What is the origin of soy? How is soy milk made and how did it become popular? Which soy products can I find on the market?
Origin
Soybeans come from Africa or Asia and are related to legumes. There are thousands of types of soybeans. In China, soybean was used as food for a long time, even before there was any written tradition. After this, the soybean and other soy products were shipped to Japan. Liu An from China is seen as the one who discovered and developed soy milk. At the time, soy was considered one of the five sacred crops, along with rice, wheat, barley and millet.
How is soy milk made?
In principle, soy drink is wrongly given the name soy milk because it has a vegetable origin and has nothing to do with the cow or with milk. Soy milk is a stable emulsion of water, oil and protein and no more than a water extract from soybeans. To make this soy milk, dry soybeans are forcibly ground and ground with water. The resulting liquid is called soy milk and the pulp that remains is also called okara. This okara is part of traditional Japanese, Chinese and Korean cuisine. In Western society it serves as a good substitute for meat. Cow’s milk and soy milk both contain about the same amount of protein (3.5 percent). Soy milk contains less calcium than regular cow’s milk, which means that soy milk is enriched with calcium. On the other hand, vitamin D and a small amount of vitamin B are added to soy milk.
Popularity
It is often thought that soy milk is extremely popular in Japan, but the opposite appears to be true. In Japan, less soy milk is consumed per person compared to the United States. This can be explained by the fact that many Japanese schoolchildren have been given cow’s milk from the past (1958) and not soy milk. However, the production of soy milk in Japan has been increasing since 1995. Especially in the west, soy milk has gained popularity in recent years, while there is a distinct bean flavor to the soy milk and therefore it is often thought that the taste is not accepted. It is precisely by making use of good processing techniques or using soybeans with a subtler flavor that this bean flavor can be reduced or avoided. It is very important to heat the soybeans before you grind them to destroy the enzymes that cause the bean taste. Sugar and salt are often used as an extra additive to make the product more attractive to the consumer. What many people do not realize is that soy has become a household name long before the recent crisis in the meat industry because the product is used in an important part of all packaged foods.
Soy products
Other products made from soy include:
- Soy cheese is made by curdling soy milk. In Indian cuisine it is also called bean curd. The Chinese name for this is tofu. It is a high-protein alternative to meat
- Tempeh has a neutral taste and is made by peeling soybeans, then boiling them and finally fertilizing (converting biological materials) with the help of a fungus. Unlike tofu, it is made with whole beans and is therefore very high in fiber.
- The flavor enhancer ve-tsin and the emulsifier lecithin are also made from soybeans