Ramen

Steps

1. Boil12 min
   hard boil, then discard the water
   • chicken bones
   chicken bones covered in cold water — bring up fast, let the grey scum raft to the top, then dump it and scrub the pot and the bones. That coagulated blood protein is what makes a broth grey and muddy; nothing later removes it
2. Simmer210 min
   bare simmer, 85–90°C, uncovered
   • onion
   • garlic
   • ginger
   rinsed bones + 3 l fresh water + onion + garlic + ginger, skimming the first half hour. Hold it just under a break — a rolling boil shears fat and collagen into suspension and the bowl turns cloudy and greasy, which is the paitan you did not order
3. Braise90 min
   low, lid ajar, in a small pot with a ladle of broth
   • pork belly
   • soy sauce
   • mirin
   • sake
   • sugar
   rolled pork belly + 3 tbsp soy sauce + mirin + sake + sugar, turning twice, until a skewer slides through with no resistance. Chill the belly in its liquid before slicing or it shreds; the liquid is not waste, it becomes half the tare
4. Infuse25 min
   heat off, broth at 70°C
   • kombu
   • katsuobushi
   • dried shiitake
   strained hot broth + kombu + dried shiitake, then katsuobushi for the last 5 minutes, then strain again. Kombu simmered outright turns slick and bitter, and katsuobushi held above a whisper goes sour and fishy — this is steeping, not cooking
5. Reduce8 min
   medium, small pan
   pork braising liquid + remaining 3 tbsp soy sauce + salt, until it coats a spoon = tare. It should taste aggressively, wrongly salty on its own; it is a seasoning concentrate that will be diluted 1:8 by broth, so tasting it neat tells you nothing about the bowl
6. Infuse6 min
   low, oil at 120°C
   • scallion
   vegetable oil + scallion whites + a slice of ginger, until the whites are blond and the oil smells green, then strain = aroma oil. It floats as a lid on the finished bowl, holding heat in and pushing aromatics up at the nose with every mouthful; skip it and the ramen goes lukewarm and flat by the fourth bite
7. Poach7 min
   boiling water, then ice bath
   • eggs
   eggs straight from the fridge for exactly 6.5 minutes, shock cold, peel, then sit in the leftover braising liquid at least 30 minutes = ajitama. Longer than a few hours and the salt firms the yolk from jammy to chalky
8. Boil2 min
   large pot, unsalted, at a full boil
   • ramen noodles
   ramen noodles, loosened by hand first, 90 seconds to 2 minutes, then drain hard and shake dry. Never cook noodles in the broth — the alkaline starch they shed clouds it and thickens it into gravy. Wet noodles water down the tare
9. Top2 min
   bowls preheated with hot water
   • nori
   per bowl: 2 tbsp tare + 1 tbsp aroma oil in the bottom, 400 ml boiling broth poured over and stirred once to combine, then noodles lifted in, then sliced chashu + halved egg + scallion greens + nori at the edge. From drained noodle to table should be under a minute — this dish has a shelf life measured in seconds, not minutes