How to Make Clear Tonkotsu Ramen

Welcome back to Regional Food Japan. This is Taka. This video is for ramen lovers who think tonkotsu broth has to be thick, white and creamy, and anyone curious about a cleaner, lighter tasting pork bone broth. In recent years, a style known as clear tonkotsu has been gaining attention in Japan. Well, I've made several kinds of milky tonkotsu broth before, but this will be my first time making a clear one. So today, let's find out if I can create a beautifully clear broth Let me explain why tonkotsu broth is white. Pork bones contain collagen. As the bones cook, the collagen slowly turns into gelatin. When the broth boils rapidly, the pork fat breaks into tiny drops and mixes with the water. The gelatin helps the fat stay mixed in. This makes the broth look white and creamy. However, collagen can also turn into gelatin without rapid boiling. So if I cook the bones gently for a long time, I should be able to get a rich pork flavor while keeping the broth clear. That's the theory and today I'm going to test it. For the broth, I'm going to use two kinds of pork bones. First, femur bones. They are rich in collagen and give the broth a deep savory pork bone flavor. Second, backbones. Backbones give the broth a rich meaty flavor because a lot of meat is still attached to them. We're going to remove the blood from the bones first. Put all the bones in a pot and pour enough cold water to cover them. We're going to leave it for 30 minutes till the blood comes out. After 30 minutes, drain the blood-tinged water. Now pour enough water to cover the bones again. We're going to boil the bones to draw out the scum and impurities. Now start heating over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Once the scum has risen to the surface like this, drain the bones. Rinse the bones to remove any remaining scum and impurities. If you find any spinal cord in the backbones, make sure to remove it as well. It's usually left in when making regular tonkotsu broth but for this recipe, I'm going to minimize any gamey flavor. Make sure to wash any remaining scum off the inside of the pot. Now put the bones back into the pot. Move the bones to one side of the pot to help the water circulate. This helps draw out the umami more efficiently. Pour in enough water to completely submerge the bones. Start heating over high heat and bring to a simmer. Skim off any scum that arises to the surface. You may have to do this a few times before the water comes to a simmer. 20 minutes into cooking, the water still looked scummy so I decided to drain it and add fresh water. Next time I make this, I think I'll keep the bones boiling for another 10 minutes or so during the initial scum removal process. Now the broth has come to a simmer so turn the heat down to low. And whenever you see any scum, make sure to skim it off. From this point on, we're going to simmer it over low heat for 8 hours. Yes, this one takes patience. After 3 hours, I noticed the water level was getting low so I decided to top it up with boiling water. You'll have to top up the broth a few times while it simmers. 6 hours into the simmer, you can see a thin gelatinous film forming on the surface of the broth. This suggests that collagen from the bones is breaking down into gelatin while flavour and umami are gradually being extracted into the broth. At this point, top it up with boiling water again. After 8 hours of patient simmering, the broth is finally ready. It looks much clearer than the typical tonkotsu broth, right? At this point, it smells like tonkotsu broth but without the usual strong gamey smell. Now we'll transfer this into another pot. Gently transfer it one ladleful at a time to keep the broth clear. As you get closer to the bottom of the pot, you'll start picking up small bits and particles so use a fine mesh strainer to remove them. Finally, remove all the bones and strain. If you plan to store the broth in the fridge, cool it down quickly before refrigerating it to prevent bacteria from growing. Now let's assemble a bowl of clear tonkotsu ramen. First things first, we're gonna prepare the aromatic oil. Melt some lard in a pan. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic. Once the garlic is slightly brown on the outside, remove it from the pan. That's how you make a simple garlic-infused aromatic oil. If you like, you can also add green onions or ginger to customise the flavour. To get a better sense of the broth's natural flavour, I decided to season it with just salt and MSG. In go 5 grams of salt and half a teaspoon of MSG. Add about 2 tablespoons of the aromatic oil. Pour in 360 millilitres of the clear tonkotsu broth. Give it a stir to dissolve the salt and MSG. Add one portion of ramen noodles and arrange the strands neatly. Finally, top it with sliced pork belly char siu, boiled wood ear mushrooms cut into thin stripes, and finely chopped green onions. This is my first attempt at making clear tonkotsu ramen. It's interesting to see a tonkotsu broth that looks completely different from the usual milky version. Now I'm really curious to find out how it turned out, so let's have a taste. Okay, you can really taste the umami from the pork bones, but it doesn't have the usual strong gamey smell. This gives the broth a clean, light flavour, and I could easily drink every last drop. If you enjoy the boiled punch of a regular tonkotsu ramen, you may find this a little too mild. But if you prefer a more delicate, lighter flavour, I think this will be just right for you. Next time, I might try adding some kombu to give the broth another layer of depth. But even without it, the broth is already very satisfying. So I hope you'll give it a try at home. Alright, that's it for this video. I hope you found it helpful, and if you did, I'd really appreciate a thumbs up, and please don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. Thank you so much for watching, and see you in the next video. ありがとうございました