The Sweet Juice You Should Be Adding To Store-Bought Soy Sauce

Finding out that your supposedly "premium" and "all-natural" soy sauce turns out to taste flat is an all-too-common experience for people who use this condiment in the kitchen. Fortunately, when that happens to you, you don't have to throw away the whole bottle. We talked with some experts, including Corrie Duffy, the author behind Corrie Cooks, Chef Ben Wenzel, general manager of River Stone Chophouse, and Nic Vanderbeeken, the executive chef at Bali's Apéritif Restaurant to see what they'd do if some bog-standard-grade soy sauce passed by their kitchens. One of the most surprising hacks we heard? Adding pineapple juice.

Yes, that carton of pineapple juice in your fridge has more use than just as an ingredient for a spicy pineapple lemonade summer cocktail. The natural sweetness and bright acidity of the pineapple, turn out, can perfectly complement the salty, savory notes of soy sauce to give you a far more complex-tasting condiment.

Start by mixing three parts of soy sauce with one part of pineapple juice, then adjust to taste. Other than using it straight as a dip (made a lot easier since the juice adds extra liquid), thanks to the potent meat-tenderizing property of pineapple juice, you can also count on this sweetened soy sauce as a marinade. So, with this sweetened soy sauce, you can get a double punch of flavor and tenderizing effect.

While canned and in-a-carton pineapple juice is fine, fresh juice with its significantly more vibrant flavor is key if you really want to take your mediocre soy sauce up an extra level. And considering you only need a ripe pineapple and either a blender or a food processor, why not give it a shot?

A pineapple can look a bit intimidating if you haven't worked with it before, but it's actually very easy. Slice off the crown (the fruit's top, with the tuff of spiky hair) and the base. Then, carefully slice off the prickly skin and slice and dice the juicy bits into chunks. Whizz these until smooth in a blender or a food processor, strain the puree through a fine-mesh sieve, and voilà, you now have a container full of ready-to-use juice. 

Here's a fun fact: Other than having a lot more potent flavor, remember the part about the tenderizing enzyme? It's called bromelain, and according to research, fresh juice has more of it compared to the canned version. If you plan to use your soy sauce as a marinade, fresh pineapple juice-flavored soy sauce will work a lot better than the version.