Description
From The Ramen_Lord book of ramen.
Tonkotsu is a paitan of pork bones. This is the basic tonkotsu approach that most restaurants essentially use. You may find in your research that some restaurants add in new bones midway through cooking, or use different bones like heads or ribs, but overall, the method is effectively the same: cook bones to death, and emulsify everything. The Ramen_Lord Book of Ramen
Notes
Trello recipe: https://trello.com/c/RPbDEs3G
Example Schedule
14:00 soak bones 20:00 blanch 20:30 Begin simmer low 09:00 Turn simmer to medium 15:30 Strain and blend 16:00 keep low until ready to eat
Storage
Ladle soup into ziplock bags and freeze. For ease of re-heating I did ~600ml (2 bowls) to a 1 quart Ziplock Freezer bag and froze it flat. That way you can just break the frozen bag open when you are ready to re-heat.
Ingredients
- 4 lb neck bones
- 4 lb femurs, split to expose the marrow (butcher will do this for you)
- 6 L water (cover the bones by 2 inches)
- 0.8 lb (10% bone weight) pork back fat (ask your butcher)
Method
- At least 6 hours before cooking, soak your neck bones and femurs in water in a cold, non-reactive vessel. I use a big Tupperware container. (Technically this is optional, but I find the resulting tonkotsu is whiter in appearance).
- When ready to cook, add your neck bones and femurs to a pot with fresh water. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer, and skim the scum that rises to the top of the pot. Do this for 15-20 minutes, or until little scum is rising. The scum goes through several phases here, you’ll know when the scum is pretty much done rising. This blanch is integral for a white tonkotsu, don’t skip it, and don’t end it prematurely.
- Strain the bones from the blanching liquid. Discard the liquid.
Scrub and clean the bones under running water, removing any black or dirty looking particulate that may be on the outside of the bones or in crevices. - Add your now clean bones to a pot and bring to a boil and cover.
- If going over night return to lowest simmer. In the morning (9am) bring to medium boil for another ~6.5 hours
- If cooking day of boil for 18 hours, stirring occasionally.
- These times are a bit arbitrary but serve as a good guide. Go until the meat has completely separated and broken down in the broth, and fatback pieces have mostly melted.
- Strain the soup. It’s easier if you pull out the bones first. I strained back into the vessel I soaked in (cleaned of course).
- To finalize the emulsion, add the soup to a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds, being careful to gradually bring the blender to high to avoid splashing yourself, as the soup will rapidly expand when it blends. You can also use a hand blender (this is what I did), blending for 5 minutes, though the emulsion won’t be as strong.
- If eating same day, keep the soup warm covered on the stove at its lowest setting. A film will form, you can just stir that back in.