I like making soups and porridges. I usually add salt and pepper at the beginning to add flavor. Recently, a friend gave me a bottle of soy sauce and Im experimenting with it.
What would it make more sense? to add the soy sauce with the other ingredients before the mix boils, while boiling or only to add it before serving?
Another question is: should I use salt if I use soy sauce? Apparently, this sauce has a lot of sodium.
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I chug it straight from the bottle as I wait for my porridge to microwave.
Soy sauce adds umami/savory tastes to dishes. If you want your dish to taste more savory, add soy sauce.
Its flavor is pretty indestructible, you can add it any time you like. If you add it early to any dish with solid materials (meat, veggies, etc) then its flavor will get more into the pieces you’re cooking. Oh and yeah if you’re adding soy sauce then DEFINITELY add less/no salt in addition
I’ll use both salt and soy sauce in a dish. Soy sauce adds complexity to the flavor of broths, soups, savory porridge, stir fries, dumplings, sauces, meats, etc.
When making soups or stews, I’ll lightly salt the onions I fry so they release their water faster, but not enough to season them. Salt helps pull water out of food, so it has utility outside of just seasoning. Soy sauce might do the same, but I haven’t used it that way. I’ll add soy sauce closer to the end of the cook during my seasoning adjustment step in lieu of salt, but sometimes I’ll use both as I want a mild soy sauce flavor, not a strong one.
I’ll include soy sauce in marinades to add color and flavor while salting meats. Usually with a small pinch of sugar and some Shaoxing cooking wine (though most any wine or acid would work).
I use soy sauce as a base for a dipping sauce for dumplings or steamed veggies, combining it with vinegar, sesame oil, minced green onions, stock and/or chili oil/paste.
I’ll use it in stir fries towards the end when I’m seasoning, like the soups, by jamming my thumb over the opening and drizzling some (less than half a teaspoon) around the wok before mixing thoroughly.
You don’t have to do this, but I often use two soy sauces, one light, one dark. You likely have a bottle of the light kind. The dark is thicker and has a deeper flavor and it’s less salty. I’ll use a very little bit (like a quarter of a teaspoon) of dark soy sauce to add another layer of flavor complexity and to color my food so it looks more appealing. A touch can add a lil color that somewhat mimics the browning you get from a strong Maillard reaction.
Soy sauce is a great way to add salt and umami at the same time while giving your food an appetizing appearance. I’d go light with it first, though, as you often don’t need very much in a dish and when it overpowers a dish, it’s not very pleasant, in my opinion.
To answer your question of “do I use salt if I’m using soy sauce?”, it depends. There’s a lil bit of practice with it, but, in general, I’ll use enough soy sauce to get the flavor I want, then add more salt if it still needs salt. Or better yet and sometimes in addition, a pinch of MSG. But it doesn’t always need additional salt. It usually benefits from a lil MSG though heheh
FWIW: I prefer the Kimlan Premium Light Soy Sauce (the bronze label one) and the Pearl River Superior Dark Soy Sauce, though if anyone else has some recommendations, I’ll take em!
It can be an unsung hero in many tomato-based recipes. I use a tablespoon of it when I make jambalaya and beef stew.
I find anything with natural umami like tomatoes, some fish and mushrooms benefits a lot from an underlying layer of soy sauce flavor. Like balancing the acid and salt in a dish, juuuust enough to accentuate what’s already there, but not enough to be it’s own distinct flavor.
Wait. What happens if I were to add a little soy sauce to spaghetti bolognese? I’m very intrigued.
Italian ramen
I do it. Tastes great! I also add a bit of milk and others use a bit of fish sauce as a secret ingredient.
Adding salt in the beginning is a waste. Better to add salt at the end when you’re ready to eat. That way you won’t have to use as much.
No! What?
Salt or no salt can hugely affect how things behave and “eat”, by drawing out moisture or a bunch of other mechanisms.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
I didn’t wanna say it but yeah… this is terrible cooking advice and demonstrates a serious lack of core knowledge. It’s also utterly irrelevant to the topic of how to use soy sauce.
This is also still a waste. I just mount a salt lick (himilian pink of course) at my dinner table and periodically give it at lick while eating. You activate the salt receptors on your tongue whilst consuming very little actual sodium this way.
You activate the salt receptors on your tongue whilst consuming very little actual sodium this way.
This makes it sound like it works…and that it’s a perfectly normal thing to do. I love it
Take some leftover rice from yesterday, or prepare some by steaming.
Heat a pan, drop a tablespoon of oil in. Fry any form of fresh garlic and ginger in it. Throw in the rice. Stir, mix, fry.
Then mix the soy sauce into the rice, mix. Start with smaller amount, you can add more later. Crack an egg or two and pour them in. Mix for a while until the eggs cook.
Top with a spring onion, Lao gan ma chilli crisp, sesame oil, sesame. Serve.
Most of the ingredients in the recipe are optional, you really just need the rice, soy sauce and eggs.
If you like porridges, try making some congee, it is easier if you have a rice cooker. The rest of the recipe is almost the same as with the fried rice above.
I recommend getting Mirin (sweet rice wine) to add it to soy sauce dishes.
Those two are the main ingredients of Teriyaki sauce.If you’re unsure, you can always add a dash of soy sauce to your individual portion to familiarize yourself with the salty umami flavors and thus be better able to understand and use the flavor
It’s an excellent ingredient in a marinade or a salad dressing
according to my co-worker, if you still have some left in the bottle, you haven’t used enough.
