Soy Sauce

Chinese recipes will refer to both “light soy sauce” and “dark soy sauce”. The former should not be confused with low-salt soy sauce or anything like that; it’s basically just the default Chinese soy sauce. Dark soy sauce, instead, is primarily used for colour.

If I just say “soy sauce” in a recipe without qualification, I probably mean a Chinese light soy sauce (I usually use Kimlan or Shinho) if it’s a Chinese recipe, or a Japanese soy sauce (I usually use Yamasa) for a Japanese or Korean recipe. You’ll get 95% of the way there just using them interchangeably.

I basically never use dark soy sauce, but any time I call for making caramel in a recipe, you could skip caramelizing the sugar and add some dark soy sauce for colour.