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Indispensable for flavour

FLAVOURSOME Soy sauce is an essential ingredient of Chinese food

Soy sauce is one of the most common ingredients in Oriental cuisine.

After the rise of Buddhism pushed meat sauces off the table, the humble soy sauce became indispensable in the vegetarian kitchens of China and Japan.

Traditionally, making the sauce involved fermenting the soybean with roasted wheat, salt and Aspergillus oryzae for months to years. Modern methods involve autoclaving the ingredients at high temperature, which considerably speeds up the process.

Unlike other condiments, soy sauce deepens the flavour of vegetables and meat without altering their basic taste.

This quality, attributed to the free glutamates in the liquid, is an individual basic flavour -“umami” - in its own right.

Since Chinese fried rice, noodles and other Chinese dishes are now commonplace in restaurants, roadside food stalls and college canteens,

it is worth knowing the health and nutritional impact of this condiment.

A 100 gm of soy sauce contains 6 gm of protein, 5 gm of carbohydrate, 1 gm of fat and roughly 50 Calories.

It is not a bountiful source of micro or macronutrients with the unfortunate exception of sodium. The salt content makes it difficult to adhere to international guidelines that limit daily intake to a maximum of 2400 mg of sodium. Clearly, soy sauce- laden foods are not a wise choice for those with hypertension, heart failure, kidney failure, kidney stones or chronic liver disease.

Low-sodium sauces have yet to make an impact in the Indian market.

Although soybean and soy products such as tofu are rich in isoflavones that may strengthen bones and lower cancer risk, the brewing of soy sauce eliminates most of these healthful compounds.

Those who are allergic to soy protein should avoid the sauce as well.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG), the backbone of the “umami” flavour, is now considered generally safe for public consumption.

Most of the sauces available in the Indian market are the result of chemical hydrolysis of soybean, hence the “hydrolysed vegetable protein” on the label, and not fermentation.

Connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine scoff at these hydrolysed varieties for their metallic flavour.

Look for “naturally brewed” on the label.

(The writer is a specialist in Internal Medicine).

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