Does dark soy sauce color the food? What can I use if I don't have dark soy sauce?

We all know that dark soy sauce is a common seasoning. It can have a good cooking effect. Many people use dark soy sauce when cooking, especially when making braised pork or stewed dishes. Dark soy sauce can generally play a role in coloring, so what can be used for coloring without dark soy sauce? Let's take a closer look!

What is Lao Soy Sauce

Both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce are called in Guangdong. "Chou" means "extract". Light soy sauce is a commonly used condiment and a type of soy sauce. Light soy sauce is lighter in color, generally reddish brown, and tastes sweeter. It is mainly used for seasoning. It is often used when cooking and mixing cold dishes, and can also be eaten directly as a dip. Generally, the soy sauce for cold dishes is light soy sauce.

Dark soy sauce is a thick soy sauce made by adding caramel to light soy sauce and processing it through a special process. It is dark reddish brown in color and is mainly used for coloring. It is generally used for stewing and braised dishes.

Is the soy sauce colored?

Dark soy sauce is used to adjust the color, and its coloring function can be completely replaced by sugar color. There are ready-made sugar color for sale, or you can make it yourself at home.

Dark soy sauce is used to adjust the color of dishes, generally used for braised or stewed dishes. Sugar color can also be used to replace the coloring function of dark soy sauce. When frying sugar color, you need to use hot water, stir-fry slowly over low heat, and stir-fry constantly to avoid burning the pan. As long as we know the properties and uses of each seasoning, we can make the best use of it when using it and make delicious food with good color, fragrance and taste.

What to use for coloring without dark soy sauce?

In addition to dark soy sauce, caramel can also be used to color food. The caramel color can make the food more lustrous, and the coloring effect of caramel is better than that of dark soy sauce.

When sugar is heated, the sugar molecules begin to break down and reassemble into a complex with a unique color and taste, which is called caramel. Usually sugar turns into caramel when it is slowly heated to 170°C. Caramel is very simple to make, just heat the sugar until it changes color.

If there is no dark soy sauce, you can use white sugar or rock sugar. Put white sugar (or rock sugar) and water in a pot in a ratio of 1:1. Slowly simmer on low heat until it turns into caramel color. Remember to simmer on low heat before adding meat or other food. The effect is better than dark soy sauce, and the taste is even more unique than that of dark soy sauce.

Several methods of stir-frying sugar color

There are three methods for stir-frying sugar color and the difficulty is as follows:

1. Stir-frying is to use cooking oil to melt the sugar and quickly turn it into sugar color.

Technical difficulty: Five stars

Frying can quickly make sugar color, but it is not suitable for beginners. Frying sugar color with oil is very difficult and it is important to control the heat.

2. Water frying means using clean water to dissolve the sugar and slowly boil the sugar into sugar color.

Technical difficulty: two stars

Stir-fry slowly until it turns into sugar color. Stir-frying in water will easily turn into sand and frosting. Be careful when frying. If it turns into frosting, fry slowly. Recommended for beginners.

3. Stir-frying with water and oil means using water and oil to stir-fry the sugar and then slowly turn it into sugar color.

Difficulty index: three stars

The speed of frying and turning sugar color is average. Suitable for those with average skills.

The process of sugar turning into sugar color → sugar melting → frosting → pulling sugar threads → sugar color.

Tips: Use single crystal rock sugar to make sugar color. The sugar color made by rock sugar is incomparable to that made by white sugar. The characteristic of sugar color made by rock sugar is that it can make the dishes very bright, but white sugar cannot.