Techniques Ramen 101. Tare & oil

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Last part of this small series will be the tare.

タレ. Tare just means sauce. There is all sorts of tare for foods, like yakitori tare, unagi tare, pretty much any sauce. For the purposes of ramen there are three base categories for tares.

miso: bean paste
Shoyu: soy sauce
Shio: salt base

now it’s not as simple as just dumping soy sauce, salt or miso into your soup and expect it to be delicious. The study are ramen is really about layering various umami elements to give you that amazing flavor that you get. Combining the major umami substances, which are glutamate, inosinate, and guanylate, brings about richer umami. And since the soup is unseasoned, all of your salinity will come from the tare as well.


If you want to read more about tare, check this article from Mike Satinover, aka ramen_lord. Everything you need to know about tare, the secret sauce to superior ramen

Oils
And of course let’s not forget the oil. Oils are often used to enhance the sensory experience of a bowl of ramen. It’s sits on top it coats the noodles as you slurp, minor detail as it is, you’d notice something missing without it.

I like to use schmaltz, you get some of this when you make the soup, or just render out fat from some chicken skins. That’s it! Add a bit of garlic and ginger if you want but that’s not necessary
 
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Miso tare
first recipe will be miso, I’ve been working on this for 6 months or so, I’m pretty damn happy with where it is. This one is also easy because all you gotta do is mix it all together.

1C shiro miso
1/2C aka miso
1/2C hacho miso
2.5T tahini
2T sesame oil
2T salt
2T shoyu
15g garlic grated
10g ginger grated
1T rice vinegar
2T brown sugar

I like to blend miso, but if you cant find different varieties of miso, just use one type. Just make sure to buy quality Japanese miso. Avoid using powder miso or some other strange American stuff labeled GF or organic or whatever, those are usually of less quality.

30ml of this tare for 350ml soup. (12oz).

92E7195C-A2A3-471C-8D28-6304232CA4B9.jpeg


pictured here is this tare and schmaltz, also including the soup, menma, chashu and egg from previous posts. Now go make some bowls!
 
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Very impressed with OP’s depth of Ramen knowledge, we’ll done!

I love a good bowl of Ramen once in a while, but to my westernized taste buds, Ramen could be too rich to handle some times, if there is such a thing. Also, the glutamate, i.e. MSG, is a negative term in western diet.

I tend to gravitate towards Pho over Ramen these days, it’s still rich in flavor but not overwhelmingly so, & the good ones don’t use MSG.
 
Yes MSG has been debunked for the most part. the reality is that there are naturally occuring msg, (amino acids) in many things. So technically you can achieve lots of depth in umami without using powder MSG. I use it in very small amounts in some of my recipes. the only issue i see with using lots of powder MSG is that if you use too much you can actually taste it. I can get deeper into glutamic compounds with my other tare recipes.
 
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going to revive this old thread and post a really simple, but delicious shio tare.

25g kombu
3 dried shiitake
150ml mirin
150ml sake
500ml water.
steep all these ingredients overnight. slowly bring up to 170F and hold for 30min. Strain everything into another pot. Bring to boil, add 100g salt and 20g MSG. kill heat.

this is a super clean, vegan tare. great in clear chicken soup, or tonkotsu too.

If you have access to thick cut sababushi you can add 25g at the start.
 
I can personally attest to the quality of the info presented. I've eaten quite a few bowls of his ramen and they're universally very good to great. (Shio meyer lemon might be my favorite)
 
TL;DR: ... it's harmless.
When I decide to order Chinese take-out food, it usually isn't random. It tends to be when I'm really hungry, maybe having missed lunch. I suspect it's not so different for some other people. I don't know medical details, but I do know that my tendency to order food when there's a disturbance in the Force means that, if I don't feel well at the end of the day, the disturbance is much more likely to blame than the food is. Plus I feel fine after Chinese food anyway. Plus there aren't millions and millions of people in Asia who have mysterious food-related headaches every single day. :)
 
Very impressed with OP’s depth of Ramen knowledge, we’ll done!

I love a good bowl of Ramen once in a while, but to my westernized taste buds, Ramen could be too rich to handle some times, if there is such a thing. Also, the glutamate, i.e. MSG, is a negative term in western diet.

I tend to gravitate towards Pho over Ramen these days, it’s still rich in flavor but not overwhelmingly so, & the good ones don’t use MSG.
I've never heard someone complain of too much flavor. 🤣🤣
 
Seriously though, too much flavour is easy, and if you don't believe me, next time you need fish sauce, multiply the amount by 10 - consider it a special gift from me. :)

It's also different for different people - they say of fish sauce in particular that when it's used conservatively then you don't really taste it, exactly. For me, that's completely true. But I swear, my wife can clearly taste one molecule of the stuff. :)
 

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