeebout I'm not sure I'd say "most" IPAs contain wheat, but it isn't uncommon.
Ethan dives deep. As usual. Bravo.
As a Brewmaster, I love that you use beer as an analogy!
Two quick notes about your IPA, wheat beer comparison.
1. Most of the flavour in an IPA is hops, not the malt.
2. Depending on the IPA, some do have a significant amount of wheat. A hazy IPA may have up to 10 - 15% flaked wheat, of all the grains used.
Something like the difference between and American Golden ale and a Wheet beer.
While the Golden ale can have hops, it is not the goal of the beer to be hop foward in flavour. Side by side, the wheat in the wheat beer is much more pronounced and obvious.
I don't have 20 bottles of soy sauce for different recipes, but I do have six or so.
Japanese soy sauce is the only thing I'll use for sushi, light soy sauce for Chinese and Taiwanese recipes that require a little more salt, mushroom soy sauce, Golden Mountain sauce, standard soy sauce, soy paste (which has about half of the sodium), dark for color, etc.
The one thing I don't have is soy sauce labeled as low sodium. If I want that? I'll simply add some water to one of the soy sauce that I already have.
how long can you keep it after opening?
I have one that's specially blended for "steaming fish". It is really different. Restaurant would make their own in small batch by cooking their soy sauce with aromatics, but it is easier if I just buy the bottled one from the store.
THANK YOU!!!! I actually LOVE LaChoy Soy sauce, but never knew why it tasted different than other soy sauces. Good to know!!!
Great test and it has definitely inspired me to sample other varieties of soy sauce. Most people don't realize all the work it takes to plan, shoot and edit a video like this. Great job and thanks! BTW, did you wake up that night reaching for a giant glass of water or two?
Good analysis on the soy sauces ... very thorough - good job!!!
TL;DR Any soy sauce is good, just make sure you check for it's own flavor and modify the recipe accordingly (whether it needs more sugar or water or whatever).
Which is a kind of sidestep, since there are definitely some soy sauces that can be described as "not good".
I brewed a batch of soy sauce over covid, and it turned out great, with a slight miso and peppery taste. One thing I found interesting is that the dark color only emerges if you age it in a place where it gets sunlight (or you use caramel color if you want to cheat). If you age outside the presence of sunlight then the sauce can turn cherry red.
interesting observation. I wonder whether the cherry red sauce would stain char siu red
A couple years ago I did something similar and I really was able to narrow down and streamline my collection of sauces. For “light soy sauce” I like the imported from Japan, Kikkoman Marudaizu soy sauce. It works for Korean, Chinese, and Japanese dishes perfectly. I also like Lee Kum Kee Double Fermented if you want bolder. For “dark soy sauce” I find Dragonfly Black soy sauce to work well across all East Asian cuisines, it does the job of darkening and sweetening the dishes well. The only other “light soy sauce” I find essential is Healthy Boy Mushroom soy sauce for Thai food. There was always something off when I would make diff Thai curries or pad dishes and I finally caved and bought a bottle. Thai soy sauce has a brighter bouncier less roasty and fermented flavor. It also adds MSG, which I’m not opposed to. I even confirmed w my fave Thai restaurant that that’s the brand they use. I keep San J tamari for my GF ppl. And for SE Asian dishes that use “seasoning sauce” which is usually Maggi or Golden Mountain sauce, I use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, which Andrea Nguyen says is practically the same flavor, and makes me feel better that it’s usually stocked in the Health Foods section of my grocery store.
In my experience, for cooking, you are exactly right, you have to Master whatever you have. But as for an uncooked sauce/dip, I much prefer the thicker/darker soy and mix a ponzu or a spot of hoisin added
Ethan, you're the only man on TH-cam that can do the almost impossible: a deep-dive into rice. It would likely be an hour long video, but I would watch the hell out of it.
I think a few of the other comments raised some important points: the flavor profiles are influenced by the context in which they're used in their respective cuisines; also, leaving aside production quality concerns, since there's not really a generally superior flavor profile (and that you mostly don't use soy sauce on its own), your expertise in using and blending flavors matters more.
That being said, although I've tried many more special Japanese soy sauces (shoyu), I remain partial to the Chinese flavor profile. Perhaps I'm simply more acclimated to their taste or usage in sauce-making, and how they interact with the ingredients/cooking process.
For Chinese soy sauces though, I mostly buy only Taiwan or USA made from Kimlan (金蘭 / jīn lán) or Wan Ja Shan (萬家香 / wàn jiā xiāng) out of caution, and they have quite a few of their own special brews to choose from as well.
As a final note, I don't usually do this, but the pronunciation of "jiang" (醬） is rather unrecognizable. The "a" is closer to an open front unrounded vowel, and should have a downward inflection. It's also kind of awkward to put words like these which don't really have grammatical number distinctions into an English context; probably best to treat them as their own plural forms instead of adding -s/-es.
Again, another awesome in depth analysis of soy sauce. And now I’m hungry!
Great video! Very thorough and informative!!!
Hi Ethan! Im a new subscriber and I found your channel because I've been searching meal prep videos recently and your content was suggested to me. Over the last few weeks, your videos have fast become my new comfort channel and I am extremely grateful for the inspiration and information that you've provided.
I've been trying to be more intentional about my health this year and the last few weeks have been tough because I started feeling very frustrated with meal planning which can be difficult with a tight work schedule. However, the way you break down the recipes (and it also helps that our taste in food is pretty similar! I love the recipes you put out) makes it less overwhelming and overall has been crucial in helping me stay on track with my food goals.
Thank you so so much for what you do. I've been really enjoying this series that you're doing about comparing foods and specific ingredients. I can only imagine the research that goes into testing all of this and your content is improving lives. Sending lots of gratefulness from my tiny island in Asia.
Well done!
I loved how you mentioned the personal biases in this.
I grew up in Japan, so to be, the Japanese style shoyu is obviously going to be superior. But I loved what you said at the end about simply mastering 'your' soy sauce, and then using other ingredients to account for that extra saltiness, color, sweetness, etc.
My gut FL
L
I cook a wide variety of Asian cuisines. Depending on the recipe and cuisine’s demands, I generally buy two different kinds on soy sauce for my cooking: a ‘light’ soy sauce (salty, umami, sour) - I generally prefer Japanese-style naturally brewed and fermented with low sodium (organic, if possible), and a ‘dark’ soy sauce (sweet, syrupy) - usually Indonesian-style ‘kecap manis’.
In Indonesia, Kecap Manis is often added to soy sauce. So it's also another option for adding sweetness to simple salty soy sauce. Great mixture for fried rice.
I'm glad you used La Choy as your example of hydrolyzed soy sauce. More folks need to know it's not the real deal -- nor are those little panda packets (Kari-Out) or W-Y ones you get at your local Chinese joint. If in doubt, look at the ingredients -- if it includes "hydrolyzed soy protein," it is not naturally fermented. Water, soybeans, salt, and wheat (sometimes) are the basis for the fermented sort; ingredient list might also include the aspergillus Koji mold as well. La Choy and its cohorts do have a place on my plate (I like them for sprinkling on plain white rice), but never in my cooking.
If you have to put soy sauce on rice, get some better rice.
Could you do a breakdown of different apicy sauces and where to use ghem best? Like tabasco, sriratcha and so on?
Oh yea a hot sauce video would be a good one!
@@EthanChlebowski IF you do this, please try to get hold of a swedish hotsauce called "skånsk chili", it's freaking amazing. I'd be glad to send you a bottle or two =)
Ethan,
This is a very interesting and worthwhile presentation on soy sauce and tamari. We have many ethnic Chinese friends who once cautioned us not to purchase any Chinese sourced food products. When I inquired what they did for soy sauce, the said "we purchase Japanese tamari or soy sauce".
Love the learning in these videos!
This was by far the most informational video I have ever seen on soy sauce. This was fantastic!! Keep up the good work!!
This is a masterpiece in food science youtube content. The amount of research you put it (bonus points for every Harold McGee reference), the amount of information you are sharing, it has no right to be this stylish, this entertaining, this helpful and accessible without any serious flaws. Been subbed for a long time, but damn, you are truly producing content that is so far beyond what I would EVER expect from any youtube channel. Incredible stuff, thanks for putting in the work.
I used to use Kikkoman or Aloha, until I asked the asian store owner what he recommends. Wow, Assi soy sauce with kelp is amazing. Way more flavor than the others without the saltiness. I consider it the Worchesteshire sauce of soy sauces. Delicious. Try it.