When was soy sauce first made

In the history book of Wei, the Chinese dynasty that existed during the period of the Three Kingdoms in the 3rd century, the fermentation techniques of the Korean people are acknowledged and praised. Influence of Miso in Japan on Soy Sauce Miso in Japan refers to a fermented soybean paste which influenced the creation of the Japanese soy sauce. Before the miso, the Japanese people are known to have developed condiments by pickling salted fish and meat called hishio.

Miso paste Fermented soybean paste was likely introduced to Japan at the same time as Buddhism in the 6th - 7th century. In Japan, the fermented soybean paste took its own identity, referred to as miso, with different flavor and texture than the Chinese doujiang, and later influenced the creation of the Japanese soy sauce.

During the Kamakura period — miso became a staple in the Japanese diet. It was during the Kamakura period in the 13th century, that a Zen monk, in the town of Yuasa, is said to have noticed, that the liquid collected in the barrels of the miso paste as a by-product had a flavorful taste, and so the Japanese soy sauce was born.

By the middle of the 17th century the process of producing soy sauce in Japan had been established and began to spread throughout the country to keep up to the demand for this flavorful sauce. The Art of Making Soy Sauce The production of natural soy sauce is an ancient art which has been refined over the centuries. Today, most of the natural soy sauce found in stores is produced by automated processes, yet the fundamental brewing and fermentation process has not changed over the centuries.

Soy sauce Though the ingredients and the process of making soy sauce are well known, the proportion of different ingredients is a well kept secret. The Five Main Ingredients The five main ingredients for making soy sauce are soybeans, wheat, water, salt and mold.

Soybeans : The unique characteristics of soy sauce comes from the proteins contained in the soybeans. Wheat : The starch in the wheat gives soy sauce its sweetness and imparts a soft more balanced flavor to it. Salt and Water : The combination of salt and water called the brine acts as a preservation, by suppressing the destructive organisms and decay causing bacteria during the fermentation process.

Mold : Used to ferment the soybeans and wheat. The scientific name for it is Aspergillus oryzae. The Soy Sauce Production Process The process is started by pouring the soybeans in a vessel called steam kettle. That began from pickling raw materials in salt to preserve them, and there were varieties based on fruit, vegetables, and seaweed etc. The grain type, using rice, wheat, and soybeans, is thought to be the archetype of soy sauce.

In modern terms, that hishio was midway between soy sauce and miso paste, and appears to have reached the dining tables of palace banquets. After that, the making of miso paste was begun using the Kinzanji method that the Zen monk Kakushin brought back from China in in the Kamakura era.

The soy sauce manufacturing methods that is said to have been born in Kishu Yuasa kept on advancing after that. In other words, during this period, the English term "soy" referred to the sauce and not to the beans. Moreover, the sauce was known and used in the West long before the beans. Together with the term "soy," the Japanese term "shoyu" was extensively used in America and Europe, by both Western and Japanese writers.

While the term "soy" was used generically to refer to all types of soy sauce, "shoyu" was used to refer specifically to the uniquely Japanese product.

Starting in the latter half of the 19th century, Japanese soy sauce was extensively studied by German and French researchers, who seemed to have as much trouble as the English and Americans in arriving at a standard name and spelling. In German publications it was called, chronologically, schoju , bohnensauce , shoyu , shoyu sauce , shoyusauce , schoyu , soja sauce , and soja In French publications it was called soya or la sauce de soya , le soja , shoyu , sooju , soyou , choyou , shoyou As of the term for "soy sauce" has not been standardized in either French or German.

In the American Blasedale first used the term "soy-bean sauce," then in the Japanese Oshima became the first to use the modern term "soy sauce. Loomis was the first Westerner to use the term "soy sauce" and it was first used in the title of an article by Groff, of Canton Guangzhou , China, in Then in it was used throughout two very important publications by Margaret Church and by Piper and Morse.

Thereafter the term "soy sauce" came to be the most widely used generic term, with "soy" slowly decreasing in use generically and "shoyu" being used intermittently to refer to the Japanese product.

Still as late as , the first definition given under the term "soy" in Webster's dictionary was "soy sauce" while the second was "soybeans. In the s?? Yet in popular parlance, both products were called "soy sauce. A second important change in soy sauce manufacture took place in Japan between about and when the traditional process for making fermented shoyu was altered in four basic ways: defatted soybean meal replaced whole soybeans, the fermentation was done more quickly in heated rooms, epoxy-lined steel or concrete vats were used in place of the traditional cedar vats, and preservatives were added to the shoyu.

The first person to try to make a change in the common or usual names of the various soy sauces to reflect their differences was the macrobiotic teacher George Ohsawa. He chose to use the term "tamari" to refer to the traditional, naturally fermented Japanese-style shoyu, which he worked to introduced into the West. The term "tamari," introduced in about , began to catch on in the mids and was the most widely used term for natural soy sauce in the natural- and health-food trades from about Ohsawa made a mistake, however, in using the term "tamari" to make his distinction, since "tamari" also referred to a type of Japanese shoyu containing little or no wheat.

By the late s this "real tamari" started to be marketed in the US, creating a great deal of confusion over terminology. Starting in Shurtleff and Aoyagi began a mini-campaign to have all Japanese-style soy sauce called "shoyu" to distinguish it clearly from both chemical soy sauce and Chinese soy sauce , to have the term "tamari-shoyu" or "tamari" used, as in Japan, to refer only to shoyu containing little or no wheat, and to have the product that Ohsawa and the macrobiotics called "tamari" be renamed "natural shoyu.

By late the East West Journal and much of the macrobiotic community had made the suggested shift in terminology; distributors of the so-called "tamari" followed suit slowly. Kikkoman was hesitant to switch to calling their product "Kikkoman Shoyu," the name they used in Japan. They agreed that "shoyu" would help clarify the distinction between their quality product and lower-quality HVP soy sauce, but they felt they had invested too much in promoting "Kikkoman Soy Sauce" and that a switch might be confusing.

During the late s and early s a number of natural food cookbooks began to use the terminology "1 tablespoon shoyu natural soy sauce.

We will use the term "shoyu" to refer to all the various types of Japanese soy sauce, among which are regular or modern shoyu Kikkoman's product , natural or traditional shoyu made with whole soybeans, unheated fermentation, and no preservatives , and tamari-shoyu made with little or no wheat.

In some publications, especially those written in Japan, the term "to brew" is used in translation of the Japanese term jozo , which means "to ferment," as applied to making fermented shoyu, sake, and miso. The English terms "to brew" and "brewery" refer only to the manufacture of malt liquors, particularly beer and ale, and not to any fermented beverages, as will be clearly seen by looking under "Brewing" in the Encyclopedia Britannica Hence we avoid use of these terms to refer to shoyu, which is neither a liquor nor made with malt??

Early Chinese Soy Sauces chiyou and jiangyou. Surprisingly little is known about the early history of soy sauce in China. It is well known that the two ancestors of soy sauce were jiang and chi soy nuggets. In the previous chapter we saw that the first mention of jiang made with meat or fish in China appeared in both the Chou-li "Rituals of Chou" in about BC and the Analects of Confucius in the third century BC Waley ??

Soy nuggets soft salty soybeans fermented with Aspergillus oryzae ; see Chapter 34 were first mentioned by Ssu-ma Chien in the Shih chi in about 95 BC and were also mentioned in the Ch'i-min yao-shu. Jiang had a consistency resembling that of porridge, applesauce, or a soft paste; soy nuggets somewhat resembled raisins. There are a number of key questions which arise when one attempts to research the origin and early history of products resembling today's soy sauce: 1 What were the Chinese characters used to describe such products and how did these change with time?

Gallery Boardroom at time of founding. Plant No. Head office completion in Bird's eye view of Plant No. Pressing room of Plant No. Boiler room of Plant No. Osaka office early 20th century. A bottle used for soy sauce exported during the latter half of the 19th century. This picture shows that Kikkoman soy sauce was shipped overseas from the Yokohama Port. Brochures of Kikkoman soy sauce from around produced for overseas.

Newspaper advertisement in the United Kingdom Global Expansion of Kikkoman Soy Sauce Following the war, upon seeing that many of the military personnel and journalists, as well as educators and scholars stationed in Japan had become familiar with soy sauce based Japanese cuisine, Kikkoman saw great potential in overseas expansion.