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How would traditional taste to someone who has spent their life on mass produced kikoman?

thfuran 1y ago
Salty
LarsAlereon 1y ago
Kikkoman has a double-fermented soy sauce in their product line, brewing starts with their regular soy sauce instead of salt water. The flavor is much deeper and more complex, it's actually less salty than regular soy sauce.
- interestica 1y ago
  Have they thought about triple fermenting? Quadruple?
dfxm12 1y ago
Another commentor suggests this is more like tamari than soy sauce. If it is, expect a similar but more intense flavor and an especially long after taste. It's hard to describe the more intense flavor. It's like if you only taste soy sauce with the center of your tongue, you taste tamari with the tip, center and sides.
GloriousKoji 1y ago
I grew up on kikkoman, view it as the soy sauce equivalent of Heinz ketchup or Best Foods/Hellmans mayonnaise and still cook with it all the time. But after tasting a wide variety of soy sauce I would describe kikkoman's profile as salty, metallic and stout-beer like. The fancier soy sauces seem less salty (despite similar amounts of sodium) and can have varying notes of oyster sauce, seafood, sweetness, coffee, molasses and MSG.
- etblg 1y ago
  Are there any brands of soy sauce that could be commonly (even if its in an Asian market) found in the states that you would recommend?
  - tpm 1y ago
    One that we use at home and could be available is the Sempio 'green' soy sauce with 25% less salt. https://en.sempio.com/product/soysauce/view/605 https://en.sempio.com/product/soysauce/view/605
  - shawn_w 1y ago
    Pearl River Bridge makes pretty good Chinese style soy sauces and seems readily available, at least in the PNW. I use the light and dark sauces a lot in cooking.
- AdmiralAsshat 1y ago
  I started buying Kikkoman's "whole bean" soy sauce (I don't remember what it's called in Japanese: maroyaka?), because I found a local Asian mart carried it, and it was reasonably priced. Seems you can find it on Amazon these days, even: https://www.amazon.com/Kikkoman-Maroyaka-Sauce-33-8-Ounce-Pack/dp/B0046GFTD2?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Kikkoman-Maroyaka-Sauce-33-8-Ounce-Pa... Haven't compared it side-by-side with the normal stuff, but anecdotally it tasted a little more mellow to my palette, and I will probably continue using it moving forward when my 1L bottle runs out.
- steveBK123 1y ago
  Not sure about using Heinz ketchup as an example. To me there are cheap ketchups that taste worse, and fancy yuppie ketchups that taste different for 2-5x the price, but nothing really tastes genuinely better. Ketchup is like a staple unobjectionable thing to stock in the fridge for kids/guests/comfort. Stocking a weird one kind of defeats the purpose. I'd rather try various steak / bbq / teriyaki / whatever sauces that set out to be categorically different.
  - Spooky23 1y ago
    Yes! Heinz is coke. Hunts is Pepsi. Everything else is usually lesser.
    - steveBK123 1y ago
      Yes for me theres a whole variety of low-brow staple packaged processed foods I think we've all sort of imprinted upon a certain flavor profile growing up. I'd rather explore entirely other flavors/categories than spend 4x on some fancy knockoff to signal I'm low brow high end. Extremely diminishing returns, and mostly just tastes different. I don't need a $4 replacement for a Coke or a $5 Mac-n-cheese or a $10 bottle of ketchup. Honestly we should all be buying less of these processed foods, not going further upmarket with them.
    - badc0ffee 1y ago
      Don't forget French's (is it the RC Cola of ketchups?)
      - steveBK123 1y ago
        I never knew it and will immediately forget it lol
      - Spooky23 1y ago
        YES! Citi Field used to serve French’s. Which is odd because they were doing Mike’s mustard… money talks I suppose. My son who was little was like “dad, there’s something wrong with my hot dog.” I tried it, and yes, something was terribly wrong. That stuff tastes like they put tomato flavor in strawberry jam.
jt2190 1y ago
Kikkoman USA has been brewing a lighter soy sauce in Wisconsin for the U.S. market for a few decades while now. It’s what most people in the U.S. think of when they hear “Kikkoman”. Specialty markets sell imported Kikkoman products, such as “traditionally brewed” soy sauce which tastes stronger. Note that “stronger” doesn’t mean “better”: Asian consumers are used to using different styles of soy sauce as they see fit. U.S. consumers still largely view soy sauce as a single thing with no variation except maybe “low sodium”. Definitely worth exploring the different varieties.
skrtskrt 1y ago
Try Pearl River Bridge Light soy sauce. Is the default recommended light soy sauce for a lot of asian cooking, and easy to find. You'll like it better than the harsh flavor of Kikkoman
forgotoldacc 1y ago
There's no one "traditional" soy sauce. It's kind of like wine. If you live your life only drinking sweet port wines straight from the bottle, you'll think a dry white wine is gross if you use it the same way. But if you're making a cream pasta or some sort of fish, you'll quickly realize white wine--and every wine--has its place. For example, I find kikkoman to be absolutely awful for fried rice. It has an oddly sharp taste that just doesn't work. Chinese soy sauces don't have that sharpness but have a very wide and smooth savoriness that works well with fried rice. But if you try Chinese soy sauce with sashimi, it tastes flat and very wrong. That sharpness of a Japanese soy sauce works better, and a high quality Japanese soy sauce has a milder sharpness that emphasizes the fish flavors but not so weak that it makes the flavor weird like a Chinese soy sauce would.
SwtCyber 1y ago
Probably like tasting a whole different thing. Traditional soy sauce hits way differently, it’s not just salty, it’s got layers

Salty

Kikkoman has a double-fermented soy sauce in their product line, brewing starts with their regular soy sauce instead of salt water. The flavor is much deeper and more complex, it's actually less salty than regular soy sauce.

interestica 1y ago
Have they thought about triple fermenting? Quadruple?

dfxm12 1y ago

Another commentor suggests this is more like tamari than soy sauce. If it is, expect a similar but more intense flavor and an especially long after taste. It's hard to describe the more intense flavor. It's like if you only taste soy sauce with the center of your tongue, you taste tamari with the tip, center and sides.

GloriousKoji 1y ago

I grew up on kikkoman, view it as the soy sauce equivalent of Heinz ketchup or Best Foods/Hellmans mayonnaise and still cook with it all the time. But after tasting a wide variety of soy sauce I would describe kikkoman's profile as salty, metallic and stout-beer like. The fancier soy sauces seem less salty (despite similar amounts of sodium) and can have varying notes of oyster sauce, seafood, sweetness, coffee, molasses and MSG.

etblg 1y ago
Are there any brands of soy sauce that could be commonly (even if its in an Asian market) found in the states that you would recommend?
- tpm 1y ago
  One that we use at home and could be available is the Sempio 'green' soy sauce with 25% less salt. https://en.sempio.com/product/soysauce/view/605 https://en.sempio.com/product/soysauce/view/605
- shawn_w 1y ago
  Pearl River Bridge makes pretty good Chinese style soy sauces and seems readily available, at least in the PNW. I use the light and dark sauces a lot in cooking.
AdmiralAsshat 1y ago
I started buying Kikkoman's "whole bean" soy sauce (I don't remember what it's called in Japanese: maroyaka?), because I found a local Asian mart carried it, and it was reasonably priced. Seems you can find it on Amazon these days, even: https://www.amazon.com/Kikkoman-Maroyaka-Sauce-33-8-Ounce-Pack/dp/B0046GFTD2?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Kikkoman-Maroyaka-Sauce-33-8-Ounce-Pa... Haven't compared it side-by-side with the normal stuff, but anecdotally it tasted a little more mellow to my palette, and I will probably continue using it moving forward when my 1L bottle runs out.
steveBK123 1y ago
Not sure about using Heinz ketchup as an example. To me there are cheap ketchups that taste worse, and fancy yuppie ketchups that taste different for 2-5x the price, but nothing really tastes genuinely better. Ketchup is like a staple unobjectionable thing to stock in the fridge for kids/guests/comfort. Stocking a weird one kind of defeats the purpose. I'd rather try various steak / bbq / teriyaki / whatever sauces that set out to be categorically different.
- Spooky23 1y ago
  Yes! Heinz is coke. Hunts is Pepsi. Everything else is usually lesser.
  - steveBK123 1y ago
    Yes for me theres a whole variety of low-brow staple packaged processed foods I think we've all sort of imprinted upon a certain flavor profile growing up. I'd rather explore entirely other flavors/categories than spend 4x on some fancy knockoff to signal I'm low brow high end. Extremely diminishing returns, and mostly just tastes different. I don't need a $4 replacement for a Coke or a $5 Mac-n-cheese or a $10 bottle of ketchup. Honestly we should all be buying less of these processed foods, not going further upmarket with them.
  - badc0ffee 1y ago
    Don't forget French's (is it the RC Cola of ketchups?)
    - steveBK123 1y ago
      I never knew it and will immediately forget it lol
    - Spooky23 1y ago
      YES! Citi Field used to serve French’s. Which is odd because they were doing Mike’s mustard… money talks I suppose. My son who was little was like “dad, there’s something wrong with my hot dog.” I tried it, and yes, something was terribly wrong. That stuff tastes like they put tomato flavor in strawberry jam.

jt2190 1y ago

Kikkoman USA has been brewing a lighter soy sauce in Wisconsin for the U.S. market for a few decades while now. It’s what most people in the U.S. think of when they hear “Kikkoman”. Specialty markets sell imported Kikkoman products, such as “traditionally brewed” soy sauce which tastes stronger. Note that “stronger” doesn’t mean “better”: Asian consumers are used to using different styles of soy sauce as they see fit. U.S. consumers still largely view soy sauce as a single thing with no variation except maybe “low sodium”. Definitely worth exploring the different varieties.

skrtskrt 1y ago

Try Pearl River Bridge Light soy sauce. Is the default recommended light soy sauce for a lot of asian cooking, and easy to find. You'll like it better than the harsh flavor of Kikkoman

forgotoldacc 1y ago

There's no one "traditional" soy sauce. It's kind of like wine. If you live your life only drinking sweet port wines straight from the bottle, you'll think a dry white wine is gross if you use it the same way. But if you're making a cream pasta or some sort of fish, you'll quickly realize white wine--and every wine--has its place. For example, I find kikkoman to be absolutely awful for fried rice. It has an oddly sharp taste that just doesn't work. Chinese soy sauces don't have that sharpness but have a very wide and smooth savoriness that works well with fried rice. But if you try Chinese soy sauce with sashimi, it tastes flat and very wrong. That sharpness of a Japanese soy sauce works better, and a high quality Japanese soy sauce has a milder sharpness that emphasizes the fish flavors but not so weak that it makes the flavor weird like a Chinese soy sauce would.

SwtCyber 1y ago

Probably like tasting a whole different thing. Traditional soy sauce hits way differently, it’s not just salty, it’s got layers