Blog #10 Fermentation of Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

• Soybeans - ½ kg
• Salt solution - 6 liters
• Mold (Aspergillus Oryzae)
• Flour - ½ kg
• Rice bran - ½ tsp
• Sodium chloride

Soy beans are first soaked in water and steamed at high temperatures. Then you add wheat to give soy sauce its characteristic aroma. The resulting mix of soy and wheat is fermented with bacteria in the presence of high amounts of salt. Salt helps to control the growth of bacteria during the fermentation process and also helps to preserve soy sauce. Soy sauce is made through a very carefully controlled fermentation process.

Fermenting soy products raises their levels of isoflavones, the beneficial plant estrogens thought to protect against breast cancer and osteoporosis. It also makes them much more digestible than modern processed soy products.