For seasoning cold rice, like a sauce for sushi or spring rolls – soy sauce has a firm place in many refrigerators. Even after opening the bottle, this sauce lasts for many months, among other things, due to its high salt content.
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However, standing by the sauce shelf in an Asian goods store or a regular supermarket, one might wonder: should you choose light or dark soy sauce – what is the difference?
Let’s start from the beginning. “The base of any soy sauce is soybeans, which are fermented together with salt and water,” explains Katharina Holthausen, a nutrition expert at the Bavarian Consumer Center. The composition may also include other ingredients, such as wheat.
Dark sauce is slightly sweeter
Dark soy sauce is usually fermented a bit longer. It often contains molasses – a syrup that forms as a byproduct when producing sugar, for example, from sugar beets.
Therefore, dark soy sauce, even if its appearance is not much darker than the light one, has a richer flavor and is slightly sweetened. “Light soy sauce has a milder taste,” says Katharina Holthausen.
Which option to use depends on personal preferences. The Bavarian Consumer Center provides general guidelines: light soy sauce is good for seasoning meat, fish, and tofu. Dark soy sauce pairs well with stews, long-cooked dishes, or as a dipping sauce.
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For celiac disease – choose gluten-free soy sauce
“Since soy sauce contains a lot of salt, it should be used sparingly,” advises Holthausen. 100 milliliters of soy sauce can contain about 17 grams of salt.
For comparison: the German Nutrition Society recommends consuming no more than 6 grams of salt per day. That’s about one level teaspoon.
People with celiac disease should definitely choose a product labeled gluten-free. This way, you can be sure that the sauce does not contain wheat.
Those who poorly tolerate histamine should also be cautious. Due to the long aging process, soy sauce contains quite a lot of this substance.
