On my YouTube channel I’m starting a new series on how to make ramen at home. Be warned, it’s not a short process but I wanted to show you the theory behind ramen so that you can produce your own, authentic and unique ramen rather than just following recipes. Hopefully through these videos you’ll understand the basics of what makes a great bowl of ramen.

A bowl of true ramen contains 5 elements:

  1. Broth
  2. Noodles
  3. Tare
  4. Oil
  5. Toppings

Let’s start at the beginning with how to make a simple clear broth for ramen. This is a base for so many different types of clear ramen, like shio-ramen and shoyu-ramen.

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

Cut chickens into 6-8 pieces, breaking bones. Cut nails from chicken feet. Place the chicken and pork in a large pot and cover with 9L water. Bring to a simmer. Skim to remove scum, then turn heat to very low (below simmer) and simmer uncovered for 4 hours. Should yield around 7L, but measure. Strain and refrigerate. Skim off solidified fat for use in aromatic oil.

For the dashi, soak the kombu in 3L cold water while chicken stock is cooking. Slowly bring to a simmer, removing the kombu when it steams. Boil, then add the katsuoboshi. Turn off heat. Strain, and mix with the chicken soup. If preferred, you can reduce this mixed soup further to intensify the flavour and texture of the soup.

Top Tips for Clear Ramen Broths

  • It’s really important that the broth doesn’t come to a vigorous boil. Boiling will cause fat particles to emulsify into the soup to create a cloudy soup.
  • The proportions in this recipe are by no means the only way to make ramen broth. You can change the proportions (and even the ingredients) to vary your broth in many different ways.
  • This process is known as the “double soup” method, where a meat-based soup and dried seafood-based soup are mixed together. This is generally the preferred method for making ramen broth as taught by the Yamato ramen school and practiced in the majority of ramen-ya in Japan.