There’s essentially five elements to every bowl of ramen and those are broth, noodles, tare, oil, and toppings.
What is ramen broth made of?
The most basic is a 50/50 mixture of soy sauce and mirin. Some are made with miso or include chili pastes. For a restaurant-quality bowl of ramen anytime, keep kombu and dried shiitakes on hand for enhancing even homemade broth. Ditto for soy sauce and mirin.
Ramen are thin and the dough is risen before being rolled. Fresh ramen noodles are nothing more than wheat noodles, made from flour, salt, and water, but treated with an alkaline agent that gives the noodles their yellow hue and springy, chewy texture.
Tare (pronounced “tah-reh”) means “dipping sauce” in Japanese, but, it’s a lot more than just sauce in the ramen world. Imagine ramen as a living organism. If soup represents the body of ramen, and noodles are the bones, then tare is the blood. It pushes everything, it gives ramen life.
Toppings
Ingredients
meat stock
2200 g whole old chicken, 500 g chicken feet, 700 g halved pork trotters, 440 g (2pc) brown onions, halved, 400 g (2pc) carrots, 100 g (1pc) whole head garlic, 60 g unpeeled sliced ginger, 9000 ml water
Basic Dashi
17 g (2pc) kombu, 45 g katsuobushi, 3000 ml water
METHOD
Break bones and cut chickens into 6–8 pieces. Remove the chicken feet’s nails. Fill a big pot halfway with water and add the chicken and pork. Bring to a low boil, then reduce to a low heat. Skim off any scum, then reduce heat to very low (below simmer) and cook for 4 hours, uncovered. It should give roughly 7L, but double-check. Strain and store in the refrigerator. Skim off any hardened fat and save it for fragrant oil.
While the chicken stock is simmering, soak the kombu in 3L cold water for the dashi. Bring to a simmer slowly, removing the kombu when it steams. Bring to a boil, then add the katsuoboshi. Turn off the heat. Using a strainer, combine with the chicken soup. If desired, reduce this mixed soup more to enhance the flavor and texture of the soup.
Tips for Clear Ramen Broths
- It is critical that the broth does not come to a rapid boil. Boiling causes fat particles to emulsify into the soup, resulting in a murky soup.
- This recipe’s proportions are by no means the only method to create ramen soup. You may adjust the amounts (and even the ingredients) to make your broth taste different in a variety of ways.
- This is known as the “double soup” approach, in which a meat-based soup and a dry seafood-based soup are combined. This is the most common method for producing ramen soup, as taught by the Yamato ramen school and used by the majority of ramen-ya in Japan.