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The Noodle 100 · make it at home

Tonkotsu ramen, the creamy pork-bone kind

12 hr broth (1 hr hands-on), 15 min to serve · 6 bowls

Hakata's ramen: pork bones boiled hard for hours until the broth turns white and creamy. It's a weekend project; the broth freezes, so make a big pot.

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The real one

You need

• 2 kg (4 1/2 lb) pork trotters and neck bones, cut by the butcher
• 500 g (1 lb) chicken backs
• 1 onion, 1 head garlic halved, 5 cm (2 in) ginger, 2 leeks (green parts)
• For the tare: 120 ml (1/2 cup) light soy sauce, 2 tbsp sake, 2 tbsp mirin, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp MSG or 1 small piece kombu
• For the black garlic oil (mayu, optional): 10 cloves garlic, 60 ml (1/4 cup) neutral oil, 1 tsp sesame oil
• 6 portions thin straight ramen noodles (Hakata style)
• Chashu (see the shoyu recipe), soft eggs, sliced scallions, pickled ginger, sesame seeds

How to make it

1. Blanch (20 min): Cover the bones with cold water, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes, drain and scrub off the grey scum and dark bits under running water. This keeps the broth clean-tasting.
2. Boil hard (10 to 12 hr): Return the bones to a clean pot with 6 liters (6 quarts) water and keep it at a rolling boil, lid ajar. Top up with boiling water every hour to keep the bones covered. The hard boil is what emulsifies the fat and collagen into a white broth. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and leeks for the last 2 hours.
3. Strain (10 min): Strain through a fine sieve, pressing the bones. You want about 3 liters of thick, opaque broth. If it's thin, boil it down; if it's like glue, loosen with water.
4. Mayu (15 min, optional): Cook the garlic slowly in the oil, stirring, until it goes past brown to black, about 10 minutes. Off the heat, blend with the sesame oil until smooth.
5. Bowls (5 min): Mix the tare. Put 2 tbsp in each warmed bowl, add 400 ml (1 2/3 cups) boiling broth and whisk. Cook the thin noodles 45 to 60 seconds (they should stay firm), drain hard, add, and top with chashu, egg, scallions, ginger, sesame and a swirl of mayu.

Tips

• In Hakata you order kaedama, a second serving of noodles, into the leftover broth; cook extra.
• A pressure cooker gets you there in 2 hours on high.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any shop's recipe.