Tonkotsu-Style Ramen
A rich, pork-bone broth ramen with chashu pork, noodles and soft egg, built with the same obsessive care the characters bring to the broth in Tampopo.
- prep
- 1 h
- cook
- 8 h
- total
- 9 h
- serves
- 6
- level
- hard
Tampopo (1985) is sometimes called a "ramen western," an entire film built around the hunt for a perfect bowl of ramen, treating broth, noodles and toppings with the same reverent, almost comic seriousness most movies save for gunfights.
A real tonkotsu broth earns that reverence honestly: pork bones blanched clean, then simmered for 8 hours or more until the collagen breaks down into something rich, creamy and genuinely worth building a whole film around.
Part of our 40 famous movie foods list.
method
Blanch the pork bones in boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain and rinse well to remove scum; this is what keeps the broth from turning cloudy and bitter.
Place the cleaned bones in a large pot with the water, onion, garlic and ginger. Bring to a boil, then lower to a steady simmer and cook for 8 to 10 hours, topping up water as needed, until the broth turns rich, creamy and pale.
Meanwhile, roll and tie the pork belly, and simmer it in a separate pot with the soy sauce, mirin, sugar and enough water to cover for about 2 hours, until tender. Cool, then slice thinly for chashu.
Strain the finished broth, and season to taste with a little miso or soy sauce.
Cook the fresh ramen noodles briefly in boiling water, according to the package, and drain well.
Divide the noodles among bowls, and ladle over the hot broth.
Top each bowl with slices of chashu, a soft-boiled egg halved, spring onion and nori.
Serve immediately, while everything is hot.
chef's tips
- The long, slow simmer, 8 hours or more, is what breaks down the collagen in the pork bones into that characteristic rich, creamy, almost milky tonkotsu broth; there is no real shortcut to this step.
- Blanching and rinsing the bones before the long simmer removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the broth and give it a bitter edge.
- Tampopo (1985) is sometimes called a "ramen western," a film built entirely around the search for a perfect bowl of ramen, with an almost reverent, comedic attention to every small detail of broth, noodles and toppings.
- This is a genuine, multi-day project in a real ramen shop; making a smaller batch over one very long day at home gets you a legitimate version of the same broth.