The roots of soy sauce go back at least 2,000 years to China’s Western Han dynasty. Soy sauce is made by combining cooked soybeans and cooked wheat grains into a paste, then adding either Aspergillus oryzae or sojae molds to begin fermentation. The culture is added to a salt brine and left to ferment further before being pressed to produce the liquid condiment or sauce. (https://www.masterclass.com/articles/soy-sauce-explained#inside-the-origins-of-soy-sauce)
I have never seen anyone who actually makes their own soy sauce. The traditional production process for making soy sauce is cumbersome and takes a long time, as much as 6 months, so people usually prefer to buy finished soy sauce. If you wonder how it is made, please read on.
Steamed beans:
Soybeans for brewing soy sauce must be soaked in water first, but this must be carefully timed. It is necessary to maximize the absorption of water by the protein in the soybeans, and to prevent the soaking time from becoming sour and destroying the protein. When immersing in water, put the soybeans in a wooden barrel or tank, add clear water, soak for 1 hour, and the bean skins will wrinkle. Then pour it into a sieve, drain off the water, and place the beans in a steaming bucket. After the water is boiled, steam the beans for 4-6 hours.
Fermentation:
After the steamed soybeans have cooled, they are spread on a bamboo tray and sent to a climate-controlled room for fermentation. The room is sealed, and a number of wooden shelves should be installed to facilitate the installation of bamboo trays. The temperature should be above 37°C. If the room temperature is not warm enough, charcoal or coal fire can be added to increase the temperature and promote fermentation. The fermentation time is 6 days. After 3 days, the beans are stirred once to make the fermentation uniform. After fermentation, yellow-green Aspergillus and yeast appear on the surface, take them out, pour them into a wooden barrel or tank, add clean water at the ratio of 100 kg soybeans to 40 kg of water and stir to make it absorb enough water and remove the remaining water. After dumping it, put it in a bamboo basket and cover it with cotton cloth. Then put it in a room with a temperature of 37～38℃ to continue fermentation. After about 8 hours, when the beans are hot and the nose smells of soy sauce, the fermentation can be stopped.
Brewing:
The fermented soybeans are put into wooden barrels for brewing (the wooden barrels or cylinders used for brewing should be able to be sealed on the top, and the bottom layer should be provided with a small hole for oil). The brewing formula is: 100 kilograms of soybeans, 30 kilograms of salt, and 40 kilograms of water. The specific operation is: load a layer of soybeans, sprinkle a layer of salt, and pour clean water, so as to alternately put them into the bucket or tank, with the salt on the top layer. Then cover the barrel or cylinder and seal it with kraft paper.
Oil output:
After 4 months of brewing, remove the cork from the oil eye, and filter it with a net woven with nylon silk. Then, the brine (100 kg of water plus 17 kg of salt) is washed into the bucket or cylinder for 5 days, and the soy sauce is flowed out of the oil outlet. Generally, 300 kilograms of soy sauce can be brewed per 100 kilograms of soybeans. The resulting soy sauce is usually mixed with a molasses syrup. The method of syrup is: add 4 kg of water for every 100 kg of sugar and cook until the color is black, no sweetness and slightly bitter. The amount of sugar used per 100 kg of soy sauce is 12 kg, and the syrup is filtered and mixed in.
Exposure: Install the soy sauce in a jar and expose it to the sun for 10-20 days.
Precautions:
When exposed to the sun, it can be placed in the open air at night on a sunny day to allow it to receive dew; the surface of the tank must be covered on rainy days, generally 10 days in summer, 20 days in autumn and winter.
If worms or a layer of white mold are found in the tank, they should be picked up and discarded.
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