Dark Vs. Light Soy Sauce: Which Is Better For Dipping Dumplings?

In the long, storied history of fillings wrapped in neat pockets of dough, it definitely seems like Asian dumplings are having a moment. From Japanese gyoza, to Korean mandu, to Chinese wontons, baozi, and siu mai, they're all over grocery stores (like Aldi Finds' mandu and Trader Joe's infamous soup dumplings) and (of course) social media. Thanks to their popularity, there are lots of different dipping sauces to choose from, but many people just pull their soy sauce out of the fridge and call it a day. However, there are two commonly known types: Dark and light. So which is better for the dipping of the dumplings?

Light soy sauce is the better option for dunking your dumplings, because while it tends to taste saltier than dark (despite having similar amounts of sodium), it also has a more delicate flavor that doesn't overpower the dumpling, but rather complements it. This means that while you do taste the soy sauce, it's the dumpling's flavors that really take center stage with every bite — as they should.

So why not dark soy sauce for dipping dumplings? Dark soy sauce could simply overpower those little pockets of meat and veggies. Dark soy sauce, like this traditional Chinese Pearl River Bridge version, has a deeper coloring and slightly thicker texture from being fermented longer than its light counterpart, and there are often extra ingredients like dark brown sugar added to it to make it sweeter. Dark soy sauce is best deployed in recipes where you want a darker color or a deeper, richer flavor in the background, and it's often used in addition to light soy sauce in noodle recipes.

Which isn't to say that you can't use dark soy sauce as one element in a dumpling sauce; you'll commonly just thin it out using other liquid ingredients, like light soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and/or mirin. You can also incorporate dark soy sauce into a chili oil mixture that you then drizzle over your dumplings for a kick of flavor and heat.