Dark Soy Sauce

Dark soy sauce is an indispensable condiment in cooking.

What is dark soy sauce?

Dark soy sauce (Chinese: 老抽; pinyin: lăo chōu) is a thick-colored soy sauce prepared by adding caramel in light soy sauce, which is suitable for meat color enhancement. It is thicker and saltier than other soy sauces. Adding dark soy sauce to a dish can improve the taste and increase the color.

Light vs dark soy sauce

Light soy sauce:

1. Color: The color of light soy sauce is relatively light, and it is reddish brown.

2. Taste: Light soy sauce tastes salty.

3. Uses: Light soy sauce is used for seasoning. It is light in color so that used more for general cooking or cold dishes.

4. Production of light soy sauce: Light soy sauce is a variety of soy sauce, with soybeans and flour as the main raw materials. After being exposed to natural sunlight and fermented. Its products are ruddy in color, delicious and harmonious in taste and rich in flavor.

Dark soy sauce:

1. Color: The dark soy sauce is added with caramel, so the color is dark, tan, and shiny.

2. Taste: It tastes delicious and slightly sweet.

3. Uses: Generally used to color food. For example, it is better to use for cooking dishes such as braised pork.

4. Production of dark soy sauce: Dark soy sauce is based on light soy sauce and sun-dried for another 2-3 months than the light soy sauce. After precipitation and filtration, it is dark soy sauce. Its product quality is more intense than light soy sauce.

How to distinguish between black soy sauce and light soy sauce

Pour the soy sauce into the white disk: the light soy sauce is reddish brown and tastes saltier; the dark soy sauce is tan with shiny and tastes sweeter.

How to store dark soy sauce

1. Without opening the seal, the soy sauce should avoid high-temperature environment and can be kept in low temperature to extend the storage time;

2. After opening the cover, please store it in a place avoiding high temperature, humidity and unsanitary conditions, and keep it in the refrigerator.

How to use dark soy sauce

It’s commonly used in braised/stewed dishes like braised pork belly or red-cooked pork. When cooking, in order to make the dishes have a good coloring effect that you need to add the dark soy sauce early, but not too early. Otherwise, the nutritional value of the dark soy sauce will be reduced.

And it always can increase a tantalizing dark amber color for a dish. It also should be noted that the soy sauce is not suitable for dipping and cold dishes.