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Sauces and condiments from Myanmar

Pè ngan-pya-ye (Lashio soybean sauce)ပဲငံပြာရည်

Pè ngan-pya-ye, "bean fish-sauce", is Myanmar soy sauce. In Lashio, roasted and boiled soybeans are mixed with wheat flour and dried in shade and then sun as a mould grows on them, then set in brine in glazed jars in full sun for months. The liquid is boiled down with wheat bran and jaggery and bottled.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments2.8 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHome-industry method recorded in Lashio in 2006–2008. Amounts are in local measures per glazed jar and cannot be converted to percentages.
SoybeansRoasted, then boiled in plenty of water[swemartin2008]
Wheat flourMixed in once the beans cool[swemartin2008]
Salt5/8 tin per jar of soybeanDissolved into the brine; the tin is a local measure[swemartin2008]
Wheat bran10 gallons per jarBoiled with the extract, as the source writes it[swemartin2008]
Brown cane sugar (jaggery)A few slabs[swemartin2008]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter (home koji, "inoculated with fungal spores")

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.8 months

Start
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What changes: Roasted soybeans are boiled, cooled and mixed with wheat flour

Step 1 of 5
Roast and boil the soybeans; mix with wheat flour
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: bean and flour mix.

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

Pè ngan-pya-ye, "bean fish-sauce", is Myanmar soy sauce. In Lashio, roasted and boiled soybeans are mixed with wheat flour and dried in shade and then sun as a mould grows on them, then set in brine in glazed jars in full sun for months. The liquid is boiled down with wheat bran and jaggery and bottled. Made in 5 steps over 2.8 months. The longest step, mix with brine in glazed jars and set in full sun, takes at least 2.3 months (Swe Mar Tin 2008). Fungal spores on the dried bean and flour mix does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2.3 monthsReported[swemartin2008]Mix with brine in glazed jars and set in full sun

What makes this one different

Like Chinese and Japanese soy sauce it is a koji-and-brine ferment, but the koji dries in shade and sun rather than in a warm room, the jars stand in full sun, and the liquid is boiled with wheat bran and jaggery at the end, which thickens and sweetens it.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Kya nyo (thick soy sauce)Wikipedia names thick soy sauce kya nyo, from Chinese jiangyou.

Safety

The recipe records salt in the jar mash and a final boil of the extract.

History and sources

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

Wikipedia reports Burmese soy sauce from the Bagan era, with writings in praise of pe ngan byar yay, but gives no source for it.

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [swemartin2008] Swe Mar Tin, Thida Aung, Kay Thi Aung, Nang Mya Oo 2008, Study of Glycine max Merr. on its productions and uses in Lashio Township, Universities Research Journal 1(1):145–155paper
  2. [wp-soy] Wikipedia, Soy sauce (Burmese section; names only)wiki