Sho Spaeth

Ramen is just a noodle soup—in many ways no different from chicken noodle or <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/leftover-turkey-make-pho-with-andrea-nguyen">pho</a>. But it’s distinguished from other kinds of noodle soups in that it is, by convention, broken up into five main elements: tare (seasoning), fat, stock, noodles, and toppings.



This is true of all bowls of ramen, from instant noodle packets to the super-refined stuff you’ll find at cheffy ramen shops. By splitting the dish up into these five codified elements, restaurants can produce hundreds of bowls of ramen while maintaining consistency with precision.

The Elements of Ramen

Tare is the primary seasoning of ramen soup. “Tare” basically translates to “sauce,” and in the context of ramen (as opposed to, say, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tsukune">yakitori</a>), it means “noodle sauce.” It provides the concentrated dose of salinity required to make the soup taste amazing, and it provides one of three of the primary ramen flavor profiles: shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), or miso.



A tare can consist of solely its primary ingredient, as when salt (and MSG) are used to season a tonkotsu, or they can consist of a mixture of a bunch of different flavorful ingredients and sauces, such as a shoyu tare that includes oyster sauce, fish sauce, and dried seafood, like kombu (dried kelp), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and niboshi (boiled and dried sardines).



It’s important to keep in mind that the primary flavor profile is descriptive, not proscriptive. A shio or miso tare can include soy sauce, for example; shoyu and miso tare often contain salt.



Shio tare: A tare in which salt is the primary source of salinity and flavor. Shio tare is often used in soups when color is particularly important, such as super-clear chintans or milky white paitans, as shoyu and miso tare add a lot of color.



Shoyu tare: A tare in which soy sauce is the primary source of salinity and flavor. Shoyu tare is used in soups when you want a pronounced soy sauce flavor and where clear colors aren’t as important.



Miso tare: A tare in which miso paste is the primary source of salinity and flavor.



In ramen restaurants, the ratio of tare to soup stock is typically around 1:10. So, for every 300 ml to 400 ml of soup, the amount of tare added to the bowl would be 30 ml to 40 ml. 

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Shoyu tare soy sauce seasoning for ramen recipe

Shoyu Tare

Tare (Seasoning)

Since tare is what’s used to season the soup in a bowl of ramen, it often includes or is added to the bowl along with MSG.



MSG is widely used in Japanese cooking, and it’s everywhere in ramen. Instant ramen, of course, is packed with the stuff, but it’s also widely used in ramen restaurants. There is less of a stigma around its use in Japan, but some purists view it skeptically—if you know how to bolster the glutamate concentrations in tare (or the stock) by using ingredients like kombu, then why use processed stuff?



Our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-shoyu-ramen">Ultimate Shoyu Ramen</a> doesn’t use it, relying on a lot of meat and kombu and dried seafood to boost umami; our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/super-umami-ramen-broth-in-less-than-20-minutes">Super Umami Ramen Broth</a> doesn’t either, for the same reasons; but our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-instant-ramen">Ultimate Instant Ramen</a> does incorporate MSG into the stock concentrate.



Another similar product that’s used by ramen restaurants and by instant noodle manufacturers is haimi. It consists of a combination of monosodium glutamate, disodium inosinate, and disodium guanylate. If you look at the ingredient list of a (good) instant ramen, it will have these ingredients (they’re also in anything that tastes amazing, like Doritos). Disodium inosinate (derived from meat and seafood) and disodium guanylate (derived from dried mushrooms) work synergistically and multiplicatively with monosodium glutamate; when used to season together, they make everything taste even better than if you use any one of them in isolation.



“Haimi” is the name that Ajinomoto uses for its product in Japan; you can find it online (although the shipping cost is high). In the U.S., you can find similar alternatives, like <a href="https://mtckitchen.com/products/yamasa-flave-umami-seasoning-2-2-lbs-1-kg">Yamasa’s Flave</a> and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Inosinate-Guanylate-100-gram/dp/B07ZQSMPDF?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">I+G Umami Flavor Enhancer</a> (note that I+G does not contain MSG, so you’d need to use it in conjunction with MSG for the full multiplicative flavor enhancing effect).

MSG and Haimi

Fat is a crucial element of any soup, as it carries fat-soluble flavors and aromas and adds richness. In ramen, it serves two other purposes: It slicks the noodles as they’re lifted from the broth, making them tastier, aromatic, and silkier, and it insulates the bowl of ramen slightly, keeping the soup hot for longer.



Lard—rendered pork fat—is often the fat of choice, and that’s the case even when the stock is made with chicken, fresh fish, or dried fish. However, you can use any flavorful fat—rendered chicken fat and sesame oil are commonly used options. The fat used in ramen does not typically have “roasted” flavor notes: The fat is rendered at relatively low temperatures to produce “clean-tasting” fat.



Lard and rendered chicken fat are naturally aromatic and flavorful, and, because they’re “solid fats”—animal-derived saturated fats—they have a thicker, more pleasing texture than unsaturated fats, even when liquid. The fat used in ramen can be spiked with aromatics, like garlic, ginger, onion, leeks, long onions, scallions, spices, and dried seafood products.



Like tare, the ratio of fat to soup stock in a bowl of ramen is typically around 1:10. So, for every 300 ml to 400 ml of soup, the amount of tare added to the bowl would be 30 ml to 40 ml.

It is common practice to use the fat that rises to the surface of ramen stock and congeals after it chills to build a bowl of ramen. There is an elegant economy to this practice, a kind of total utilization of everything that goes in the stock pot. (This practice is also employed by cooks for many other noodle soups.)



This is what we do in our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-ramen-stock">Super Soup Ramen Stock</a> recipe, and to ensure that we have enough fat to make 8 bowls of ramen, we supplement the fat that renders out during the stock-making process with extra rendered lard. 

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Super Soup Ramen Stock

Using rendered fat from the stock-making process

Stock makes up the majority of the volume of a bowl of ramen. You can use any stock to make ramen, but the soup typically consists of a pork-based stock, sometimes fortified with chicken and dried seafood.



The use of pork stocks sets ramen slightly apart from Western soup traditions, but places ramen firmly within the realm of Chinese cuisine (ramen, is, after all, Japanese-Chinese food).



Stocks are typically categorized by clarity and base ingredients.



Clarity: Ramen can be made with clear stocks (chintan) and emulsified stocks (paitan). The ubiquitous tonkotsu—ramen made with a thick, milky, emulsified pork bone broth—is a paitan, whereas classic shoyu ramen is made with chintan stocks.



Ingredients: The primary ingredient used to make stock is often used as shorthand to identify the kind of stock. “Tonkotsu” is a great example, as it is used to refer to a stock made from pork bones. (Somewhat confusingly, as the word “tonkotsu” can be used to refer to the ubiquitous emulsified stock and clear stocks made with pork bones.) A chicken stock used in ramen is often referred to as either a “tori chintan” if it’s clear, or a “tori paitan” if it’s emulsified (“tori” means “bird,” but is often used to denote “chicken” in Japanese).



The word “gyokai” is sometimes added to the stock (for example: tonkotsu gyokai or tori paitan gyokai) to indicate that the stock has dried fish products infused into it.



The other widely used type of stock in ramen is dashi, which is uniquely Japanese. Dashi is made with kombu, or dried kelp, and, most often, katsuobushi (bonito flakes). When other dried fish products, like niboshi (dried infant sardines), scallops, or dried shrimp are used, the word “dashi” will be prefaced by those relatively more unusual ingredients (for example: “niboshi dashi”).



It is quite common for a bowl of ramen to contain two (or more) stocks that are blended together. Usually, this practice entails blending a meat stock, such as a tonkotsu, with a dashi, rather than blending two meat-based stocks. (Our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-shoyu-ramen">Ultimate Shoyu Ramen</a> recipe blends three stocks together: a pork-chicken double stock, a clarified pork-chicken double stock, and dashi.)



A bowl of ramen will typically contain anywhere from 300 ml to 400 ml of stock. 

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Sous Vide Dashi

Stock

Japan has a long tradition of using dried seafood. The most famous example of Japan’s dried seafood is kombu, or dried kelp, from which MSG is derived—it contains a higher concentration of naturally occurring glutamates than any other substance. However, there’s a range of products that fall under the name “fushi” that are almost, if not equally, important.



The most famous kind of fushi is katsuobushi, blocks of dried skipjack tuna (bonito) fillets, which are often sold shredded into flakes. The next most well-known fushi is niboshi, the most prevalent example of which abroad is infant sardines.



Kombu: Most of the kombu in Japan is harvested on the island of Hokkaido, and there are for main varieties: hidaka kombu, rishiri kombu, makombu, and rausu kombu. While each of these varieties produces dashi with slight variations in flavor and appearance, for ramen, any one will work just fine. We like the kombu from <a href="https://thejapanesepantry.com/collections/all?filter.p.product_type=Seaweed">The Japanese Pantry</a> (both the rausu or rishiri kombu will be great!), but you can also find kombu in Japanese and Asian grocery stores, as well as other outlets <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hokkaido-HIDAKA-stock-Japanese-cuisine/dp/B08NJBGMGC?tag=chefsteps02-20">online</a>.



Katsuobushi: Katsuobushi is prepared using a protracted boiling, smoking, and drying process; premium katsuobushi is, in addition to being boiled, smoked, and dried, inoculated with koji mold and allowed to ferment.



You can find katsuobushi packaged in several different ways: as whole blocks, which you have to shave yourself; in wide, thick shavings; in wide, thin shavings; and as small flakes. The flakes are most ubiquitous, and they’re typically used for garnishing dishes, such as <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/miso-glazed-eggplant">broiled eggplant</a> and okonomiyaki. The blocks are relatively rare.



For making dashi and ramen tare, it’s best to use either the wide and thick or wide and thin shavings, which you can easily find in Japanese grocery stores and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kaneso-Tokuyou-Hanakatsuo-Bonito-Flakes/dp/B0052BGLMS?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">online.</a> For higher quality katsuobushi, we recommend using the <a href="https://thejapanesepantry.com/collections/all/products/katsuobushi-thick-shavings-70g?_pos=4&_fid=563e7a29f&_ss=c">fermented katsuobushi</a> from The Japanese Pantry.



Niboshi: The name means “boiled and dried,” and so it is with these dried seafood products. Whole fish are boiled and dried, and the dried fish are eaten as snacks or used to make stock. Niboshi is made with many different kinds of fish, but the one that you’re most likely to find in the U.S. is made from dried infant sardines (although they are often labeled “dry anchovies”). Smaller infant sardine niboshi are sometimes labeled “iriko.”



Niboshi can be found in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese grocery stores, as well as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dried-Large-Anchovy-Whole-Calcium/dp/B0FRH6QN5C?tag=chefsteps02-20">online</a>.



Yakiboshi: Yakiboshi is dried fish that has been grilled before drying. It has a smokier flavor profile than niboshi. Yakiboshi is largely unavailable in the U.S.

Japanese dried seafood

There aren’t a lot of rules in ramen—it mostly consists of conventions and customs. However, there is one rule: Ramen needs alkaline wheat noodles. The word “ramen,” like pho, refers both to the noodles used and the dish those noodles are used in.



Thus, ramen’s defining characteristic as a noodle soup is the alkaline wheat noodle.



This distinction is important because wheat noodles that are made with kansui (an alkaline solution) have a unique texture and flavor. The alkaline salts used in the solution—typically sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate—change the way the gluten in the wheat flour behaves, strengthening the gluten network to produce ramen’s distinctive chew and snap. The alkalinity of the solution also contributes to the color of the noodles, turning the carotene in wheat into a brighter shade of yellow, and gives them an “alkaline” flavor, sort of like the passing ghost of a pretzel touched your noodles.



Under the umbrella of ramen, there’s a range of different kinds of noodles that exist, from thin and brittle to thick, chewy, and super slippery, and everything in between. (It’s just like “pasta”!) Some established styles of ramen use specific kinds of noodles, like the milky tonkotsu, which originated in Fukuoka prefecture and pairs a very low-hydration, thin, and brittle noodle with its thick soup, or the super-long, thick, flat, curly, and springy noodles used in the famous tonkotsu chintan ramen served in Kitakata.



That said, as long as a bowl of ramen has ramen—that is, alkaline wheat noodles—in it, it’ll be fine. While some people may prefer to pair thin noodles with thick soups, and vice versa, this isn’t a rule as much as it is convention driven by prevailing regional tastes.



When making ramen at home, you have the choice of buying dried noodles, fresh-frozen noodles, fresh noodles, or making noodles from scratch yourself. We recommend making them; the next-best alternative is purchasing fresh noodles from a ramen shop you like—many ramen shops are happy to sell you noodle bundles. Failing that, many national grocery store chains, such as Whole Foods and H-Mart, as well as Japanese and Asian grocery stores carry fresh-frozen noodles from brands like <a href="https://sunnoodle.com/find-us/">Sun Noodle</a> in the freezer section. In a pinch, dried noodles can be used, as can instant ramen bricks (save the seasoning packet for popcorn or for seasoning <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/omurice-fried-rice">fried rice</a>). 

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We teach you how to make delicious handmade ramen noodles with stretch and chew.

Chewy Ramen Noodles

Silky Ramen Noodles

Noodles

For many ramen nerds, a bowl of ramen doesn’t really need anything more than a sprinkling of sliced naga negi (long onion) as a topping. But if you ask most people to picture a perfect ramen bowl, it would probably be adorned with some sliced chashu (roasted pork), ajitsuke tamago (marinated soft-boiled egg), menma (pickled bamboo shoots), a slice of narutomaki (fish cake) , and maybe a sheet of nori, in addition to a pile of sliced scallions.

Toppings

Chashu is a loan word from Chinese <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/classic-char-siu">“char siu”</a>, and while it refers to a sliced pork roast, it does not refer to a specific style of preparation.



Chashu is typically made with pork collar, although in the U.S., you’re more likely to see pork belly chashu. It can also be made with pork loin, and it’s customary to refer to chicken breast or thigh toppings as “chicken chashu.”



Chashu ranges from simple and bland boiled pork shoulder that’s thinly sliced to marinated and/or cured pork roasts that are braised or roasted and often soaked in flavorful liquid after cooking. 

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Chashu (roast pork belly for ramen) recipe

Chashu (Roast Pork for Ramen)

Chashu

Everyone loves eggs, and EVERYONE loves ramen eggs—hard- or soft-boiled eggs marinated in a savory-sweet solution.



While it is very common to see soft-boiled eggs in ramen, with very soft white and jammy yolks, it’s important to note that the eggs don’t have to be soft-boiled; many ramen shops in Japan have delicious hard-boiled marinated eggs, some of which are boiled so hard that they’ve got purple rings around the yolks.



The marinade used is typically soy sauce-based, but there’s no reason to limit yourself. A miso marinade (like ours) will work well, as will marinating the cooked eggs in a dashi seasoned with mirin and spiked with dried fish powder. 

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We show you how to make ajitsuke tamago, the cured eggs in almost every bowl of ramen in the world.

Ajitsuke Tamago (Marinated Ramen Eggs)

Ajitsuke Tamago

The famous ramen chef Shota Iida once said that the aroma of ramen is “buta to negi,” or pork and onions. That statement is seemingly straightforward, but it’s not, because Iida is referring to a specific kind of onion—not globe onions or scallions, but “naga negi,” or long onion, a type of bunching onion that is prized in Japanese cuisine.



Similar to Korean daepa and Chinese leeks, naga negi (which is sometimes called “Tokyo negi” in the U.S., as well as “Welsh onion”) has a milder, sweeter flavor than scallions or green onions, and it’s “hilled,” or grown in such a way as to increase the size of the white part of the onion by mounding the soil around the stalk as it grows. The green tops are often used to season soups, and they are sometimes sliced thinly to use as garnish, but the focus is mainly on the white parts.



Finding naga negi in the U.S. is a challenge; you can find them in some Japanese grocery stores, but you may have to resort to finding a local farm, like <a href="https://suzukifarm-usa.com/">Suzuki Farm</a> in Delaware, that specializes in Japanese produce. Scallions can be used as a substitute, and they work very well, but they lack the unique flavor and aroma of naga negi.

Negi

Nori: Ramen is often garnished with rectangles of nori, which add a subtle marine savoriness to a bite or two of noodles.



Narutomaki: Often shortened to “naruto,” narutomaki is just molded fish paste (surimi), and it often has a distinctive pink spiral in its center.



Usually, only a single thin slice is placed on top of the bowl, so it is primarily a decorative element that contributes very little flavor.



Menma: Menma is a distinctive element of ramen, and its complexity is masked by the fact that they are often referred to as “seasoned bamboo shoots.” The name is a portmanteau of “ramen” and “machiku,” the type of bamboo from which it&#39;s derived, which is in fact bamboo shoots that have been dried, lacto-fermented, reconstituted, and seasoned.



It is very difficult to find dried, lacto-fermented bamboo shoots in the U.S., unless you are a restaurant operator, and even restaurant operators face significant challenges when sourcing menma. While there are recipes out there for making seasoned bamboo shoots masquerading as menma, we suggest simply purchasing seasoned menma from a ramen restaurant, if you want to use it.



 Vegetables: Vegetables get short shrift in most ramen bowls, and aside from the negi and menma, you may get a token bit of blanched spinach in the bowl. Some styles of ramen, like iekei ramen, tanmen, and jiro-kei ramen, are in part defined by the vegetable element: iekei ramen typically comes with a hefty mound of blanched spinach; tanmen refers to ramen topped with stir-fried bean sprouts, cabbage, wood ear mushrooms, and garlic; and jiro-kei ramen has a mountain of blanched cabbage and bean sprouts plopped on top.



Wontons: Wontons are a common topping for ramen, in keeping with the dish’s Chinese roots.

Other Toppings

The reason the disparate elements of a bowl of ramen are prepared separately and then combined before service is practical. By doing so, ramen shops can combine these elements to produce a range of different kinds of ramen.



One stock can be combined with a shio, shoyu, or miso tare to produce three different bowls of ramen. Those bowls can be topped with a selection of toppings—a couple of slices of chashu, an egg, some blanched spinach, and some negi, say—or they can be piled high with a single topping, like many slices of chashu, to offer variations to customers.



To standardize their offerings, ramen shops will tailor their different tare so that basically the same quantity of tare is used to season the set amount of stock they add to each bowl. Usually, the ratio of tare to stock is about 1:10, so for 400 ml of stock, they would add about 40 ml of tare; for 350 ml of stock, they’d add about 35 ml of tare.



The amount of fat added to bowls varies based on the preferences of the chef, but it too is typically calibrated according to a ratio devised in relation to the quantity of stock; it’s quite common for ramen shops to use a similar ratio of fat to stock as tare to stock, so 1:10.



The way these ratios are portioned out is by using ladles of specific volumes, which allows cooks to precisely dial in the ratios on the fly during service.



For our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-shoyu-ramen">Ultimate Shoyu Ramen</a>, we use 350 ml of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-ramen-stock">stock</a> per bowl, season it with 30 ml each of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/shoyu-tare">shoyu tare</a> and fat, add one portion of <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/silky-ramen-noodles">cooked noodles</a> weighing between 130 g and 140 g, and then add toppings as desired.



Ultimate Shoyu Ramen, by the numbers:
 
Shoyu tare: 30 ml
 
Fat: 30 ml
 
Stock: 350 ml
 
Noodles: 1 portion (130 g to 140 g) 
 
Toppings: As desired.



Using this basic rubric, you can construct many different bowls of ramen simply by adjusting the toppings. 

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Ultimate Shoyu Ramen

Putting It All Together

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Ramen shops tend to focus on specific “styles,” and there are all kinds of different ramen out there. Some shops focus on thick and milky emulsified tonkotsu soups; others might focus on clear and light soups with strong dried seafood notes.



There are a handful of different ways used to categorize ramen, and then even within the categories of ramen, you’ll often find variations, typically determined by the kind (or amount) of topping.



And then there are numerous regional variations, like the famous Hakata tonkotsu, which has an emulsified pork broth as white as milk and thin, straight, firm noodles; jiro-kei ramen, the gut-busting bowl of shoyu ramen that’s topped with a chest-high mound of cabbage, bean sprouts, raw garlic, and chashu; and kitakata ramen, which uses a clear tonkotsu soup and very long, curly, and bouncy noodles.



When you look at a menu, you’ll find a bunch of terms and variations; here’s a brief explainer for the most common stuff you’ll find on ramen menus to help you sort it all out.

Ramen Guide

Common Ramen Styles

Dashi: The foundational stock of Japanese cuisine, dashi is sometimes used as the primary stock in ramen, but it is more commonly used as a secondary stock that supplements a meat-based stock. Most often made with kombu (dried kelp) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), it can also be made with other dried seafood, such as niboshi, and dried shiitake mushrooms.



Chintan (clear stock): Clear stocks (called “chintan”) are more commonly used for ramen than emulsified stocks in Japan. (“Chintan” is a loan word from the Chinese “chintang.”) Chances are good that if you order a shoyu, shio, or miso ramen and the name contains no other descriptors, it’s been made with a clear stock. Similar to blond stocks in Western cuisine, chintan are typically made with unroasted bones, although fresh fish chintan are often made with roasted fish bones.



Paitan (emulsified stock): The thick, creamy, and milky stocks used in ramen are called “paitan.” (“Paitan” is a loan word derived from the Chinese “baitang.”) The emulsified pork stock known as “tonkotsu” is a paitan but is most often simply referred to as “tonkotsu.” (Since “tonkotsu” refers to any stock made with pork bones, clear pork stocks are referred to as “tonkotsu chintan” to distinguish them from the emulsified tonkotsu.) You’ll more often see the word “paitan” paired with “tori” (as in “tori paitan”) to distinguish an emulsified chicken stock from a clear chicken stock.



There are two more bits of vocabulary that are commonly used to describe stocks, although they’re typically reserved for use when describing paitan: “kotteri,” which means “thick,” and “assari,” which means “thin.” So, for example, a kotteri tori paitan is a very thick and viscous emulsified chicken stock.



Dried seafood-infused meat stocks: If a meaty stock is heavily infused with dried seafood, it will be referred to as “gyokai,” as in “tonkotsu gyokai” (emulsified pork soup with heavy seafood elements).



Double (and triple) soup: Many ramen shops use stock blends to make their ramen, and these blends usually consist of a meat-based stock and dashi. Some ramen shops—and our recipe for the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-shoyu-ramen">Ultimate Shoyu Ramen</a>—even blend three (or more!) stocks together.

Ramen by Stock Type

Shio ramen: Ramen seasoned with shio tare. Sometimes, a shio tare can be as simple as salt and MSG dissolved in water; at others, it can be quite complicated, with a dashi made from dried fish that’s spiked with salt. Sometimes, shio tare will contain white soy sauce (shiro shoyu). If there are no other descriptors, a “shio ramen” will typically contain a chintan stock. (Many tonkotsu, including the famous Hakata tonkotsu, use a shio tare, but they are referred to simply as “tonkotsu.”)



Shoyu ramen: Ramen seasoned with a shoyu tare. Shoyu ramen ranges in color from a faint amber to so dark it’s almost black, depending on the kind of soy sauce (and other sauces) used in the tare. If there are no other descriptors, a “shoyu ramen” will typically contain a chintan stock.



Since shoyu ramen is the most classic form of ramen, it is often variously referred to as “chuka soba” (Chinese noodles) or “shina soba” (an antiquated—and offensive to Chinese people—way of saying Chinese noodles).



Miso ramen: Ramen seasoned with miso tare. If there are no other descriptors, a “miso ramen” will typically contain a chintan stock.

Ramen by Flavor

There are also ramen variations that use a reduced quantity of more intensely seasoned stock or omit stock completely:



Tsukemen: Tsukemen is ramen that’s served sort of like zaru soba, with noodles that are dipped into a highly seasoned soup. (“Tsukeru” means “to dip” in Japanese.) The noodles are boiled, then shocked and rinsed to halt cooking completely and remove much of the surface starch, which will prevent them from clumping together. Tsukemen is often made with thicker noodles, but this isn’t a rule; you’ll see thin noodles used for tsukemen, too.



The soup for tsukemen is basically the same as the soup for soup ramen, but it tends to be more aggressively seasoned with fat and tare. This is why many places that sell tsukemen will offer you “soup wari,” or a thin stock that you can add to what’s left of the soup when you’re done with noodles, which adjusts the salinity to more reasonable levels for sipping.



Tsukemen is offered with chintan, paitan, and gyokai stocks, but the most popular and famous tsukemen shops of the last couple of decades (Fuunji, Rokurinsha, and Tomita) are known for their tonkotsu gyokai dipping broths.



Tsukemen also goes by a couple other names: “tsukesoba” and “morisoba.”



Mazemen and abura soba: Ramen that’s served with only a little stock or no stock at all goes by a couple names. Mazemen, which translates to “mixing ramen,” contains very little to no stock and is basically a dressed noodle dish—cooked noodles are tossed with tare and oil, much like pasta dressed with fresh sauces, like pesto. Mazemen is often served with toppings that are smaller than bite-size, as diners are expected to mix the contents of the bowl up before eating.



Abura soba, which translates to “oil noodles,” is almost identical to mazemen and often is just another name used for the same preparation, but the emphasis on “abura” (“fat”) carries the suggestion that it will be a richer stock-less ramen.



Hiyashi chuka: Hiyashi chuka is basically a ramen salad. Cooked noodles are shocked and rinsed, then layered onto a plate along with a bunch of slivered toppings (like ham, cucumber, tomatoes, and omelets) and then dressed with an acidic shoyu tare. Hiyashi chuka is usually only offered during the summer months.

Brothless ramen

On many ramen shop menus, you have the option of ordering variations based on the toppings. Some variations are determined by the type of topping used, such as mabomen, which consists of a bowl of ramen topped with mabo dofu (Japanese-style mapo tofu); others are determined by the quantity of a topping, such as chashumen, which is a bowl of ramen with a generous amount of sliced pork.



Some shops will offer a “tokusei” ramen, and that’s basically the house special: a bowl of ramen with a selection of all the toppings the shop offers.



Chashumen: Sometimes also referred to as “nikumen” (“meat ramen”), chashumen is any flavor of ramen, topped with many slices of chashu.



Tanmen: Any flavor of ramen, topped with a cabbage and bean sprout stir-fry.



Mabomen: Usually shoyu ramen, topped with a serving of Japanese-style mapo tofu.



Negi ramen: Any flavor of ramen, topped with an almost deranged amount of sliced green onions or long onions.



Wontonmen: Any flavor of ramen, topped with a bunch of wontons.



Tokusei ramen: The “house special” ramen, topped with a selection of a shop’s finest toppings.

Ramen by Topping

There are many different regional styles of ramen in Japan, each with distinct conventions and practices. Here is a small handful of some of the most famous styles.



Tokyo shoyu ramen: Shoyu ramen is the most ubiquitous kind of ramen in Japan, and it’s a specialty of the largest city in the country (Tokyo). It’s characterized by a clear broth made from pork and chicken with pronounced dried seafood elements; a shoyu tare also spiked with dried fish elements; and thin, slightly curly noodles.



Tare: Shoyu
 
Fat: Chicken and/or pork
 
Stock: Chintan (chicken and/or pork; niboshi and katsuobushi)
 
Noodles: Medium-thin, curly 
 
Toppings: Chashu, menma, negi, ajiatma, nori



Sapporo miso ramen: Sapporo is known as the birthplace of miso ramen, which is (maybe) apocryphally attributed to ramen shop customers asking for ramen served in tonjiru, or a miso-flavored pork and vegetable stew. It is characterized by a strong but clear broth that is seasoned with aka (red) miso (which muddies the clarity), very wavy noodles, and a rich slick of lard on top. Sapporo miso ramen is often constructed in a wok, with the miso tare and vegetables seared in lard before the addition of the soup.
 


Tare: Miso
 
Fat: Pork
 
Stock: Chintan (pork) 
 
Noodles: Thick, chewy, wavy
 
Toppings: Cabbage, bean sprouts, negi, chashu, ajitama, butter



Kitakata ramen: Kitakata is a small city in Fukushima Prefecture that is famous for the fact that it has more than 100 ramen shops, all dishing out bowls in the region’s specific style. The stock used in Kitakata ramen is a tonkotsu chintan, spiked with niboshi, seasoned with either shio or shoyu tare, and served with long, thick, flat, curly, and springy noodles.



Tare: Shoyu
 
Fat: Lard
 
Stock: Chintan (pork and niboshi) 
 
Noodles: Thick, flat, chewy
 
Toppings: Square-cut chashu, negi



Yokohama iekei ramen: Iekei ramen is considered to be a mashup between the emulsified tonkotsu prevalent in Fukuoka and the clear shoyu ramen popular in Tokyo. Originating in Yokohama, it consists of an emulsified pork and chicken bone stock, seasoned with shoyu tare and topped with chiyu (rendered chicken fat), with thick, straight noodles. In addition to the chiyu, it’s distinct from other ramen styles in that it’s often topped with a generous amount of blanched spinach. Another distinguishing characteristic of iekei ramen is that it’s meant to be customized, with diners indicating how thick they’d like the soup, the amount of chicken fat ladled on top, the doneness of the noodles, and the amount of tare added to the bowl.



Tare: Shoyu
 
Fat: Chicken
 
Stock: Paitan (chicken and pork) 
 
Noodles: Thick, straight 
 
Toppings: Blanched spinach, white onion, chashu, lots of nori



Taiwan mazesoba: The most famous form of mazemen (“mazesoba” is just another word for mazemen, as “men” and “soba” are both used as shorthand for “noodles”), Taiwan mazesoba was popularized in Nagoya. It’s a brothless ramen dish with thick and chewy noodles topped with seasoned ground pork, raw garlic, scallions, and, importantly, raw garlic chives, and a raw egg yolk.



Tare: Shoyu
 
Fat: Pork
 
Stock: None
 
Noodles: Thick, chewy
 
Toppings: Spicy ground pork, egg yolk, negi, nira (garlic chives), shredded nori, tobanjan (Japanese doubanjiang)
 


Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen: Hakata tonkotsu may as well be the granddaddy of all tonkotsu in the U.S.—it is the style of ramen that Ippudo, the first major Japanese chain to become popular in the country, is famous for. A white, emulsified pork stock seasoned with a shio tare, with thin, straight, almost brittle noodles swimming in the soup.



Tare: Shio
 
Fat: Pork
 
Stock: Paitan (pork) 
 
Noodles: Thin, straight, brittle
 
Toppings: Chashu, negi, ajitama, beni shoga (pickled ginger)



Jiro-kei ramen: A style of ramen that’s achieved a kind of cult-like status in Japan, Jiro-kei ramen is a tonkotsu ramen that dials everything up to 11—it’s fattier and porkier—and it’s topped with a literal mountain of blanched cabbage and bean sprouts, which serves as a stand for several thick slices of chashu. Raw minced garlic is added on the side of the bowl, and a karame (basically like a tare) is ladled over the toppings. Jiro-kei ramen also has unique noodles, as the noodle sheets are cut slightly thicker than the noodle cutters can handle, which produces thick noodles with many weird irregularities.



Tare: Shoyu
 
Fat: Pork
 
Stock: Chintan/paitan (pork) 
 
Noodles: Thick, reverse-cut
 
Toppings: Blanched cabbage and bean sprouts, chashu, raw garlic, karame (soy sauce seasoning, similar to tare); pork fatback



Tonkotsu Gyokai Tsukemen: Thick noodles served with a rich tonkotsu gyokai is a style of tsukemen that became widespread in the wake of the popularity of Rokurinsha and Fuunji, two ramen shops known for their thick tonkotsu, spiked with tons of dried fish, and the thick noodles they paired with the broth. Later, another tonkotsu gyokai shop, Tomita, became the top-ranked ramen restaurant in Tokyo for years. The influence of all these shops is seen everywhere, even in the U.S., as tsukemen has almost become synonymous in the popular imagination with tonkotsu gyokai and thick noodles.



Tare: Shoyu
 
Fat: Pork
 
Stock: Paitan (pork)
 
Noodles: Thick, straight, cooked, shocked, and rinsed
 
Toppings: Variety

Famous Regional Ramen Styles

There is also, of course, the vast world of instant ramen to consider. Instant ramen is functionally identical to non-instant ramen and a modern wonder of food technology. The five elements of ramen—again, tare, fat, soup, noodles, and toppings—are distilled and dehydrated and packaged so you can make a bowl of ramen in minutes.



Instant ramen was created by Momofuku Ando in 1958, and he would refine the idea until his company, Nissin, introduced the original Cup Noodles in 1971. Cup Noodles became popular around the globe and created the entire industry of instant noodles.



Nowadays, instant ramen exists in almost every country, with homegrown brands competing against Japanese and, increasingly, Korean companies; in the U.S., one of the most ubiquitous kinds of instant ramen is Shin Ramyun, a Korean instant noodle product.



They are all basically the same: a dried puck of precooked noodles that are either fried or air-dried, packaged along with sachets that form both the seasoning and the broth base for the soup, along with spare “toppings” that typically consist of dehydrated vegetables.



We’re ecumenical about instant ramen—it’s all pretty good—but here are some of our favorites:



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Myojo-Chukazanmai-Instant-Ramen-Flavor/dp/B00ISSV7RQ/ref=sr_1_4?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">Myojo Chukazanmai</a>: Myojo produces several flavors in this line, but our favorite is the Chinese-style or Shoyu flavors. The noodles are super slippery and thin, with a lot of starchy bounciness.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sapporo-Noodle-Ichiban-Original-3-5-Ounce/dp/B001SB5W8U/ref=sr_1_4?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">Sapporo Ichiban</a>: This brand has a lot of nostalgic value, as it used to be the most widespread Japanese instant ramen in global distribution. It’s bare bones, but it gets the job done.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nissin-Ramen-Noodle-Seafood-Ounce/dp/B076N7Z34C/ref=sr_1_4?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">Cup Noodles</a>: Cup Noodles produces flavors designed specifically for each national market, and we’re not the biggest fans of the American offerings. The East Asian options, however, are all pretty amazing. Of the Japanese versions, we think the seafood flavor is the best, followed by the (very junk-food-seeming) curry flavor.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/NongShim-Ramyun-Noodle-Gourmet-Spicy/dp/B00778B90S/ref=sr_1_4?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">Shin Ramyun</a>: Shin Ramyun uses a dehydrated beef broth base, spiked with a bunch of dried seafood and dried chiles. Of the American offerings, we prefer Shin Ramyun Red, but if you can get your hand on Korean Shin Ramyun Black, we prefer that.

Instant Ramen

One of the easiest ways to upgrade a packet of instant ramen is to load up the bowl with toppings. Even though our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/cured-ramen-eggs-you-can-t-stop-eating">ajitsuke tamago</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/chashu">chashu</a> are designed to go with a made-from-scratch bowl of ramen, you can just as easily use them to top off a bowl of instant ramen to make it a more complete and satisfying meal.



The same is true of literally anything you’d add to a bowl of from-scratch ramen. Sliced green onion (or long onion) will immediately improve a bowl of instant ramen; you can also just crack an egg into the pot a minute before the noodles are cooked for a bit of extra protein (you can leave it whole to poach or you can scramble it up for fine thread of cooked egg in the soup, like egg drop soup). You can even top a bowl of ramen with just a raw egg yolk, stirring it into the soup as you dig in.



The same goes for any leftovers. Stir-fried vegetables of all kinds are a great topping for ramen, instant or homemade, as are leftovers—if you’ve got <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/air-fried-beef-and-broccoli">beef and broccoli</a> lying around from a previous meal, it makes an excellent ramen topping.

How to level up instant ramen

Essential Equipment for Homemade Ramen

Bench scraper: A bench scraper is useful for all kinds of board work, including transferring chopped vegetables to pots and containers. It’s also very useful for trimming and portioning ramen dough.



<a href="https://modernistpantry.com/products/high-precision-digital-ingredient-scale.html">High-precision digital scale</a>: A high-precision digital scale is indispensable for measuring out the precise quantities of alkaline salts called for in most noodle recipes.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CR29Q4U?tag=chefsteps02-20">Digital scale</a>: The most efficient tool for measuring out ingredients when making noodles, tare, and stocks.



Cambros and deli containers: Making ramen requires making a lot of liquids, and you need containers to store them all. 4-quart Cambros are great for storing stock; deli containers are great for storing tare and fat.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Marcato-8340-Atlas-Roller-Stainless/dp/B000JLD7IW/?th=1&amp;tag=chefsteps02-20">Pasta roller</a>: You need a pasta machine to make noodles using <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/silky-ramen-noodles">our method</a>. A motorized pasta machine is way more convenient than a manual one, but a manual one will make noodles that are just as good. If you have a stand mixer that accepts <a href="https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-KSMPRA-3-Piece-Roller-Attachment/dp/B01DBGQR1K/?th=1&amp;tag=chefsteps02-20">attachments</a>, we strongly recommend buying the pasta rolling and cutting attachments.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid%C2%AE-Quart-Bowl-Lift-Stand-Mixer/dp/B0BRNWWGJ5?tag=chefsteps02-20">Stand mixer</a>: A stand mixer makes the process of mixing ramen dough completely hands off. You can mix ramen dough by hand or by using a food processor, too, but a stand mixer’s paddle attachment more closely mimics the way dough is mixed in a commercial ramen machine.

Ramen Prep Tools

<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-Duromatic-Stainless-Pressure/dp/B001A08VPK?tag=chefsteps02-20">8-quart tall-sided stovetop pressure cooker</a>: A pressure cooker is one of the best tools for making stock—it cuts the cook time down significantly and produces clear stocks thanks to the fact that the contents of a pressure cooker under pressure will not come to a boil.



A stovetop pressure cooker is also a great noodle boiling pot—its tall sides and relatively small surface area means there is less evaporation, and you can get a large volume of water boiling, which means even after adding noodles, it will maintain a boiling temperature.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tramontina-80116-041DS-Induction-Ready-NSF-Certified/dp/B00JAQ9CX6?tag=chefsteps02-20&amp=undefined&th=1">8- to 10-quart stockpot</a>: The next best pot for making stocks (and boiling noodles) is an 8- to 10-quart stockpot.



Cheesecloth: Cheesecloth is useful for improving the sieving capability of a fine-mesh strainer, which is important for producing crystal-clear stocks and tare that’s free of any solid matter, such as dried fish, which will alter the flavor of the tare over time.



Fine-mesh strainer: Stocks and tare need to be strained, and a fine-mesh strainer will do the job well. It can also be used for straining small quantities of noodles, but that requires dumping out all the boiling noodle water.



<a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/en-us/product/bsv600?sku=BSV600PSS1BNA1">Joule Turbo</a> (optional): Sous vide is an excellent method for not only making toppings, like <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/chashu">chashu</a>, but also <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-dashi">dashi</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/perfect-sous-vide-poached-eggs">poached eggs</a>.



<a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/en-us/shop/induction-cooktops">Control Freak Home</a> (optional): Precision temperature control can be leveraged to great effect when making stocks, tare, and toppings of all kinds, and the Control Freak offers unparalleled temperature control.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ladle-oz-piece-Winco-LDI-16/dp/B001PZ7JJ4?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">175 ml ladle (6 oz) or a 350 ml ladle (12 oz)</a>: Ladles are useful for transferring liquids—and there are a lot of liquids involved in making a bowl of ramen!—but they are even more important for portioning control. Our recipe for <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-shoyu-ramen">Ultimate Shoyu Ramen</a> uses 350 ml of stock per bowl, so a 350 ml ladle or a 175 ml ladle is very handy for portioning ramen on the fly with maximum precision.



<a href="https://mtckitchen.com/collections/noodle-strainers/products/stainless-steel-kanro-measuring-ladle-1-fl-oz-30ml">30 ml ladle(s)</a>: We developed our recipe for <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-shoyu-ramen">Ultimate Shoyu Ramen</a> to use 350 ml of stock seasoned with 30 ml of tare and 30 ml of aromatic fat; this is a slight deviation from the more-standard 10:1 ratio used in ramen shops, and this was done purposely. Most cooks have 1 tablespoon (15 ml) measures, which can be used to portion out the tare and fat. However, you can purchase 1-ounce (30 ml) ladles, if you like.



<a href="https://www.amazon.com/PACKOVE-Strainer-Stainless-Restaurant-Kitchen/dp/B0CW9L378Y?tag=chefsteps02-20">Noodle basket(s)</a>: If you’re going to be making ramen frequently, noodle baskets are very useful. It’s difficult to portion cooked ramen noodles after they’re cooked, and noodle baskets allow you to boil multiple portions in individual portions without having to untangle them. Noodle baskets are also super useful for blanching small quantities of vegetables.



<a href="https://mtckitchen.com/products/stainless-steel-noodle-spider-strainer-8-25-dia">Flat strainer (hirazura)</a> (optional): Flat noodle strainers used by some ramen shops, but they require a little more chopsticks dexterity than basket strainers. They’re great for sliding noodles into soup for serving because, when done right, the noodles don’t have to be lifted and folded after being deposited in the soup, which leaves the soup completely clear.

Ramen Cooking Tools

<a href="https://www.korin.com/ramen-bar/ramen-bowls">Ramen bowls</a>: Ramen bowls come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but they all share a few key characteristics. The first is that they flare outwards, which means the surface of the soup is wide enough to accommodate noodles and toppings without feeling overcrowded. Some ramen bowls have a little “foot” that raises the bowl off the surface of the table, which helps keep the soup warm.



The other main key feature is volume. The bowl should have a capacity of about 1 liter, which means that a single serving of ramen will rise up to about the 70% to 80% mark, once all the noodles and toppings have been added to the soup.



<a href="https://www.korin.com/Korin-Durable-White-Spoon-7?">Renge (spoons)</a>: Ramen is typically served along with renge, or soup spoons, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes. We like the thick lipped spoons, which have a pleasing heft to them, but, really, any spoon will work.



Hashi (chopsticks): The best way to eat ramen is with a pair of chopsticks!

Ramen Service Ware

What is ramen? Well, it depends on who you ask. Some might call it a miracle of industrial food production, a cheap and satisfying meal that anyone in the world can prepare in a matter of minutes. Others might call it junk food, a mix of highly processed starch and sodium designed to light up all our pleasure centers with the most delicious empty calories. And still others may say that it is the height of culinary expressions and innovation, a dish that is at once both rigidly defined and highly malleable, the perfect playground for technique-driven chefs. The funny thing about ramen is that it is all of these things. “Ramen,” like “pizza” or “hamburgers,” is a catch-all term for an overwhelming number of iterations on a seemingly simple dish. Despite the fact that there are countless kinds of ramen out there, all of them share a few defining characteristics, clearly distinguishing them from other noodle soups and placing them squarely in the “ramen” bucket. In this guide, we’ll cover the basic elements of ramen, the quiddity of its ramenness, if you will, and we’ll cover some of the more popular styles and variations. You’ll be able to order off any ramen restaurant menu with confidence because you’ll know what’s in the bowl.

The Ultimate Guide to Ramen