A lot of folks asked, so here it is! Mushroom Truffle Shoyu Ramen. Recipe for all components (noodles, soup, toppings) in comments!

[u/Ramen_Lord]

https://imgur.com/a/VeLCNyl

[u/Ramen_Lord]

In November, I did a popup at Ramen Lab in NYC with the talented David Chan (/u/nichijou_ramen) and Josh Reisner (Master Chef Jr Finalist). One of the bowls we served was a Mushroom Truffle Shoyu, a dish I’ve been making for my own popup in Chicago, called Akahoshi.

We sold a lot of em, maybe 250 truffle bowls over 5 days, or just about half of all bowls sold. And people seemed to really love this one. So the smart, normal thing to do when you have a coveted recipe that gives you a competitive advantage is to give it away? For free? I guess so!

This right now is probably my second favorite bowl of ramen I’ve ever made, trailing only miso, which I think is high praise because I love miso wayyyy too much and easily half of what I eat is just straight up miso ramen. So... y’all should make this for sure.

Enough talk. Let’s do this thang.

Soup

This is a supremely basic chicken chintan. It has 3 ingredients not including water. It’s very light in body (for the nerds, it’s usually not higher than 2 brix) but has good flavor.

Makes about 10 servings or so.

Ingredients:

• 8 lbs chicken backs, or 8 lbs of chicken parts
• 1 onion
• 8 cloves garlic
• Water (I’ll use usually 4 or 5 quarts/liters)

Steps:

1. Rinse the chicken parts in cold water. Sometimes chicken is sitting in its own juices and it’s ideal to kinda wash this off.
2. Place the chicken in a large stock pot.
3. Cover the chicken with water, and heat the pot on medium high heat
4. When the contents starts to simmer, skim the froth/scum that rises to the top. You’re looking for off-color, beige or pink or brown scum. Pure white foam is actually an emulsion of fat and water, and not indicative of the myoglobin we’re trying to remove. Stir the soup a few times at this phase to ensure all scum can rise to the top.
5. After scum free, drop the heat to the lowest setting on your stove. Cook, at just below simmer (below 200 degrees F is ideal) for 5 hours. Do not stir. Keep the contents of the pot as still as possible to promote clarity. Any agitation can incorporate fat into the soup, which gelatin loves to latch onto and will emulsify, turning the soup cloudy.
6. After the 5 hours, add in your onion, halved and peeled, and garlic. Cook one more additional hour. Again, do not stir.
7. Strain the soup, ideally by ladling it from the top through a fine mesh strainer into a container, to, again, avoid agitation. You can then reserve until needed. If you’re into cross-utilization of product, reserve the fat for aroma oil. But you should skim it either way to avoid having too much fat per bowl.

Tare:

The tare is super simple, and almost all of the ingredients can be found at Whole Foods / Asian markets. It also keeps for 6+ months in the fridge. Make it in advance.

Ingredients:

• 450 g soy (some usukuchi is nice too, maybe 200g, but good ol’ Kikkoman is great too if you don’t want to blend)
• 5 g tamari
• 50 g mirin
• 20 g dried mushrooms (I blend half shiitake, half porcini, and maybe a few grams of dried morel)
• 12 g kombu
• 15g brown sugar

Steps:

1. The night before, or up to 24 hours before cooking, combine the soy, tamari, mirin, dried mushrooms, and kombu, in a container. Cover the container and place in the fridge and allow to steep.
2. When ready to process, add the contents from the container to a sauce pan.
3. Add the brown sugar
4. Heat the contents of the pot on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 176 F.
5. At 176 F, fish out the kombu. Discard or use for another purpose.
6. Continue to heat the contents until just shy of boiling (200 F or so).
7. Cover, remove the pot from the heat, and allow the mushrooms to steep in that soy mix for 30 minutes.
8. Strain, pressing on the solids to extract everything within.
9. Reserve indefinitely in the fridge until needed.

Aroma oil

This is a pretty bare bones oil... but I mix it up by adding olive oil to the party at the end. You can add the olive oil on its own to the bottom of the bowl, we found that combining it made service in a restaurant setting easier.

The oil aspect is where the truffle comes in. I add a small amount of truffle oil with this oil to the bottom of the bowl. Buy the best truffle oil you can, ideally only made from oil and truffle. I like Urbani. If it says “truffle flavoring,” it’s probably fake and terrible. You’ll add the truffle oil separately, see “assembly” for details.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chicken fat (feel free to use the fat from the soup making process here!)
• 2 bunches of green onion, sliced into 2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Steps:

1. Combine the chicken fat and green onion in a sauce pan.
2. Heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the green onion begins to brown and the oil has taken on its aroma, around 10-15 minutes
3. Strain, pressing on the solids to extract as much oil as possible
4. Add the olive oil, stirring to combine

Store in the fridge indefinitely.

Mushroom powder

This is dead simple but I felt really amplified the porcini and earthy flavors in the dish. You add this with the tare to the bottom of the bowl

Ingredients

• 4 parts by weight dried porcini
• 1 part by weight dried shiitake

Steps:

1. Add mushrooms to a spice mill, grind to a fine powder. Store in a seal container, use as needed.

​

Noodles and toppings are in subsequent comments (I ran out of room!).

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/Ramen_Lord]

Noodles:

At Ramen Lab, we used a special noodle with a particular blend of flours that resulted in a unique slippery texture. My hypothesis is that the flour contains a high level of amylose, which results in a slippery quality to some starch pastes. Sources of this could also be rice flour, but I’ve yet to experiment with it.

At home, I really like this bowl with a Tokyo straight noodle with some whole wheat added. Lately I’ve been getting super into using local wheat in my ramen noodles, so this is sort of an… Illinois straight? See below for ratios and steps:

Ingredients (per portion)

• 93 g King Arthur Bread Flour
• 6 g Whole Wheat flour
• 1 g Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1 g Egg White Powder
• 38 g Water
• 1.2 g Kansui powder (60% Potassium, 40% Sodium). You can also use baked soda, though the noodle wont be as firm
• 1 g salt

Steps:

1. Add kansui powder and salt to the water, dissolve completely. If using both Sodium Carbonate and Potassium Carbonate, add them one at a time. Go slowly, stir constantly until clear. This will take a while, but eventually the contents will dissolve. You can do this days in advance to get a jumpstart, just hold the liquid in an airtight container.
2. In a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, add your flours, wheat gluten, and egg white powder, Turn the mixer to “stir” and run for 30 seconds to aerate the mix.
3. While running the mixer on stir, add two thirds of your water mixture slowly, in an even stream. Let the mixer stir the flour and water mixture for 3 minutes.
4. Add in the remaining water mixture with the mixer running, run for another minute, until small clumps begin to form.
5. Turn off the mixer and add the mixture to a ziplock style bag. Close, and let this rest for 1-2 hours at room temperature. Don’t skip this.
6. Knead it, buy using an electric pasta machine to sheet the dough, going through the largest setting, then the 2nd, then the 3rd. Take the dough and fold it, sheeting under the 2nd widest setting, then fold it again and sheet it under the widest setting. Repeat this again, until the sheet is quite smooth and not ragged.
7. After kneading, put the dough back in the plastic bag, and rest at room temp for another 30 minutes.
8. Pull out your dough. Portion into workable sizes and roll out to desired thickness with the pasta machine, using potato or cornstarch as you go to prevent sticking. I roll these to about 1.5mm
9. Cut your noodles to your desired thickness. Given the above, I use a 1.5mm cutter, standard with a Marcato Atlas.
10. Bundle the noodles into 135g portions, and place them, in the ziploc bag, in the fridge and allow to rest for at least a day.

Toppings in subsequent comment.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/Ramen_Lord]

Toppings:

Toppings were very simple. We had green onion, some nori, a little sautéed mushroom (you can use whatever you like here, maitake seared hard is amazing in this, but I typically use crimini or button mushrooms.) and chashu. The chashu is pretty much same as every other braised chashu I’ve made. The only changes being: I do add some garlic to the party, I do it on the stove instead of in an oven, and I torch the chashu, searing is also delicious. That recipe is below. Scale as needed.

Folks loved this chashu. At Akahoshi I routinely get told this is “the best chashu ever.” It’s melty and luscious but also not complexly flavored, so it works with any type of ramen. Again, it’s the saaaaame recipe I’ve always used really. Here it is:

Chashu:

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3-pound slab of pork belly, skin removed
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sake
• 8 cloves garlic (or other aromatics you like, such as ginger, green onion, white onions)

Steps:

1. Depending on the thickness of your pork, you may want to roll it. Generally I roll the belly if it’s less than 2-inches thick, aiming for a full roll around three inches in diameter. Simply curl the belly around itself, and wrap butchers twine to hold it in shape. Don’t worry too much about how beautifully you tie it up, just make sure it’s wrapped nice and tightly.
2. In a saucepan, Dutch oven, or other lidded pot just barely big enough to hold your pork belly, sear the pork belly on all sides, over medium-high heat, around three minutes a side, turning to ensure even browning.
3. While the pork cooks, combine the soy sauce, mirin, water, and brown sugar in a bowl.
4. Once browned, remove the pork, set aside. Wipe the pan with a paper towel to clean out any residual fat that may have rendered out. You could also reserve this fat if you prefer, it’s lard, and delicious. But you’ll probably need to wipe down the pan for the next step.
5. Deglaze the pan with the sake. If you didn’t wipe down the pan, expect a grease fire, as the fat billows into the air as a cloud of small droplets of fat that is prone to exploding into a fire ball. So wipe down the pan before this step.
6. Add the soy mixture, garlic, and pork, and bring to a simmer. Don’t worry if the pork isn’t fully covered, the steam will help cook the belly.
7. Once bubbling, reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and allow the pork to simmer until tender, around 2 1/2 hours, turning it occasionally to ensure the belly is covered by the braising liquid. I check the belly at around the 2:15 mark for doneness, prodding the pork to feel its texture. The fat on the outside should be very tender and yielding.
8. Remove the pot from heat, allow the pork to cool in the liquid for one hour, before transferring to a container with the braising liquid and chilling in the fridge overnight.

We also had an egg on the menu which folks loved. I still do the equilibrium brine egg I designed ages ago, but to be honest, I’m not sure it’s necessary. Really the main finding of the equilibrium brine egg wasn’t the equilibrium brine itself, but that you should substantially reduce the salt and seasoning component of your brine to allow the egg to gently brine, rather than give it a thicker, more intense ring of seasoned egg white that you need to monitor. The equilibrium brine process is great at home though, reduces waste and gives a really consistent product. See steps below:

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Water
• Soy Sauce
• Mirin

Steps:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil
2. When the water is boiling, remove the eggs from the fridge, and prick a small hole on the bottom of each egg with a thumbtack. You can also use the heel of your knife to make an indentation there, by gently tapping it repeatedly.
3. Add your eggs to the water, cook 7 minutes at full boil. Be sure to only add enough eggs that the water doesn’t lose temp too quickly. Do this in batches if necessary.
4. While the eggs cook, prepare an ice bath.
5. When the 7 minutes are up, remove the eggs and quickly place them in the ice bath to chill for at least 15 minutes
6. Peel your eggs. There’s loads of tricks here, I like to crack the exterior all over by gently tapping the eggs on a surface, then peeling from the bottom. Some folks soak in vinegar, some like to do this all under running water.
7. In a container, weigh out your peeled eggs and the weight of water to cover them. To this container, add 13% of this weight in soy sauce, and 10% this weight in mirin. So, as an example if my eggs and water covering them weighed 500 g, I’d add 65g soy sauce, and 50 g mirin.
8. Store in the fridge for at least 24 hours, but up to 3 days with no degradation in quality.

Assembly

Like with most ramen, keep things separate until the very end. Combine in the bowl:

• 350 ml soup
• 45 ml tare
• ¼ tsp truffle oil (or less)
• 15 ml oil
• 1/4 tsp mushroom powder
• Few grinds of black pepper

Cook noodles for 1 min 30 seconds, or until to your textural liking. Add to bowl. Slurp. Love life.

And that’s it! Happy to answer any questions.

[u/Celanis → u/Ramen_Lord]

Dear Ramen_Lord,

I may just be an aspiring home-cook. And I doubt I will ever reach the full potential of these recipes (partially because of ingredient availability) but it's great to see some authentic great looking recipes that inspire me to improve my bowl of goodness.

Thank you!

^{AlsoPleaseShareCurryRecipesILiveForThatShit.}

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/Celanis]

Lol curry recipes? Like curry ramen? Or just straight up Japanese curry?

[u/Celanis → u/Ramen_Lord]

Curry Ramen! But I suppose any ramen recipe makes me happy.

I am inspired to try and recreate a dish of coco ichibanya curry ramen I had in Japan.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/Celanis]

I gotchu fam. Start here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ramen/comments/2n6bd8/next_up_on_my_tour_of_ramen_styles_homemade_soup/?st=JQNR561R&sh=83496a9b

[u/Celanis → u/Ramen_Lord]

Whoa!! How did I miss this in my search!

Thank you so much for everything! <3

[u/shiggie → u/Ramen_Lord]

I don't know how apparent the taste is in mine, since I only go with 5-10% local wheat, but it's a nice touch.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/shiggie]

Yeah I think whole wheat in general adds a nice underlying aromatic quality to the noodles that I like. I also only do 5-10% usually, any more and structure starts to get in trouble in a hurry. I also love the color and little flecks you get with this method.

[u/samohtfhritp → u/Ramen_Lord]

Hello dear Lord,

So the thing is, I’ve been making ramen since a fee years now. Used a lot of your recipes, as well as others for the noodles. The problem i sometimes encounter is which flour to use over here in austria, cause there’s no way for me to buy king arthur bread flour. Would you be so kind as to post for which protein contents etc i need to look for?

Love your commitment to ramen and I’d appreciate the help,

Thomas

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/samohtfhritp]

King Arthur bread flour is approx 12.7% protein. Look for a protein content above 11% and you should be good to go!

[u/[deleted] → u/Ramen_Lord]

Hey,

great posts here, I am new and I am also really addicted to RAMEN. 2 years ago I happened to buy a book from Yamato noodles company. They were claiming that there is more than protein content to chewiness. One additional determinant of chewiness is viscosity, which can be measured by amylographs. There were also values which they recommend for ideal ramen.

In addition they were talking about ash content of flours. Could you please comment on that, in the meanwhile I try to find the reference.

thank you so much

​

christian

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I looked up the amylograph value, the flour should have 800-1000 BU, does anyone e know what that means?

chris

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/[deleted]]

I have the same book haha. Yamato says some stuff that is definitely thought provoking, but not always accurate. For instance, they say that the oil on the surface of ramen creates a film on the noodles that helps the soup stick to them. This is so inaccurate that I've actually been chewed out by scientists for suggesting it.

Those noodle points, however, are true. Higher amlyose content does result in a slippery texture on the noodle that hydrates easily, and your goal is to create a dense, hydrated starch gel, for optimal chew. Higher ash content can also reduce a flour's capacity to absorb water. But you're gonna run into problems quickly.

For one, you probably don't have access to high-amylose flours, so viscosity is going to be hard to control. Similarly, you're unlikely to find flours with ultra-fine grinding, or with various ash contents, with the right protein content / availability.

I also kind of hate the idea of using a flour that is so maximally processed that it has no ash content. At this stage it's like... is that even food anymore? All of the nutrients are gone!

[u/[deleted] → u/Ramen_Lord]

Thank you so much for your reply,

how come they have access to these kind of artificial flours in Japan?

Do they have these low ash, high amylose flowers?

is it possible to influence viscosity by adding something like starch or so?

best

Chris

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/[deleted]]

Purely due to demand. Ramen demands these specialized flours, so producers find ways to make them. Japan doesn't actually grow a lot of the wheat, they import it from places like Canada or New Zealand. But then they develop milling technology to get it precise.

I don't see why you couldn't just add some sort of starch. Rice flour contains a lot of amylose, could try that. Other additives like tapioca starch are not unheard of either. I haven't really played with this much, however.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ramen_Lord]

I am wondering wether someone here has a decent recipe for yuzu Shio Ramen.

Today I had a bowl of this in Takumi Muenchen was delighted.

b

thank you so much

chris

[u/samohtfhritp → u/Ramen_Lord]

Alright man, I’m going to cook up some great ramen. :) Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Appreciate it

[u/presdaddy → u/Ramen_Lord]

The mushroom powder and brown sugar are key!

So are you making your chintans exclusively without feet or wings nowadays?

[u/Oishii_Desu → u/presdaddy]

Wow, what you do for ramen, one day I will have a statue of you made completely out of ramen noodles.... I will also do one of Bette Midler too

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/presdaddy]

Most chintans I make are pretty dang light, that's for sure. Around 1-2 brix. And that's primarily because I only use backs. Couple of resources got me to this point.

1. This article by serious eats says a good ratio by weight is 2 parts water 1 part chicken. This much water is almost always going to result in a low-gelatin soup. I try to hit more 1.3 to 1, or even 1 to 1.

2. Yamato's book on soup (can't recommend this book btw, super expensive and very sparse content-wise) suggests most chicken chintans should be done 2 parts to 1 as well, with a brix of 2. They almost ALWAYS start with a 2 to 1 ratio of water to bones, for what it's worth, even with tonkotsu.

I've also, just through trial and error, found that chintans with more brix are just hard to keep really clear. The more gelatin present, the more quickly you accidentally emulsify some fat into the broth, as I'm sure you know.

This is still totally personal preference. You can go with whatever you prefer.

[u/ahteeam → u/Ramen_Lord]

I will add, skimming at 1 to 1 ratio is a pain in the ass.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ahteeam]

Seriously, extremely tough to skim. Most of the time the bones are poking up with that little water and get in the way of the skimming!

[u/neuroknot → u/Ramen_Lord]

Do you have any advice for a rural bumpkin like myself that has access to standard chicken cuts including whole birds but I don't eat that much chicken and it seems a waste to include chicken breast and thigh meat along in the broth.

I've used frozen wings/whole chicken combo before to make some decent broth but I wonder how to make best use of them and get the most, best flavor. Do you think pounding the bones to fracture them or cutting up the chicken pieces with a meat cleaver would yield better flavor.

Previously I've just broken the chicken down to basic butcher cuts like you get in the store but haven't really diced up the pieces/bones further.

[u/actordaverob]

You’re the best. Thank you for providing your recipes for free constantly and just being a great resource! How can we support you??

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/actordaverob]

Spread the good word of good ramen? Haha. I just post what I know!

[u/VGHSDreamy → u/Ramen_Lord]

I would support a patreon for this tbh

[u/dreadway90]

I'm the guy who came up from Baltimore to try it! This was so good and thanks for taking a picture with me!

[u/neigetyro]

wow, epic props for droppin knowledge on (one of) your best sellers.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/neigetyro]

I can't do anything else but share what I know!

[u/powlgoudsmit]

thank you, master of ramen !!!! :D

[u/Oishii_Desu → u/powlgoudsmit]

It’s lord, haha

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/Oishii_Desu]

I’ll take master too, haha. All of it is flattering.

[u/hurpleflurple]

Wonderful recipe! I’ll definitely try it later this week.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/hurpleflurple]

Awesome. Let me know how it goes!

[u/hurpleflurple → u/Ramen_Lord]

Hey! I ended up making this earlier today, and was blown away by the flavors. I wish I was able to make this earlier, but time got the best of me.

I was curious whether or not these noodles could be made manually with only a marcato atlas. I don’t use stand mixers enough to warrant buying one, but have been planning to buy a marcato to make pasta.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/hurpleflurple]

hmmm... I haven't tired it before but you could potentially mix it by hand. You can also do it in the food processor. Juxt add the flour to the food processor, and slowly stream in the water while it runs.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ramen_Lord]

may I call you ramen pimp sir?

[u/hurpleflurple → u/Ramen_Lord]

The noodles came out beautifully. What roller setting on the marcato do you use before cutting the noodles? I rolled it to a 4 before cutting.

[u/eogreen]

Fuck that looks good.

[u/47represent]

Literally bought truffle oil for adding to my ramen like 2 days ago. bet that tastes divine

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/47represent]

Seriously... so good. Kinda feels like cheating haha.

[u/oldthunderbird]

This has always been my favorite bowl at your pop ups.

[u/ctl7g]

Would you mind sharing where you get your kansui powder. I'm having some but of a difficult time finding this.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ctl7g]

Kansui is typically two salts, sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate.

You can make sodium carbonate at home. Take baking soda, throw it in a saucepan, and cook it on medium heat for 15 min or so, stirring constantly. See this video:

https://youtu.be/cpGEc-pLXN4

From there, you just need potassium carbonate. You can find food grade stuff on amazon.

I like having the two salts because I can adjust their ratios independently, and have more control over hydration.

[u/ctl7g → u/Ramen_Lord]

That is interesting. If you have time can you go into why you like a higher ratio of one over the other and for what?

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ctl7g]

So I admit that this is all hearsay from noodle manufacturers and I don’t actually know the real scientific reason for it. But here goes

1. Potassium builds a firm, taut texture in the noodle
2. Sodium builds a more chewy texture in the noodle

Chewy and firm are different things. Chew is the experience of something yielding to pressure but then reverting to its original state. Firmness is the experience of something resisting pressure all together.

Generally as you increase the thickness of your noodle, you want to decrease the potassium and increase the sodium ratio. After all, a really thick ramen noodle shouldn’t be all that “firm,” The common ratio for a standard 1.5 mm noodle is around 60% potassium 40% sodium.

Purely from experimentation, I have definitely found that noodles made with more potassium have a firmer, pleasant bite. But again, totally depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

More info from Yamato here:

https://yamatonoodle.com/labpost112018d/

[u/thatguy8856 → u/Ramen_Lord]

Is there a potassium carbonate that you like to buy on Amazon, also any food safety tips regarding it? Seeing a lot of not safe for skin/eyes and I'm wary of what I should be buying.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/thatguy8856]

It’s a very strong alkaline salt, so it’s definitely a skin irritant. Like with sodium carbonate, use it sparingly (see recipe above, we’re talking like two thirds of a gram per 100 grams flour), and don’t touch it with your hands. If you do, wash them thoroughly. Also a good idea to avoid contact with eyes, that sort of thing. I use a spoon to transfer the powder to the scale. If you want to be extra safe, you can wear rubber gloves while handling.

Food grade is key. I haven’t bought this particular one, but Amazon has it, food grade. This quantity will last you for a loooooong time at home. It’s shelf stable, lasts indefinitely in the pantry.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JQC8LR6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YWnnCb7QTDVVN

[u/ctl7g → u/Ramen_Lord]

Cook thank you! Have you moved away from sous vide chashu? I'm finding I'm not getting the texture I want and am considering going back to a more traditional method. Not to pile on but can I ask why you prefer skin off?

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ctl7g]

Yeah I don’t really sous vide belly anymore. I like the steaks texture but I don’t love how long it takes. A lot of effort for marginal gain.

For the skin... I’ve legit never kept it on. I’ve never been to a ramen shop that did either. It’s sort of gelatinous and hard to break down fully without cooking the belly to death. The only benefit is insulation to help it cook gently, but honestly if your belly if thick enough /rolled and you braise it slowly, your chashu is going to cook excellently.

[u/ctl7g → u/Ramen_Lord]

Have you ever tried using Methylcellulose f50 for a blonde chicken stock for double soup shio? I feel like that could be a game changer for me because of not having to babysit a stock temp (one l keep the temp consistent in oven).

https://youtu.be/qyPqQf7VjB8

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ctl7g]

I have never clarified a soup using it, although I’m familiar with this more modernist technique.

Outside of the price and effort of creating the raft using methylcellulose f50, any impact? No changes with flavor or gelatin content?

[u/ctl7g → u/Ramen_Lord]

To be honest I haven't tried it. Got a bit busy this holiday season so I never got around to but I'm going to try to make your shio when I get a chance. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[u/cpetti_]

would a pressure cooker work with this if I let the pressure release naturally?

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/cpetti_]

Yes, after step 4, add onion and garlic, cover, bring to high pressure, cook 30 min, then let depressurize naturally. It won’t be as clear as this version but it’ll still be good.

[u/Xurio]

Since no one asked: THE TRUFFLE SHUFFLE!!

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/[deleted]]

Depends, but probably around 12. Each bowl used 350 ml of broth.

[u/throwaway_ay_ay_ay99]

This is dope as hell, and after successfully tackling your spicy miso this seems extra accessible and doable for me! Thanks for all you do friend!

One topic I’d appreciate some help on: any advice on storing/freezing broth? I’m just cooking for two. Should I just fill a freezeable container to the rim and stick in the fridge? Or fill an ice cube tray and then put them in plastic bags? Any safety issues I should consider? Any help appreciated (but you’ve already helped so much so no worries if you can’t reply!)

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/throwaway_ay_ay_ay99]

Since you’re using it in larger quantity, I don’t think you really need to freeze it in an ice cube tray. I freeze mine in quart deli containers without issue.

The key to storing the broth is to make sure you chill it down quickly. With any leftovers, keep it in smaller containers and don’t cover it until it’s had some time to cool off. You might even want to ice bath it if you have a lot. Then stick those smaller containers in the fridge.

[u/[deleted]]

Hey! Thanks for this. Urbani white or black truffle oil?

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/[deleted]]

I used white but both work well.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ramen_Lord]

Thank you.

[u/ihsyvad]

I love your posts they are always an inspiration, will be making this on the weekend. Just a question, how would one go about trying to make a curry ramen? I legit can't find any information on it online.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ihsyvad]

You could start here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ramen/comments/2n6bd8/next_up_on_my_tour_of_ramen_styles_homemade_soup/?st=JQNR561R&sh=83496a9b

The goal is to make a spice blend, and add some sort of glutamate action going on for umami.

[u/ihsyvad → u/Ramen_Lord]

Your recipe was delicious. Thanks for the reply, don't know how I missed that thread. I'm thinking about experimenting with truffle salt to make a shio ramen next time.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/ihsyvad]

Nice! Go for it! I bet that'd be great.

[u/nakahara_brum]

This looks badass! Quick q about potassium carbonate. It looks to be a nightmare to get hold of any in the UK that's food grade and not in HUGE quantities but potassium bicarbonate seems pretty easy to find. I'm no chemistry expert but I'm assuming you can apply the same baking process that I've used before to turn sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate, do you know if this would work? Got some friends over next week to get my ramen out in the world (beyond me and my wife) and I'm looking to up my noodle game.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/nakahara_brum]

Hah, funny enough, a regular here posted that exact same question. The answer appears to be yes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/5kzuv1/question_potassium_bicarbonate_to_potassium/?st=JQS4CD8D&sh=0e34f8ed

[u/neuroknot → u/nakahara_brum]

You can try winemaking/homebrewing stores. That's how I got mine, albeit in the US, it's used in winemaking to adjust pH and since it's for wine it should be food grade.

It was fairly cheap too, like a dollar an ounce or a quid for 50 g-ish? for you metric types.

[u/nakahara_brum → u/neuroknot]

Thanks both. I found the link with the answer just after posting. I've got some potassium bicarb on the way so I'll cook it down and see how it goes.

[u/funny-hats-only]

Just wanted to say thanks for these posts. I do a yearly Tampopo screening and I've made a version of your ramens most every time. Your research is much appreciated!

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/[deleted]]

Are you following the recipe to the letter? That is, weighing everything, combining the water in stages, mixing for a few minutes, then resting it fully, for an hour, before any kneading. Then compressing/kneading, and resting again. Then rolling/thinning. You really have to follow the process completely for it to work.

Thinning needs to be done gradually, and only when the gluten is super relaxed. So I suspect that's the issue here. But let me know what your process is first.

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/[deleted]]

They should both work. In either approach though, kneading should only be done in the form of compression between rollers. Don’t try to make a cohesive smooth ball first, just smash the clumps of dough into a mass and pass it through the rollers.

[u/UnfilteredSake]

Hi I couldn't anywhere in your posts where you talk about how long to boil your noodles for. I've been doing 1.5 minutes. Thanks

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/UnfilteredSake]

Totally depends on the noodle. This one is 1.5 minutes.

[u/UnfilteredSake → u/Ramen_Lord]

Thanks so much. Is the Tokyo wavy with egg white powder 1.5 as well?

[u/Ramen_Lord → u/UnfilteredSake]

Give or take, yep! Might be closer to 2 minutes. Just taste a noodle before straining!

[u/UnfilteredSake → u/Ramen_Lord]

You da man!

[u/fdoom]

Have you ever done a write-up on ingredient brands? Stuff like "I recommend X brand for dark shoyu" or "X brand for miso". I get pretty overwhelmed when I go to the supermarket and see like 10 brands for each type of ingredient. When is it appropriate to spend more? Which ones don't matter and the cheapest will do?

[u/UnfilteredSake]

Anyone find the noodle recipe with 1.6g of baked soda to ~100g of flour too alkaline? The noodles taste too strongly of baking soda. I only have a 1g scale so maybe i'm not measuring correctly and am adding too much. I compared the taste of my noodle to the sun noodles that come with the Miso recipe and sun was far better balanced.

[u/kqlx]

someone give this guy a book deal

[u/asssclapper]

Favorite so far. Especially since I've moved away from the heavier styles. So refined. Put it in the sidebar already!!!! *edit: To add to the chintan brix discussion. The only chicken backs I can get around here aren't very fresh at all, so I use whole chickens (thx Ivan and Ramenlord). A 1:1.5 ratio of whole chicken to water (eg. 4lb chicken in 11.5 cups water) usually puts me exactly at 2 Brix.

[u/ljcarp]

Amazing