Shoyu ramen
Ramen is not one soup but four separate elements assembled in a bowl: broth, tare, noodles and toppings. Tare is the concentrated soy essence at the bottom of the bowl — it seasons everything. The broth itself is deliberately under-salted and tastes hollow without tare.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Dashi 40 min
- Pork broth 120 min
- Soy tare 15 min
- Ajitama eggs 45 min
- Assembling the bowls 10 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneSteep the dashi without boiling
Cover the kombu and dried shiitake with 500 ml of cold water and heat very gently to 60°C over 30 minutes. Never boil kombu — boiling draws out slime and bitterness. Lift out the kombu and mushrooms before the water comes to the boil.
Ingredients: 800 g pork ribs · 400 g chicken wings · 400 g pork collar for chashu · 10 g kombu · 20 g shiitake · 4 pcs spring onions · 40 g ginger · 6 cloves garlic · 3000 ml water
TipSlice the rehydrated shiitake and keep them — they make an excellent topping.
The kombu comes out before the water ever boils.Simmer the meat broth
Cover the ribs and wings with cold water, bring to the boil and discard that first water, rinsing the meat. Roll the pork collar tightly and tie it with string. Cover all the meat with 2.5 litres of fresh water, add the ginger, garlic and spring onion greens and simmer gently for 2 hours, skimming. Lift out the pork collar and set aside — this is your chashu.
Ingredients: 800 g pork ribs · 400 g chicken wings · 400 g pork collar for chashu · 10 g kombu · 20 g shiitake · 4 pcs spring onions · 40 g ginger · 6 cloves garlic · 3000 ml water
TipThat first drain removes the proteins that would cloud the broth. Five minutes that decide its clarity.
Reduce the tare
Bring the soy sauce to the boil with mirin, sugar and crushed garlic, lower the heat and simmer very gently for 10 minutes, until the alcohol from the mirin has cooked off and the tare has thickened slightly. Do not boil hard — scorched soy sauce turns bitter. The tare should be far too salty to drink — it is a concentrate, not a soup.
Ingredients: 200 ml soy sauce · 80 ml mirin · 1 tbsp sugar · 2 cloves garlic
Thick, dark and deliberately too salty.Marinate the ajitama eggs
Lower the fridge-cold eggs into boiling water and cook for exactly 6.5 minutes, chill in ice water and peel. Put them in a zip bag with the cooled pork collar, cover with the soy and water mixture and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, ideally overnight.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 100 ml soy sauce · 100 ml water
TipDo not marinate longer than a day — the egg goes rubbery and the white turns over-salted.
Six and a half minutes gives a jammy but flowing yolk.Combine broth and dashi
Strain the meat broth — you should have about 1.5–2 litres. Measure out 1.2 litres and combine with 400 ml of dashi (a 3 : 1 ratio); freeze the rest of the broth. Bring to the boil. Do not salt — all the saltiness comes from the tare in the bowl. The broth alone tastes flat, and it should.
Ingredients: 800 g pork ribs · 400 g chicken wings · 400 g pork collar for chashu · 10 g kombu · 20 g shiitake · 4 pcs spring onions · 40 g ginger · 6 cloves garlic · 3000 ml water
Cook the noodles separately
Cook the ramen noodles in a separate pot with plenty of water, half a minute less than the packet says. Never in the broth — the starch would cloud it and undo two hours of work. Drain and shake off excess water.
Ingredients: 400 g ramen noodles · 4 pcs nori · 3 pcs spring onions · 2 tsp sesame oil
Assemble in order
Take the pork collar out of the marinade and slice it thinly. Into each hot bowl put 2 tablespoons of tare, then 350 ml of boiling broth and stir — taste and add another teaspoon of tare if needed. Add the noodles, chashu slices, halved egg, nori and spring onion. Drizzle with sesame oil and serve at once.
Ingredients: 400 g ramen noodles · 4 pcs nori · 3 pcs spring onions · 2 tsp sesame oil
TipScald the bowls with boiling water first. A cold bowl chills the broth quickly, and ramen must be piping hot. Leftover tare keeps in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Tare on the bottom, broth on top, noodles last.
Before you start
Split it over two days
Make the broth, tare and eggs the day before. On day two only the noodles and assembly remain — 15 minutes.
Short version
Good chicken stock plus dashi and homemade tare give a respectable ramen in an hour. The tare and eggs cannot be substituted.
The noodles matter
Look for noodles made with kansui — yellow in colour with a springy, slightly slippery texture. Plain wheat noodles go soft in the broth.
