Tonkotsu Failure

Tonkotsu has reached critical mass in the US. It's a default broth that virtually everyone slightly interested in ramen is attempting to emulate, be it chefs or even home cooks.

I've been in the process of fleshing out my tonkotsu method a bit. Digging into the available information more has revealed some interesting tidbits of knowledge.

In the past, I've had moderate to poor success with tonkotsu, and frankly, I wasn't sure why. It seems straightforward enough. Virtually every method I have ever seen uses the same process:

1. Blanch a bunch of pork femur bones, to remove the funk/blood.
2. Replace with fresh water. Scrub the black stuff away. Scrub all the things.  
3. Cook at rolling boil until unctuous and creamy. About 10-12 hours minimum. 

There are , of course, variations on this technique, notably the addition of other ingredients, such as aromatics or chicken parts. Usually these are thrown in at the start of the second boil. Some folks in Hakata use pig skulls in addition to femurs. Apparently the brain adds some flavor? (they call the brain "脳みそ" or "brain miso" lol)

But I've found that the less I add to the broth, the whiter it turns out. Allow me to present an example:

Look at that glorious pig water

This boil had nothing but pork leg bones and feet. Aromatics were added at the last hour. It's a gorgeous, slightly beige, cream colored broth. (It was way too rich... but that's a story for a different time). 

Sadly, in my last attempt, things didn't go so smoothly. 

For Memorial Day, I attempted to do some serious Hakata tonkotsu (separate blurb on the noodles is incoming, but the TL;DR is that they're impossible to do at home). Started with soaking the bones overnight, followed by a good ol blanch. The blanch goes through a few stages.

Stage 1: Brown water. Yuck.

If you don't blanch, you'll never get rid of that horrid brown color. 

Stage 2: Scrum rising.

Oh sweet jesus what is happening?

Stage 3: Gunk lightening, foam appaears.

Ok... I see where this is going.

Stage 4: Little to no foam left. 

At this stage, you'll want to dump the water, scrub the pot if reusing it, and scrub the bones of any leftover black gunk. This includes red marrow, which may be hiding in there. 

So far, things were par for the course. 

Then we moved onto the main part of cooking this bad boy. And this is where things started to turn for the worse. I started to deviate!

I was feeling bold, so as per the instructions of a few recipes I've found online (such as oisiso, a great Japanese guide), I threw an apple, a whole onion, some garlic cloves, and a knob of ginger, into the boil. 

I've found in the past that non-white items, like carrot, green onion, leek, etc, can actually impart color to the broth, so I avoided those. But they're not a bad idea if you like those flavors. 

Additionally, I added fatback. Chopped up by my local butcher, ready for the cookin'.

I had added most of it to the boil before this picture...

Fatback was suggested to amp up the richness of the broth in several of the sources I came across. Makes sense; the amount of fat present in the bones isn't enough (bones are pretty fat free apart from the marrow) so we add more to improve the consistency. Fatback is essentially collagen and fat, so it's the obvious choice. 

But then things started cooking.

Ok... so far so good... let's get rockin.

About two hours later:

Sweet. Starting to look opaque!

 At around 5-7 hours in is where I began to notice that the color was off...

And at 5:30 or so, the jig was up. I had brown tonkotsu.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Additionally, this version was insanely meaty. In perhaps an off putting way. Not really how I wanted the tonkotsu to turn out, to be frank.

So what are the learnings from this process?

Doing some investigating has lead me to three conclusions that may help improve the broth:

1. The use of fatback or any meat products should be used sparingly. 
• While fatback is awesome, it DOES have a slight meaty flavor to it, which eventually transitions to the broth. Making sure that the bones are cleaned of extra meat, and that the fatback is used just enough to provide richness (about 1/10th the weight of the bones total) is the way to go.
2. Keeping the pot covered results in an easier boil, yes, but it also creates pressure which can push the particulate suspended in the liquid downward, which may cause the broth to effectively to caramelize on the bottom of the pot. Uncovered or largely vented is the way to go here, and it's why most tonkotsu shops cook with an open lid.
3. Apples are the devil. The skins have way too much color and they oxidize during the boil into a brown mess. Most tonkotsu shops avoid aromatics. I was a fool to try and add them.

I was able to salvage this hakata attempt with some solid miso tare, but that's sort of a cop out. Any broth you make should be delicious; using a tare to mask flavors is a crutch.

It did look pretty though

Ultra rich and meaty... too much so.

"Hakata" style noodles. Not usually done in miso, but the pairing was nice.

Live and learn I suppose. Onto the next round of ramen.