Soy Sauce World-Soy Sauce History
1. The origin of soy sauce
Soy sauce is evolved from “sauce”, and the brewing of soy sauce is purely discovered by accident. Originating from the condiment used by the ancient royalty in China, the earliest soy sauce is pickled by fresh meat, which is similar to the making process of the current “fish sauce”. The soy sauce gradually spreads among the common people due to its excellent flavor. Later, it is found that the soy sauce made from soybean has the similar flavor and it is also very cheap, so the soy sauce is widely spread and consumed all around the world, such as in Japan, Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia.
In the earlier days, the making of soy sauce is a kind of housework art and secret, and its brewing is mostly controlled by one certain master whose skills are often passed down from one generation to another or by one master, forming one certain brewing method.
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Diagram of the scene of making soy sauce in ancient times |
2. The history of Taiwan soy sauce
Kingdom of Tungning: in 1662, Zheng Chenggong guarded Taiwan, then the soldiers and common people moved to Taiwan brings culture shock as well as the technology of brewing soy sauce.
Japanese Occupation: after the First Sino-Japanese War, Manchurian Qing government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with the Japanese government to cede territory and pay indemnities. Thus, Taiwan entered the Japanese Occupation. Under the rule of Japanese government, soy sauce industry still maintained the household production method, i.e. “backyard is the brewery”.
The outbreak of Pacific War: in order to control and manage materials, firstly, according to the regulations, the Japanese must establish the joint-stock company with 49% government-owned stock, and then soy sauce can be brewed. At that time, the brewing of soy sauce transformed from household production to industry, and the soy sauce’s production method with soybean and wheat (also called Japanese soy sauce) was also introduced to Taiwan at that time.
The retrocession of Taiwan: the joint-stock companies established according to the Japanese regulations dissolved one after another. Some of them regressed into family-based soy sauce to continue to brewing soy sauce with the ancient methods; and the others were transformed to establish the soybean and wheat soy sauce factory with scale.
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Taiwan province soy sauce factory distribution in 1952 |
In the earlier days, the unqualified and poor soy sauce was seized in Taipei City and dumped and destroyed in Tamsui River |
3. The development of Taiwan soy sauce industry
As the food paradise, Taiwan owns the rich marine products and fruits thanks to its geographical conditions (being surrounded with sea and located in the subtropical area), which adds a lot of colors to Taiwanese food. In addition to Taiwanese snack, the traditional diet and dishes in Taiwan have some similarities with Chinese food, but the food materials to be obtained are different due to the different geographical environment between Taiwan and Chinese mainland. With the evolution of time, they have been gradually developed into Taiwanese characterized food.
As for the different types of cuisines, in addition to the different preferences and use methods in food materials, the condiment and spices used in the cuisines also play a crucial role to make the cuisines become more delicious. In Taiwanese cuisines, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, fermented soya beans, basil, fried shallots and coriander are the most commonly used and most distinctive condiment and spices. With the appropriate condiment and spices, each local cuisine can highlight its features.
According to Taiwanese food consumption survey and statistics in 2013, in the condiment preferred by Taiwanese, soy sauce ranks the top (up to 50.6%) (followed by barbeque sauce/vegetarian barbeque sauce, accounting for 34.4%), showing the importance of soy sauce to Taiwanese diet and habit.
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It can be found in the table that “soy sauce” ranks the first in the consumption of flavoring foods, accounting for more than half of the total shares. Thus, it can be known that “soy sauce” plays a critically important role in the flavoring market. |
Data Source：Wikipedia、Taiwan Research Institute website、Phycoswebsite ；Photo source：Kikkoman Soy Sauce website、Baidu Wenku website；Image source：Phycos website
