Not all soy sauces are created equal. The Philippines’ Toyo is the key to creating quality and tasty homestyle Filipino dishes.
What is Toyo?
Toyo is a general term for soy sauce in the Philippines. It’s used in a wide variety of Filipino stews, stir-fries, and dips, giving dishes a deeply salty and robust flavor. It’s a condiment and sauce as common as vinegar in Filipino cuisine, and a foundational flavor base in everyday Filipino cooking.
How it Differs From Other Soy Sauces
Ingredients and Production
Think of Toyo as cousins in the same family of fermented soy sauces. Their ingredients are fundamentally the same building blocks as many soy sauces worldwide, but the formulation and proportions differ by brand.
Most Toyo are made up of soy beans, salt, water, caramel coloring (for darkness), and sometimes wheat or sugar, depending on the brand. Unlike other soy sauces that differentiate between production method, consistencies, and taste, most Filipino soy sauces are simply referred to as Toyo.
Taste
Like most soy sauces, Filipino Toyo tastes similar in terms of their salty and umami flavor. It also has caramel-like, smoky, and savory notes shared by many different brands and varieties.
Where it differs is that it tends to be saltier, and slightly sharper when compared to Japanese soy sauce. The saltiness hits your palate right away, and can exhibit a touch of tang or sweetness, depending on brand formulations.
It’s important to note that this is done deliberately to fit local palates in Filipino cooking, where it’s designed to match well with acids (like vinegar in adobo), aromatics (garlic, ginger, onion), and overall the bold, robust flavors of the cuisine.
Texture
Toyo is thin and pourable, similar to the viscosity of Japanese shoyu or Chinese light soy sauce, but not syrupy like dark soy sauce. Unless reduced during cooking or mixed with sugar, Toyo doesn’t cling well or can coat the back of a spoon.
How it’s Used
Toyo is used widespread in Filipino cooking, from braises, stir-fries, dips, and marinades. It can be the forefront of the dish, or simply used sparingly as a seasoning to enhance the dish. Examples of these include:
Braises: Pork Adobo or Beef Kaldereta
Stir-Fries: Pancit Bihon or Chicken Adobo Stir Fry
Fried Rice: Sinangag
Dipping Sauces: Sawsawan
Marinades: Bistek or Beef Barbecue
Substitutions
While Toyo can be found practically in almost all Filipino groceries, I get that substitutes are sometimes needed if they’re unavailable in your area or if you simply don’t have any on hand.
Two good substitutes I always use are either Chinese light soy sauce or Japanese soy sauce:
Chinese Light Soy Sauce (like Pearl River Bridge): These are close substitutes, as they’re comparable in saltiness, texture, and function designed for seasoning. Just replace as a 1:1 ratio in most Filipino recipes.
Japanese Soy Sauce (like Kikkoman): This could also work, though because it’s much lighter, you’ll have to tweak the recipe slightly to match the intensity or proper saltiness of the Filipino dish. You could do this by either adding a pinch of kosher salt to taste, adding more soy sauce a tablespoon at a time, or reducing for slightly longer to intensify its flavor.
Toyo Brands
Toyo can be found in most Filipino groceries or markets, such as Seafood City or Island Pacific. They can also be purchased in some Asian supermarkets or even in the international section of Western groceries.
I personally love using Marca Piña, but Datu Puti and Silver Swan are also popular Filipino brands.
Storage
Toyo remains remarkably stable due to its high salt content and fermentation process. For that reason, I typically keep it in a cool, dark, and dry place in my pantry. No need for refrigeration.
Once opened, it’s best used within 3 to 5 months for peak flavor, but it can last up to 2 years (and whatever it says on the expiry or “best before” date).
If you ever see the soy sauce develop mold, it begins to smell rancid or foul, or the texture is no longer thin and pourable, trust your instinct and it’s best to discard it right away.
References:
- https://www.kikkoman.com/jp/kiifc/foodculture/pdf_25/e_014_021.pdf
- https://www.ice.edu/blog/types-soy-sauce
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c04274
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