You have probably tasted soy sauce in your life. I’m proud that dark brown liquid from Japan has made its way far beyond my home country.
After learning some facts about fermentation, I could not resist trying making soy sauce myself. Did you know you can actually make them at home?
Step 1: preparing
I bought a Shoyu making kit online.
It’s better to prepare your shoyu and miso during the winter time. Low temperature prevents unwanted contamination.
I started mine in mid November.
This kit contains all the ingredients you need, but you also need a jar large enough to contain 4L of liquid.
This is Shoyu koji.
It consists of soy bean koji and wheat koji.
Salt is measured and packed, too.
All you need to do is mix these ingredients and water!
This is how it looked like when I finished mixing.
Step 2: Daily mixing and maturing
The instruction guide inside the kit tells you to mix once every day for a week.
To be honest, it doesn’t smell very pleasant… Very far from the regular soy sauce I taste. But I need to trust my mixture! (even when it looks and smells gross)
After a week of daily mixing, all of the content sunk to the bottom.
After a month, koji began to float! Fermentation process began!!
At this point, the smell changed. It still does not smell like the shoyu I know, and it’s not very pleasant either, but I’m glad my shoyu is developing.
After the first week, I can reduce the frequency of mixing. I now mix them about 2~3 times a week.
The floating koji is slimy and doughy. I wouldn’t want to touch this.
Step 3: Continue!!
My shoyu is going to be complete after a year. That means, I need to observe and mix for 10 more month!
When the maturing process is done, I will squeeze my shoyu. It says the liquid will darken in color, but I’ll have to wait and see.
It’s slow and long process, but I’m enjoying this, surprisingly! Hope my shoyu will come out great!
