Fresh-ground soybean milk, watery and lightly nutty, served steaming at dawn either sweetened with sugar or turned savory with vinegar and pickles. The drink that anchors a Chinese breakfast.
Doujiang (literally 'bean broth') is the common watery Chinese soy milk made from fresh soybeans and served at breakfast alongside youtiao, mantou and shaobing.
Hot from the pot it is thin, faintly sweet and clean, with a soft soybean fragrance that coats the tongue. The savory version is a revelation: the milk curdles into delicate clouds against the vinegar, salty and tangy with crunchy pickle bits. Either way it is comfort in a bowl.
Boiling is essential, not optional: raw soy milk contains trypsin inhibitors and lectins that are destroyed only by thorough heating, which also drives off the grassy beany notes. In savory doujiang, vinegar's acid lowers the pH and gently curdles the soy proteins into soft flocs.
Variations
Sweet with sugar, savory with vinegar and dried shrimp, black soybean milk, with added sesame
On the Palate
Where Chinese Soy Milk sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
7 steps · 15 min
- 1480 min
Soak dried soybeans in plenty of water overnight until fully swollen.
- 25 min
Drain and blend the beans with fresh water until smooth.
- 38 min
Strain the slurry through a cloth bag, squeezing out the milk and discarding the pulp.
Watch outWring the cloth bag hard to squeeze out every drop — leftover pulp in the milk makes it grainy instead of smooth.
- 48 min
Pour the raw milk into a pot and bring slowly to a boil, skimming off foam.
Watch outBring it up slowly and skim the foam — raw soy milk foams up and boils over in a flash if the heat is too high.
- 55 min
Simmer for several minutes to cook off the beany rawness, stirring to prevent scorching.
Watch outKeep it at a real simmer for a few minutes and keep stirring — this cooks off the raw beany smell and stops it scorching on the bottom.
- 61 min
For sweet milk, stir in sugar to taste.
- 72 min
Serve hot, or set out vinegar, soy sauce and pickles for the savory style.
