Chinese light soy sauce (sheng chou)

Sauce soja claire chinoise (sheng chou)

What it is

The characters read raw-drawn: this is liquid taken off the top of the mash rather than pressed and darkened afterwards, and the very first draw, tou chou, is bottled separately and graded on nitrogen content. Saltier and thinner than the dark soy beside it, it carries no caramel at all — it seasons without colouring.

In the kitchen

Light for salt, dark for colour, and never one for the other: a tablespoon of dark soy in place of light leaves a dish black and undersalted. In a stir-fry, pour it down the hot side of the wok rather than onto the food, so it sizzles for a second before it lands.

Goes with

Ginger Spring onion Shaoxing wine Toasted sesame oil Dark soy sauce White pepper Garlic Chinese rock sugar

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd

Also used with

Dried shrimp roe

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