Making Soy Sauce, purpose of Charcoal?

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larry_stewart

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I've had the itch to make soy sauce after seeing a documentary on it years ago. I was browsing through You tube just to see others experiences, and one woman , in addition to other ingredients, used a chunk of charcoal during the fermentation process. Any clue what the purpose of the charcoal is ?
 
I have never seen a recipe calling for this, but I have seen small bags of irregular pieces of charcoal in oriental stores labeled simply "carbon". To small, and not enough for cooking, I often wondered what that would be used for, but now I know at least one thing that it would be used in, though I'm not sure sure what purpose it would serve.
 
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Here's a website/forum I came across you might be interested in, if you haven't already found it.

making soy sauce at home

I thought I had heard that at one point it smells rather badly, not as bad as making fish sauce but... you might want to keep that in mind where you store it. :rolleyes:
 
Probably in the very near future. I watched a few more videos and Ill do a little more research, but Im excited about going through the year long process.

https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/doenjang

Her method makes a really good soy sauce. A lot more flavor than the store bought brands. She gave me a sample from the batch she made the year before when testing this method. The older it get the better it is.
 
Soy sauce

What they don't mention is that the by product is miso! I am going to try this, but cant seem to find where to buy the charcoal, even online. Larry have you had any luck?
 
What they don't mention is that the by product is miso! I am going to try this, but cant seem to find where to buy the charcoal, even online. Larry have you had any luck?

Look for Binchotan you can find it on Amazon
 
Never heard that it's possible to make soy sauce a home. I always thought that it was a complex process.
 
Your post about making soy sauce got me all curious and excited. I love exploring new cooking ideas, and DIY soy sauce sounds like a fun project! I'm no expert, but that charcoal addition is intriguing. It might add some unique flavors or help with purification during fermentation.
 
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Activated charcoal is used for purification. I once had a temp job in a factory that was trying to get a contract to make activated charcoal to be used in a new water purification plant. They didn't get the contract and I had to find another job, but I took home a big bag of it for use in my fish tank filter.
 
Not sure if I had a separate thread for my soy sauce journey, but just to be clear, it failed miserably . The pots of aging soy sauce developed a mold and I had to toss it. In addition, when making the fermented soy blocks ( That I was forewarned ( by my Korean co-worker, whose mother used to make it when she was a kid) that it would stink up the house like wet socks), they stunk up the house like wet socks. Boy, was my wife angry. At least if I had something to show for it it would have been worth it, but all I had was 3 crocks of mold.
 
I remember when you said you were interested in trying to make soy sauce. I read the directions and thought, OMG that's going to take a whole year. I'm not as patient as you are. I'm impressed you tried it. Most people wouldn't! Like I said, I'm impressed! We should all have your sense of adventure!
 
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