Vol. XXVII · The Cuisines of China Plate 3 of 12Chinese pantry, 生抽, 老抽, light soy, dark soy, 镇江香醋, 山西老陈醋, black vinegar, 绍兴酒, Shaoxing wine, 豆瓣酱, 蚝油, 豆豉, 香油, sesame oil, 花椒, 八角, seasoning, salt contentF

The Chinese Pantry.

A tablespoon of light soy sauce salts a plate of stir-fried greens as much as a third of a teaspoon of salt — and adds what salt cannot.

Soy sauce (酱油) is soybeans and wheat fermented with Aspergillus mould and then in brine for months (XIV.7): salty, deeply savoury from free glutamate, browned by Maillard reactions (VIII.2). Light soy (生抽) is the thin, salty seasoning soy; dark soy (老抽) is aged longer, often with molasses, thicker, less salty and used mainly for colour in braises. Vinegars are grain-based and aromatic: Zhenjiang black vinegar (镇江香醋), malty and sweetish, for dumplings and Jiangnan dishes; Shanxi aged vinegar (山西老陈醋), darker and sharper; rice vinegars for pickles and sweet-sour sauces. Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒), an amber rice wine of about 15 % alcohol, removes fishy and gamey smells (去腥) and adds aroma.

Pastes carry the regional flavours: Sichuan's broad-bean chilli paste 郫县豆瓣 (XXVII.4), northern sweet bean paste 甜面酱 and yellow soybean paste 黄豆酱, Cantonese oyster sauce 蚝油, and fermented black beans 豆豉. Toasted sesame oil (香油) is a finishing aroma, never a frying fat. Dry spices — Sichuan pepper, star anise, cassia, fennel, cloves (五香) — and the trio of ginger, garlic and scallion (葱姜蒜) complete the pantry. Most of these are salty; the cook who adds salt as well as soy and paste must add it last, after tasting (I.7). The workshop salts a dish with the pantry.

Below: the salt each seasoning brings to a 500 g dish per tablespoon (15 g; typical label values), and the salt of the dish after adding the amount you choose of the one you choose, against a well-seasoned 0.8–1.0 % (XI.3).

What you will learn
Workshop
Salt per 100 g (typical labels, teaching round values): light soy 16, dark soy 14, oyster sauce 10, 郫县豆瓣 16, 豆豉 12, black vinegar 1.5, Shaoxing wine 0 (cooking wines sold as 料酒 often have salt added), salt 100. Dish salt = added salt ÷ (500 g + amount) — exact dilution.

Every bottle is salty — count it

A tablespoon of light soy carries about 2.4 g of salt, bringing a 500 g dish to about 0.47 % — under the 0.8–1.0 % of a well-seasoned dish (XI.3) — and two tablespoons to about 0.91 %: just right, with no salt at all. Add oyster sauce or bean paste as well and the dish is already salty. So in Chinese cooking the salt pot is the last adjustment, not the first.

Using them: light soy for seasoning stir-fries, dipping sauces and cold dishes; dark soy a teaspoon at a time for the mahogany colour of 红烧 (XXVII.6); Shaoxing wine splashed around the hot wok so its alcohol flashes off with the smells it carries; black vinegar with ginger shreds for dumplings, or in 糖醋 and 鱼香 sauces with sugar; sesame oil a few drops at the end. Store soy, vinegar and wine cool and closed; pastes and oyster sauce in the fridge once opened; sesame oil away from light, as it goes rancid (IX.4).

At the stove

Season two portions of the same stir-fried greens to taste, one with salt only and one with light soy only. Weigh how much of each you used.

Soy sauce descends from 酱, fermented pastes of meat or beans recorded in the Zhou dynasty; the liquid drawn off soybean paste was being used as a seasoning by the Song, and by the Ming 酱油 was the everyday name.

Terms

生抽 / 老抽
Light (seasoning) and dark (colouring) soy sauce.
香醋 / 陈醋
Zhenjiang black and Shanxi aged vinegar.
绍兴酒
Shaoxing rice wine: removes off-smells, adds aroma.
豆瓣酱
Fermented broad-bean paste, Sichuan's base.
Chinese seasonings are fermented and salty: light soy about 16 % salt, pastes 10–16 %. A tablespoon of soy brings a 500 g dish to about 0.5 %. Count it, and salt last. Dark soy is for colour, Shaoxing wine for aroma, sesame oil to finish.

Sources

  1. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.
  2. USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain.