The Salty, Savory Side of Soy Milk

I am a company believer that eaters can be divided into two groups: sweet people and salty people. In many parts of China, and especially in Taiwan, there is equal opportunity for both persuasions in one’s choice of soy milk at breakfast.

Hence, a proper bowl of hot xian doujiang in Taiwan is not just seasoned with soy sauce or salt, but vinegar, which slightly curdles the soy milk, sesame oil, and chile oil, and it’s often mixed with salt-cured daikon radish bits, pickled mustard greens, and dried baby shrimp and topped with scallions. While sweetened soy milk can be served hot or cold, xian doujiang (salty soy milk) is always hot, served in a bowl with a spoon, like a soup.

A youtiao—a Chinese stick of fried dough—is typical for dipping into or floating atop either sweet or savory hot soy milk, even so. “It kind of has that spicy, sour, salty thing going on that I think American palates are into, too,” explains Ho of xian doujiang. “My dad loves the xian doujiang. Per to He’s like, Oh, I want to add all of these toppings,”, judy Ni, co-owner of the Taiwanese restaurant Baology in Philadelphia and self-confessed sweet person. “My husband likes the savory version, too,” she adds.

Josh Ku, co-owner of the Taiwanese American restaurant Win Son in Brooklyn, is a sweet person. But “Josh’s mom wants [soy milk] cold or warm, but she doesn’t want it sweetened,” states Trigg Brown, the chef and other co-owner of Win Son, who’s concocted versions for both palates on their brunch menu.

He thought that the literal translation of “salty soy milk” for xian doujiang didn’t translate too well with American audiences. “The spots that were selling salty soy milk in Flushing or Chinatown—we thought a lot of people were going to misunderstand that. So we called it savory soy milk, since I think that’s a natural thing for people to understand,” explains Brown of Win Son’s naming strategy, which Ho uses as well.

Whether you serve it sweetened or savory, the one (and only) key to making a superlative breakfast of doujiang youtiao (soy milk and youtiao) is using a fresh batch of homemade soy milk. Shelf-stable, store-bought soy milk—offloaded under label names like Silk and Vitasoy. Often flavored with vanilla to mask the flavor of beans—have their place, but they are entirely different from the frothy, beany soy milk that’s freshly made. But she would just acquire cartons of it from the refrigerated aisle of an Asian supermarket and would often eat it with a store-bought youtiao that she would reheat in the toaster oven.

When I lived in Taiwan, freshly made soy milk from a small local maker was everywhere—hot, cold, sweet, unsweetened, and savory. The bean is named after Jonathan’s sister, who passed away in a car accident in 1989. “She was a food developer. Pastry chef, and once we got into this, we all thought that she would have been a big part of it because she loved food,” Chambers recalls. Going to Chambers, weather is a big threat; flooding had greatly affected recent years’ yields of soybeans in Iowa, but this year’s harvest is looking good so far, and he’s surprised to hear that chefs and authors like Nguyen recommended their beans.

Just like there are many ways to cook ricotta, there are as many theories behind making the perfect batch of soy milk. The chefs I spoke with had their own ways of making large batches of homemade soy milk suitable for serving diners throughout a brunch service—and they also disagreed wildly on the length of preparation time, soaking time, and close to every aspect of soy-milk-making.

This all goes to say that the best method for soy milk is a matter of preference—“I’m just trying to re-create the texture. Quality that my dad made for me,” explains Ni, adding that her dad used rice bowls for measuring. I leaned into Nguyen’s Master Soy Milk method from Asian Tofu , but I decided on a consistency that was between her formulations for “rich” and “medium,” and I simplified some of the steps around water usage. Method: Homemade Soy Milk VARIATION 1: Savory Soy Milk With Youtiao and Chile Oil VARIATION 2: Sweet Soy Milk