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Sauces and condiments from Vietnam

Xì dầu / nước tương (Vietnam)nước tương

Vietnamese soy sauce. The national standard TCVN 1763:2008 defines naturally brewed nước tương as soybeans, or soybeans with grain, fermented with Aspergillus oryzae and/or A. sojae (or with bacteria, moulds or yeasts), with salt and/or sweetener added. Codex describes brewed soy sauce as cooked beans and grain inoculated with these moulds, then fermented and aged in salt water for at least 90 days below 40 °C. The same name also covers sauces hydrolysed with acid or enzymes, and sauces that blend the two.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe public part of TCVN 1763:2008 lists the raw materials without amounts, and no Vietnamese recipe with amounts was found.
Soybeans, whole or defatted[tcvn1763][codex-3mcpd]
Wheat or another cereal grain[tcvn1763][codex-3mcpd]
Aspergillus oryzae and/or Aspergillus sojae starterTCVN 1763:2008 lists it as an optional component[tcvn1763][codex-3mcpd]
Salt water[tcvn1763][codex-3mcpd]
Sugar or other sweetenerlisted among the main raw materialsTCVN 1763:2008 lists sugar in its raw-material clause and its definition of brewed sauce says salt and/or sweetener is added; no amount is given in the public part[tcvn1763]
StarterAspergillus oryzae and/or A. sojae, listed as an optional component in TCVN 1763:2008
Start
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What changes: Soybeans and grain are pre-cooked and mixed

Step 1 of 4
Cook the soybeans and grain
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus oryzae
Aspergillus sojae
Moulds

Codex describes the soybeans (whole or defatted) and grain such as wheat as pre-cooked and then mixed.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Vietnamese soy sauce. The national standard TCVN 1763:2008 defines naturally brewed nước tương as soybeans, or soybeans with grain, fermented with Aspergillus oryzae and/or A. sojae (or with bacteria, moulds or yeasts), with salt and/or sweetener added. Codex describes brewed soy sauce as cooked beans and grain inoculated with these moulds, then fermented and aged in salt water for at least 90 days below 40 °C. The same name also covers sauces hydrolysed with acid or enzymes, and sauces that blend the two. Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus sojae does most of the fermenting.

What makes this one different

Nước tương is the Vietnamese name for soy sauce, distinct from tương, the thick fermented soybean paste. Like Chinese jiangyou it is brewed from soybeans and grain with koji and brine, but the same name also covers sauces made partly or wholly from acid-hydrolysed soy protein.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Naturally brewed nước tươngKoji fermented in salt water for not less than 90 days below 40 °C, as Codex describes for naturally fermented soy sauce in general.
  • Short-term fermented soy sauceIn Codex's general description the brine stage runs at 40 °C or above and finishes within 90 days.
  • Acid-hydrolysed and semi-chemical soy sauceMade from soybean protein hydrolysed with hydrochloric acid, alone or blended with brewed sauce; not fermented, or only partly.

Safety

Codex notes that soy sauces made only by fermentation contain little or no 3-MCPD, while sauces made with hydrochloric-acid-hydrolysed soy protein, or blends with it, can contain this contaminant; Codex sets out how to keep it low.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [codex-3mcpd] Codex Alimentarius Commission 2008, Code of practice for the reduction of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) during the production of acid-HVPs and products that contain acid-HVPs, CAC/RCP 64-2008 (copy hosted by the Slovenian food safety administration)spec
  2. [tcvn1763] TCVN 1763:2008, Nước tương (Soy sauce), Vietnamese national standard; scope, definitions (clause 3) and raw-material and optional-component lists (clauses 4.1 and 4.2) read from the free part of the text on a legal-database page, which puts the rest (sensory and chemical requirements) behind a paywallspec
  3. [wp] English Wikipedia, Soy sauce (outline only)wiki