Founded in 1928, May-dong Traditional Handmade Sauces in central Taiwan’s Taichung City has been sticking with traditional manufacturing methods and using all-natural ingredients, producing a sauce it claims is superior to those of other major labels.
At May-dong, soybeans are boiled in oak barrels over a brick stove fueled by wood from the family’s lychee farm.
Fu Hung-yen, the third-generation operator of May-dong, said for almost a century the soy sauce production house has been using the techniques Fu’s grandfather learned in Japan, resisting the trend of mass production. May-dong’s process takes at least one year, and begins by boiling the beans in oak barrels over a brick stove fueled by wood from the family’s lychee farm, adding a unique smoky flavor to the final product.
The beans are then allowed to cool and mixed with mold cultures to be stored indoors for about one week before the lightly fermented beans are washed, dried, salted and put into covered ceramic jars with water before brewing for up to three years.
Fu stressed that time plays a critical role in the process. During the last step, raw sauce is boiled with sugar and water again in oak barrels and then filtered through cotton cloth to remove any fibers before bottling.
In 1999, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck central Taiwan, causing widespread destruction of property. May-dong’s prized stove and many ceramic jars were among the lost items. Fu recalled that the family’s first thought upon seeing the devastation was either to close the business or continue with mechanized production.
The Fus ultimately decided to reopen using the same traditional method and resumed operation in the mid-2000s. The post-earthquake rebuilding project nurtured closer cooperation within the local agricultural community.
May-dong signed a contract with a farm in Houlong Township of Miaoli County in northern Taiwan, which provides the company’s organic black-hull soybeans. At the time of publication, the yellow-hull variety are imported from Canada.
Besides replacing some of the salt and sugar supply with local producers, Fu plans to increase May-dong’s use of domestically grown beans to echo government policies that promote soybean production, improving the country’s food self-sufficiency.
Efforts by May-dong and like-minded manufacturers are being made to preserve traditional soy sauce production techniques.
In addition to advancing sustainable development of the country’s agriculture industry, Fu is also committed to raising awareness of the unique flavor of local soy sauces. He heads a traditional brewing culture association consisting of several sauce breweries.
Activities organized by association members include a joint exhibition hosted by May-dong and other producers in Taichung, as well as other events scheduled to be held later this year at Taipei City’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park, with the ultimate goal of setting up a museum dedicated to soy sauce brewing. The institution will not only be a major step in preserving the culture of traditional soy sauces in Taiwan, Fu said, but also serve as a fitting tribute to his family’s legacy.
(DL-E) (By Pat Gao)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw
(This article is adapted from “Soy Source” in the January/February 2021 issue of Taiwan Review. The Taiwan Review archives dating to 1951 are available online.)