When you see hundreds of soy sauces in the supermarket, you often hear about dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and Hudi Oil. What’s the difference between them? What are the differences in cooking? What are the essential soy sauces for your home? How do you choose?

Dark soy sauce and light soy sauce are both brewed and fermented. The most distinguishing feature is that dark soy sauce is better at coloring dishes than light soy sauce. Let’s take a look at the specific differences between dark soy sauce and light soy sauce.

Dark Soy Sauce

It has a richer flavor but less umami, and is mostly used for coloring.

Dark soy sauce resembles a caramel color, a deep brownish-brown color, and a lustrous sheen. It tastes delicious and slightly sweet, and is used in smaller quantities than regular soy sauce. It’s often used to color dishes, such as pickles, braised dishes, or stewed meats.

Dark soy sauce is made from fermented light soy sauce. After undergoing a series of processing steps, the light soy sauce is further fermented and sun-dried for 2-3 months. After sedimentation and filtration, it becomes dark soy sauce. This makes it richer than light soy sauce, and some dark soy sauces are even aged for a year, which allows for a richer flavor in dishes.

Light soy sauce

Has a lighter flavor, stronger saltiness, and a stronger umami tang, and is often used for seasoning.

Light soy sauce is made primarily from soybeans and flour, artificially inoculated with koji, and then naturally sun-dried and fermented. It has a lighter reddish-brown color and is often called “light soy sauce.” It’s typically used in stir-fries, cold dishes, or as a dipping sauce, but is rarely used in braised dishes.

Pot-bottom oil

This sauce has a rich, sweet flavor and is suitable for adding color to dishes, but it’s more expensive than regular soy sauce.

Dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and hudi oil are all brewed soy sauces. While typical soy sauce requires a fermentation period of approximately four months, hudi oil requires a long-term fermentation period of over a year.

This is because the heavier substances slowly settle to the bottom, pushing the solid soy and wheat ingredients upwards. This layer of concentrated soy sauce forms the base, hence the name “hudi oil.”