RAMEN SCHOOL 006: Rich Double Soup for Ramen
In the first Ramen School video we went through the process of making a very basic ramen soup base using the “double soup” method. This time we’re going to use the same method, but ramping things up a bit for a more complex soup base. Using different ingredients requires a slightly different process, and of course a different length of time to get the best out of them.
This soup base is deeper in colour, richer in texture and will be stronger tasting than our first soup base. This would be more suited to a more strongly flavoured ramen, and next week I’ll show you how to turn this base into Garlic Shoyu ramen.
Ingredients
Meat broth
1 kg chicken frames
2 kg pork leg bones
2 kg pork neck/back bones
700 g chicken feet
700 g halved pork trotters
440 g brown onions, halved unpeeled
400 g carrots
100 g shiitake mushrooms
Gyokai – Seafood Broth
25 g kombu
20 g dried fish maw
75 g dried prawns
30 g dried sardines, cleaned (pick the black belly and head away from the meat and spine)
Method
Combine meat ingredients in a pot and cover with 8L water. Bring to a simmer and simmer uncovered for 75 minutes, skimming any scum that rises to the surface. Add the onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and simmer for a further 5 hours. Measure. Strain, and press the bones into the sieve to extract the flavour.
Soak the kombu in 3L cold water and refrigerate for 1 hour (that is what my notes say, but I don’t remember this). Slowly bring to a simmer over low heat over the course of about an hour, removing the kombu when it steams. Boil, then add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes. Turn off heat and strain.
Combine the soups and reduce by 1/3.
Top Tips for Ramen Soup
- The most common are where people go wrong with ramen soups is not reducing them far enough. It’s understandable, as it takes a lot of time and also reduces yield, but the more concentrated your soup base is the stronger the flavour will be.
- After cooling, you can take any fat that solidifies on top of the soup and add that to your aromatic oil for ramen.
- As with all ramen recipes, any of these ingredients can be substituted for others. Watch the video to see why we’re using specific ingredients to understand the effect of changing one ingredient for another.
Hello Adam!
I am really looking forward to cook this amazing soup.
Just one question: I tried really hard to get the dried fish maw but could not find it anywheren. Do you have a suggestion for any dried Seafood to substitute the fish maw?
Thank you!
Jan
Hi Adam,
Just curious how many bowls of ramen this would yield after reduction, assuming each bowl would have ~480ml of soup?
Hi Adam!
This Recipe sounds amazing!
Do you reduce the soups after or bevor combining them?
This is my second time making this broth … the first time, despite Adam’s heads-up, I did not reduce the stock enough!
Better to have a bit less amazing stock, than a bit more good stock!!
I would suggest that the measurement is only a guide, reduce until your taste buds tell you it’s perfect.
Also, made this in the winter and after the initial 5.5 hour simmer, I stored the entire stock pot (ingredients and all) outside in a deck box to cool and have the flavours get to know each other overnight. While my fridge would never fit the pot, the overnight lows were such that it was food safe.
Then in the morning strain and reduce a third.
This makes for an even more flavourful broth!
Thanks Adam for this, love your videos and your calm, grounded presentation!
This recipe was the first ramen I ever attempted! Can’t wait to make it again tomorrow with my new 16 gallon pot… what have I gotten myself into? XD