The Original Heart of Soy Sauce (Part 2): The Raw, Unadorned Power of Microbes

Strictly speaking, my exploration of soy sauce began when I jumped in and started making a soy sauce product myself. At first I naively assumed that all I needed to do was find good ingredients and a professional processor, then clearly explain the requirements and the process. It was only after I started making it that I realized how many choices were involved. Yes, choices, not a clear-cut right and wrong, and no absolute good or evil either; the appearance of a product simply and honestly reveals the maker's and developer's choices at every stage of this whole chain of processes, and the intention that runs through them all.

In a business environment where everything is judged by specifications and market surveys, we inevitably started out the same way. After gathering and comparing dozens of products of every brand and every specification, we summed things up and set our expectations for a soy sauce product as "traditionally hand-brewed," "natural, non-toxic ingredients," "no coloring, no preservatives, no additives," and "the higher the concentration, the better," with the concentration indicator following the CNS standard and set as total nitrogen content. Such a simple, intuitive and seemingly clear set of expectations, over the entire development process, went through more rounds of fierce discussion (or quarrels, for short), review and adjustment than anyone could imagine before a product emerged that the team could accept as a minimally compromised version.

Among these, one of the most debated points was the definition of total nitrogen content in relation to good soy sauce.

"Purely traditional brewing" does not equal "higher total nitrogen content"

The total nitrogen content issue is relatively complex and hard to resolve, and the difficulty lies in the fact that this rule is not without reason. In theory, the umami grade of soy sauce is based on how much protein is broken down into amino acids, and the state has clearly laid out grade A, B and C right there in front of you, so no matter how you look at it, you feel it should at least meet the highest national standard. That was the original thinking. But when we actually sent the raw liquid from the sauce jars for testing, we discovered that this was not entirely the case, and the total nitrogen content test results were not as expected. After review and evaluation, we concluded that the reason should be that the protein breakdown efficiency of traditional koji fermentation cannot match professional factory controls, which can maximize process efficiency.

So what then? Traditional methods are inefficient and need improvement? Is soy sauce that has been made this way for generations, for a hundred years, not good soy sauce by modern standards? When we took these questions to the producers, you could clearly sense the inner conflict and grievance of this generation, who carry the family business on their shoulders, strictly adhere to traditional methods and are honest and sincere. "A lot of those are added in..." "Our family has done it this way for all these years..." "We are clearly making it with real sincerity, not cutting corners with quick methods, but when the standard is set this way and it doesn't say you can't add things, how is that fair..."

Is protein breakdown efficiency really the only standard for soy sauce specifications? If you really put it that way, which koji mold's breakdown efficiency could ever rival hydrochloric acid breaking down soybean residue? Would speed-brewed soy sauce then become the highest standard? I don't think anyone would agree with or welcome such a conclusion... Efficiency is absolutely important, but it is absolutely not the only thing. Total nitrogen content can be one indicator of umami, but umami at most is only one of the six tastes of the palate, and overinterpreting it or using one part to cover the whole is not the true appearance of food flavor. The matter of flavor has never been something that can be achieved by simplifying the complex, and soy sauce is also absolutely not just "salty + sweet + umami" added together and mixed. (Then again, isn't that exactly how speed-brewing comes about?)