Lee Kum Kee Premium Light Soy 500 ml (Pack of 2)

Product Information

While the exact ingredients and process differ depending on who is making it, traditional soy sauce is made from soybeans, wheat, and a fermenting agent—typically a mold—along with salt and water. The sauce is aged for 5-8 months, although some artisan sauces are aged much longer. There are also very inexpensive soy sauces that are made using a chemical process, while others are fermented for just three weeks instead of the more traditional several months. Those recipes are just the start, though! Reach for the best soy sauce any time you want to add a touch of umami flavor and salt to your go-to dishes, sauces, marinades and dressings. If the soy sauce will be used as a dipping sauce or its flavor is a major part of the recipe, it might be worth splurging on a sauce that was aged longer. Traditional soy sauces are aged for 5-8 months and are suitable for most uses, but for a real splurge, there are a number of soy sauces that are aged for up to 4 years.

As a soy sauce, though, the primary flavor was salt, and that’s just fine. This is precisely the flavor you need when making great dishes to bring out tastes in all the other ingredients. Just remember: When using generous amounts of soy sauce in your recipes, you can omit the salt. This one comes in a 16.9-ounce bottle, so you’ll have plenty to use for all your favorite recipes. It is produced in Hong Kong by the Lee Kim Kee brand which has been in business for 135 years. We love its Dark Soy Sauces, but the brand makes over 200 other types of traditional sauces and condiments including teriyaki sauce, abalone sauce, chili oil, hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, rice vinegar, and more. Soy sauce can be incredibly salty. If you need to watch how much sodium you’re consuming, regular soy sauce might be off the table. The good news is that this lower-sodium version is available from a popular grocery store brand. If you only keep one brand of soy sauce in your fridge door, let it be Kikkoman. This sauce is available at nearly every supermarket and big box store, so you’re never far from one of the best soy sauce options.This soy sauce has the umami flavor that you love, just with less sodium. It is made with the same ingredients as regular soy sauce, like water, soybeans, wheat, and lactic acid, and is brewed the same way, but has 590 milligrams of sodium per 1 tablespoon serving. The math shows that this is almost 40 percent less than other leading options. You’ll find it isn’t as deep in taste as dark or premium soy sauces, but this does allow you to use a bit more if need be.

Like wine or fine liquors, soy sauce may be aged. Longer aging creates deeper more complex flavors, but also adds to the cost. When the soy sauce will be mixed with other ingredients, used in a small quantity, or used primarily for the salty flavor, just about any sauce will suffice, whether it has been aged or not. Other pantry staples like vinegar and olive oil are common gifts to give any seasoned or amateur chef, but soy sauce is a unique idea that is sure to please. There are five options of the Mikuni Wild Harvest Haku Japanese Shoyu soy sauce—all with different characteristics not found in typical soy sauces. Sometimes our Test Kitchen pros taste an ingredient and the perfect application for it comes right to mind (like how some San Marzano tomatoes just scream tomato soup). As soon as our testers sampled Lee Kum Kee Premium Soy Sauce, they thought: stir-fry. It is high in sodium, but you don’t need a lot to taste the sauce’s flavor, so unless you add a lot, there’s not anything to worry about.Each brand was sampled blindly by our Test Kitchen team—both solo and with white rice. Our team was looking for the right balance of salt and umami. These aren’t the only tastes present in soy sauce, though, so our culinary gang kept careful notes on any other flavors they detected. Soy can sometimes taste citrusy, coffee-like or even funky—it is fermented after all! Our Test Kitchen-Preferred Soy Sauce Brands You can get it in a 10-ounce bottle with a special cap to help with pouring if it suits your needs, and at a good price, too. However, if you have a soy sauce-loving house, this low-sodium soy sauce is available in a 2-quart jug and a gluten-free 2-quart jug.

This one is aged for two Japanese summers in cedar kegs, which adds to the complex flavor. It's also unpasteurized, so it retains the enzymes from fermentation, and it is naturally lower in sodium since the process used to make it involves less salt. It is also organic, kosher, and has no added preservatives. It will add a deep flavor to any dish, but it will also create a dark brown color, especially in things that contain white rice or lighter-colored broth or noodles.

Our Test Kitchen-Preferred Soy Sauce Brands

This soy sauce is more expensive than your favorite grocery store version, but it’s not prohibitively expensive if you want to upgrade for a special occasion recipe. The cost evens out, too since it’s an 18-ounce bottle, you’ll have plenty to work with, even if you’re cooking for a large crowd or family. We love that the bottle has a big, clear “Best By” date underneath the nutritional info, so you know exactly how long it will be good for. This soy sauce made from water, soybeans, wheat, and salt is fermented and aged for four years in 100-year-old wooden barrels via the traditional kioke method. When the cedar barrels typically used for this aging became expensive and harder to find, many companies stopped using this process, but not Yamaroku for its Kikubishio Soy Sauce. It brews its product on the warm and dry Shodo Island in Southern Japan.

Fermented and aged in 100-year-old barrels, Yamaroku 4 Years Aged Kiku Bisiho Soy Sauce is an all-around good choice—perfect for everything from fried rice to marinades. Looking for a low-sodium option? Go with Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce. What to Look for in Soy Sauce Type

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Soy sauce provides a lot of depth of flavor and umami richness derived from naturally occurring MSG," Smith says, But, like barbecue sauce, it comes in a wide range of styles. While it’s unlikely you’ll be able to sample the soy sauce at the local market, paying attention to the type of soy sauce will help you choose the one you like. You won’t need a lot to give a dish some flavor, either—while it is characterized as mild, the fermentation process of the four ingredients in kioke barrels produces a deep, complex flavor that's smooth and mellow, without sharp notes that would overpower a dish. The brand recommends trying it as a dipping sauce for things like sushi and seafood and as an ingredient in fried rice, but also as a topping for vanilla ice cream. Sounds strange, right? But it is said to create a caramel flavor! We rely on soy sauce to add savory flavor to dishes, but Bluegrass Soy Sauce adds much more than just that.