A salt-based pork bone ramen with seafood aromatics (shio gyokai tonkotsu). This labor-intensive three-day recipe involves soaking pork bones overnight, simmering them for hours to create a rich white paitan broth while also preparing a salt-based tare and aromatic oil infused with pork fat, dried seafood, garlic, and bonito powder. The broth must be cooled rapidly through an ice bath to preserve quality and prevent bacterial growth.
kikurage (wood ear mushroom)adds crunch and color contrast~50 gest.
menma (bamboo shoots)topping~50 gest.
noritopping~2est.
Steps
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1
Prepare pork bones: use approximately 3 kg pork backbone and 2 pork trotters (total ~5 kg). Trotters provide gelatin for richness and mouthfeel.
2
Place bones in a large pot, cover completely with cold water, and soak in the refrigerator overnight to remove blood and impurities from the marrow.
3
On day two, drain the soaking water and rinse bones with fresh cold water. Add new water at a 2:1 ratio (water to bones). For 4.2 kg bones, use 8.4 liters of water.
4
Bring the pot to heat and begin skimming. Keep stirring the bones with a wooden spoon to prevent burning. For about 1.5 hours, remove the grey scum that rises to the surface. Once the scum turns white (coagulated proteins), the first stage is complete.
5
Enter the second stage: protein and fat extraction. Maintain water level (mark at ~7 cm) by topping up regularly, and keep at a rolling boil for about 3 hours.
6
Prepare dried seafood for the tare: place diced scallops, fish maw, anchovies, and finely cut kombu in a container, cover with water, and leave overnight for cold extraction to develop deeper flavors.
7
Enter the third stage: reduction. Once white scum is achieved, stop topping up water and begin reducing the broth from 7 cm level down to 11.5–12 cm to concentrate the flavor.
8
Cool the broth rapidly once reduced—this is critical for paitan quality. Transfer to another container and place in an ice bath while stirring continuously until cool to touch. This prevents bacterial growth and flavor changes in the 80–45°C danger zone.
9
On day three, prepare aromatic oil: chop pork fat, place in a pot, and render over heat to extract about 300 ml of pork oil.
10
Grind bonito flakes in a blender or food processor into a fine powder.
11
Transfer the overnight cold-steeped seafood mixture to a pot, top up with a little water, and gently heat on low for about 30 minutes until it reaches around 60°C. Do not boil.
12
Meanwhile, prepare other aromatic oil ingredients: slice spring onions and garlic.
13
Strain the seafood broth through a sieve to separate solids. Measure the liquid volume to determine salt proportion: approximately 100 g salt per 500 ml broth.
14
Pour the strained broth (750 ml) back into a pot with salt (150 g), heat to boil while gradually adding salt, then remove from heat to cool. Add a dash of vinegar. The salt tare is complete.
15
Combine pork oil (~300 ml) with vegetable oil (200 ml) in a pot. Add garlic slices, spring onion slices, and 1 tbsp bonito powder. Heat to boil, then remove from heat to cool. The aromatic oil is complete.
16
To assemble, warm the ramen bowl with hot water. Cook one portion of noodles (2–2.5 minutes). Using ramen ladles, measure and add the broth (~120 ml), salt tare (~20 ml), and aromatic oil (~10 ml) to the warm bowl.
17
Drain the cooked noodles and add to the bowl. Top with chashu, ajitama, kikurage, menma, nori, spring onion, and bonito powder. Serve immediately.
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