Scottish shoyu, slowly made.

Slow Sauce is a fermentation project that began rooted in tradition, adapted to place. We make small-batch miso and shoyu using Scottish-grown gluten free oats and British peas, aged in oak barrels in the hills of Aberdeenshire.

Founded by fermentation obsessives Robin Sherriff and Jonathan Hope, Slow Sauce is part kitchen experiment, part agricultural rethink. They take the classic Japanese method of koji fermentation and reimagine it with the ingredients that they have here - creating something new that’s still deeply respectful of where it came from.

Use it generously in stir-fries, dressings, or drizzle over steamed vegetables or rice to unlock layers of deep flavour.

Shoyu is the traditional Japanese term for soy sauce, typically made from fermented soybeans and wheat, and we use the word because we follow the same fermentation process using Scottish oats and Carlin peas instead.

Why is this shoyu pasteurised?

This oat shoyu is pasteurised at 63C to arrest the very active natural fermentation and avoid over-fermentation resulting in off flavours and possible leakage, but without destroying the enzymes, prebiotics and postbiotics produced by the fermentation. 

Like any cooking process, pasteurisation stops the microbial activity but it doesn't undo the results of the fermentation. Postbiotic amino acids, organic acids, peptides, enzymes and other metabolites produced during fermentation remain after heating. Along with prebiotic fibres and other substrates these feed beneficial microbes living in your gut.

The microbial activity of most shoyu products is limited to prevent over-fermentation, often by washing with alcohol. Slow Sauce prefer to use simple pasteurisation at the minimum necessary temperature.

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