foods that the ancient Chinese fermented in
brine were pieces of meat or fish. These were
eventually replaced by whole soybeans around
the 2nd century BCE. Soy paste became the
major condiment around 200 CE and remained
so through around 1600, when it was replaced
by soy sauce. Soy sauce began as a residue
resulting when soy paste was made with
excess liquid, but it became more popular
than the paste, and by 1000 was prepared for
its own sake.
Chinese Soy Pastes and Sauces
A number of the condiments used in
Chinese cooking as sauces or sauce bases
are variations on mold-fermented
soybeans, or chiang. Their Chinese names
reflect this. Some examples are:
Bean sauce, yuen-shi chiang, made from
the residue of soy-sauce making, used to
make savory sauces