Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Sauces and condiments from Thailand

Thai see-iu (sii-íu kǎao, sii-íu dam, sii-íu wǎan)ซีอิ๊ว

Thai see-iu is brewed soy sauce. Cooked soybeans are mixed with roasted wheat flour and koji mould and grown on bamboo trays for three days, then the koji ferments in 17–20 % brine in earthenware jars set in the sun for three to six months. The liquid is boiled, filtered and bottled. Thai soy sauce also comes in white, black and sweet styles.

Fully documentedSauces and condiments3.1 months – 6.1 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions from the JIRCAS Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand.
Whole soybeansSoaked overnight, then steamed or autoclaved until soft[jircas-seeiu]
Ground roasted wheat flour (or rice flour)Equal to the soybeans[jircas-seeiu]
Aspergillus oryzae starter, grown on cooked rice[jircas-seeiu]
Brine of 17–20 % salt1 part koji to 1–2 parts brine[jircas-seeiu]
StarterAspergillus oryzae, grown on cooked rice

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.1 months – 6.1 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Soaked soybeans are steamed until soft

Step 1 of 5
Soak and cook the soybeans
Time
Soaked overnight, then steamed or autoclaved until soft
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus oryzae
Yeasts
Pichia guilliermondii
Moulds
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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

At a glance

Thai see-iu is brewed soy sauce. Cooked soybeans are mixed with roasted wheat flour and koji mould and grown on bamboo trays for three days, then the koji ferments in 17–20 % brine in earthenware jars set in the sun for three to six months. The liquid is boiled, filtered and bottled. Thai soy sauce also comes in white, black and sweet styles. Made in 5 steps over 3.1 months – 6.1 months. The longest step, ferment the moromi in brine, in the sun, takes 3–6 months (JIRCAS). Salt is 17–20 % (JIRCAS). Aspergillus oryzae and Salt-tolerant yeasts in koji and moromi, including Meyerozyma (Pichia) guilliermondii do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–6 monthsReported[jircas-seeiu]Ferment the moromi in brine, in the sun
Salt17–20 %Reported[jircas-seeiu][aryuman2015]Ferment the moromi in brine, in the sun

What makes this one different

Thai see-iu is brewed with koji and brine like Chinese soy sauce. JIRCAS describes the moromi sitting in earthenware jars in a sunny place, with the time depending on the season, from three to six months.

Related ferments

Safety

The JIRCAS database warns that black mould on koji can produce toxin and should be avoided. The finished sauce is boiled and keeps for many years.

History and sources

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

Shurtleff and Aoyagi write that its production is thought to date back to ancient times, when the Chinese introduced it (citing Sundhagul and others, 1978). They add that the earliest known reference to it dates from only 1974, when Areekul and colleagues reported its vitamin B-12 content. A 1978 survey counted about 50 plants, 41 of them in and around Bangkok, most of them small and family-run, and reported a typical fermentation of 2 months in open air (Shurtleff and Aoyagi, citing Sundhagul 1978). In 1980 Bhumiratana and colleagues described the traditional process and used a koji strain from a Bangkok plant as a pure culture, and Flegel and Bhumiratana then made pure-culture inoculum in plastic bags.

  1. [jircas-seeiu] JIRCAS, Database of Fermented Foods of Thailand, See-iu (ซีอิ๊ว)gov
  2. [aryuman2015] Aryuman P., Lertsiri S., Visessanguan W., Niamsiri N., Bhumiratana A., Assavanig A. 2015, Glutaminase-producing Meyerozyma (Pichia) guilliermondii isolated from Thai soy sauce fermentation, International Journal of Food Microbiology 192:7–12, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2014.09.019 (abstract)paper
  3. [shurtleff-soy-sauce] Shurtleff W., Aoyagi A. (SoyInfo Center), History of Soy Sauce, Shoyu, and Tamari, page 2, a chapter of the unpublished manuscript History of Soybeans and Soyfoods (copyright 2004), Thailand sectionbook
  4. [WP-Soy sauce] English Wikipedia, Soy sauce (names of the Thai styles; outline only)wiki