Recipe

Tonkotsu Ramen

4 bowls · prep 1 h (active) + overnight chashu · cook 12 h (broth)

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• lunch
• dinner
• japanese

Authored by the maintainer; Hakata style adapted for a home stovetop.

Ingredients

the broth

• 2 kg pork femur bones, halved by the butcher
• 500 g chicken feet (nails trimmed)

the chashu

• 800 g pork belly, skin on, rolled and tied

the chashu + tare

• 200 ml soy sauce — Yuasa shoyu brewery
• 100 ml mirin
• 100 ml sake
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 head garlic, halved across the equator — Tropea allium farm
• Thumb of ginger, sliced
• Sea salt for the shio tare — Trapani salt pans

the toppings

• 4 large eggs (for ajitama)
• 4 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced on the bias
• Black pepper to finish — Kerala pepper estate

the noodles

• 4 portions fresh ramen noodles (thin, straight, low-hydration)

Method

1. Soak the pork bones in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain, then bring to a hard boil in fresh water for 10 minutes to release scum. Drain, scrub bones, return to the pot. · 30 min
2. Add chicken feet, halved garlic, sliced ginger, and 6 L fresh water. Bring to a rolling boil and keep it there. The boil is what emulsifies the fat into the milky white — a gentle simmer makes clear broth, not tonkotsu.
3. Hard-boil for 10–12 hours. Top up with hot water every 90 minutes. The broth should reduce to about 3 L and turn an opaque ivory. · 720 min
4. Meanwhile, make the chashu. Combine soy, mirin, sake, sugar with 500 ml water. Submerge the rolled pork belly. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 90 minutes until fork-tender. · 90 min
5. Remove the pork, cool, and refrigerate. Reserve 200 ml of the cooking liquid as the shoyu tare. Add 1 tsp sea salt per bowl to half the tare for shio variant.
6. Soft-boil the eggs: 6 minutes 30 seconds from cold water, plunge into ice water, peel. Marinate in the remaining chashu liquid 4 hours to overnight.
7. When ready to serve: strain the broth through a fine sieve. Bring back to a simmer.
8. Boil noodles in a separate pot for 60 seconds — they cook fast and don't forgive. · 1 min
9. In each warm bowl: 2 tbsp tare, ladle of broth, drained noodles. Top with 2 slices chashu, half a marinated egg, scallions, a crack of black pepper.

Notes

The broth is the dish. Twelve hours is not a typo — anything shorter
and the emulsion doesn't form. A pressure cooker at high for 3 hours
is an acceptable shortcut; a slow-cooker is not (it doesn't agitate).

Hold-over: the broth refrigerates 4 days or freezes 3 months. The
chashu keeps 5 days in its marinade. Build bowls only at service —
ramen waits for nobody; the noodles soften in the broth within minutes.