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Soy, Japanese

The beans are first washed, then boiled with water enough to cover them until they are tender. They are then mashed in a mortar and mixed with their weight of coarse barley-meal. This mixture, being closely covered, is then placed in a warm situation, and left to ferment. When the mass is sufficiently fermented, a weight of salt, equal to that of the beans originally, is dissolved in five times its weight of water, and added to the fermented mass, and is strongly stirred in it. The whole being well covered, it remains in this state during three months, being daily agitated and beaten for two hours, after which it is again covered. It is then strained through cotton cloth, which is well pressed until every drop of liquid has passed through. The soy is now put into wooden tubs, when age fines it. After a time, when it is sufficiently clear, it is racked off, and put into smaller wooden vessels for sale. Meanwhile, more water is poured upon the mass that remains after the straining, and soy of an inferior kind is made. Though there is no spice, nor other seasoning but salt, in the Japanese soy, it is far preferable to that of China, and is free from the sweet treacly flavour which distinguishes the latter.