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Fermentation Atlas

Sauces and condiments from Hongyang town, Puning, Jieyang, Guangdong

Puning bean paste (Puning soybean sauce, Chaoshan yellow bean paste)普宁豆酱

golden, whole-grain soybean paste in liquor; dipping sauce for Teochew fish rice (鱼饭), and used in steamed fish, stir-fried snails and braised bitter melon [Sina2018]. Made in 5 steps over 3 months – 5 months. The longest step, brine and sun-ferment in open jars (推水醭), takes 3–5 months (记忆中的潮汕味道!普宁豆酱凭什么成为潮汕酱料的王牌? (reprinted from 悦食…). Aspergillus oryzae (starter); brine-stage microbes not studied in any source found does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–5 monthsSourced[Sina2018][PunningGov2022]Brine and sun-ferment in open jars (推水醭)
Temperature100 °CReported[Sina2018]Soak in boiling water, drain, steam (浸豆, 炊豆)
DocumentedSauces and condiments3 months – 5 monthsMore sauces and condimentsMore from ChinaMore from Thailand

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
dehulled split yellow soybeans (northeast-China soybeans preferred)
wheat flour
salt
water
Starter: koji/qu/mold-starter: Aspergillus oryzae ('食用菌种,主要是米曲霉') mixed with flour [Sina2018]

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 months – 5 months

Start
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What changes: Soybeans are sun-dried, cracked and split into halves

Step 1 of 5
Sun-dry beans, crack and dehull into halves (曝豆, 碾豆)
Time
one dry sunny day (humid weather stops clean dehulling)
Unconfirmed
Temperature
sun
Unconfirmed
Salt
0
Unconfirmed
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus oryzae

Output: dehulled split beans [Sina2018].

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
split cotyledons (豆瓣)
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

none

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

Variants

  • Teochew home bean pastesteamed beans covered with a quilt 3–5 days instead of a koji room, then brined in a pottery urn in the sun 1–2 months [Sina2018]
  • Thai 'tao jiao Phow Leng' (เต้าเจี้ยวโผวเล้ง)Thai name for the Puning style (Phow Leng = Teochew reading of Puning); Thai soy pastes are sun-fermented 3–6 months in jars [trueplookpanya, search summary]

Safety

Commercial labels list soybean, salt, wheat flour, water plus sodium benzoate, acesulfame and MSG [PMC10855112]. Heat treatment after sun fermentation gives the long shelf life.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Puning county founded 1563. Bean-paste workshops from the late Ming–early Qing; large-scale production in the Daoguang era; Fang Shuzhe opened the Yuanxing (源兴号) works in Hongyang in 1840; more than ten firms in the Republican era; 12 firms merged into the Hongyang soy-sauce cooperative in the 1950s [WP-zh, PunningGov2022, Sina2018]. Listed as Guangdong provincial intangible cultural heritage in January 2009 [WP-zh].

  1. [WP-zh] Wikipedia (zh), 普宁豆酱, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/普宁豆酱wiki
  2. [PunningGov2022] Puning Municipal Culture Bureau, 普宁豆酱:古法技艺 芳香弥远乡情浓, 2022-04-11, http://www.puning.gov.cn/bmpd/pnswhgdlytyj/gzdt/content/post_663533.htmlgov
  3. [Sina2018] 记忆中的潮汕味道!普宁豆酱凭什么成为潮汕酱料的王牌? (reprinted from 悦食记), 2018-02-14, https://k.sina.cn/article_6438675816_17fc66568001003nkf.htmlweb
  4. [PMC10855112] A Systematic Comparative Study on the Physicochemical Properties, Volatile Compounds, and Biological Activity of Typical Fermented Soy Foods. Foods 2024;13(3):415paper