- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 3” knob ginger, roughly chopped
- 12 garlic cloves
- 3 lbs pig feet, chopped into 1 inch chunks
- 2 lbs chicken back
- ~10 qts water
Useful products:
- Bring 4 qts water to a boil, add the pig feet and chicken bones. Boil for 15 minutes
- Meanwhile, char onions, ginger, and garlic cloves in separate pan at high heat
- Pour out boiling water, carefully rinse all pigs feet and chicken bones to remove any blood. These first two steps can be repeated if you are especially interested in having a lighter color broth.
- Add pig feet and chicken bones to pressure cooker, fill to minimum volume required to cover with water (do not exceed your pressure cooker's volume specifications!) and bring to a boil.
- Observe the boil for 15 minutes, skimming any coagulating blood that comes to the surface
- Seal the pressure cooker and cook for at least 1 hour, 30 minutes with heat on high. Cooking for 2 hours at this point extracts more gelatin and has more flavor, however.
- Release pressure on the pressure cooker by running under cold water.
- Open pressure cooker and strain the contents to isolate the broth
- Add 1.5 tsp soy lecithin powder and blend with immersion blender or food processor
- REMEMBER to add salt (it will require a lot, just continue adding teaspoons of salt, mixing, and tasting, as with anything else, you should be able to tell when you hit the ‘sweet spot’ of correct seasoning)
Assemble with boiled ramen noodles (not the wavy kind), thinly sliced braised pork belly, halved marinated soft boiled egg, and seaweed, sliced green onion, buttered corn, or whichever of your favorite ramen toppings.
this is very interesting, I'm going to try this out soon in a week or two. I know the traditional method requires boiling for 12+ hours, but a pressure cooker does speed up the time. Even so, 2 hours seem a bit too fast, how does it compare with the traditional method? thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteI thought the broths were comparable, you could definitely give it an extra half hour or hour to extract more gelatin, but at 2 hours I found it was already acceptable. There was enough gelatin content that the flavor was rich and spoonful would leave a sticky feeling on the mouth. Just remember that the fat will be non-emulsified once you stop the pressure cooker, you will need to homogenize it with either a blender or with lecithin powder+blending. The traditional method has the broth constantly boiling/simmering for 12+ hours, and this agitation helps to disperse the fat throughout the broth.
DeleteI'm very interested to try this recipe with egg yolk instead of soy lecithin. I like that the base recipe is from Serious Eats (they do a great job with the basic science of recipes), and that you took it to the next level to make the pressure cooker version work!
DeleteOne website suggests 1 large egg yolk == 1 tablespoon of soy lecithin
Will report back with the results, especially if the egg changes the flavour of the broth or if it hides nicely in all the other flavours
Definitely give it a shot! I think I do make mention in my article about egg yolk being a possible substitute for the lecithin. Some things to consider are that you'd want to add the yolk when the broth is not hot enough to scramble it, but not so cool so that salmonella is a concern. I think the flavors would go well together. I also do think that you will still need to blend/mix the broth to create the emulsification. Let me know how it goes! =]
DeleteWill be trying this in the next few days, so I will definitely report back soon. I have a question about Instruction #6 - leaving the heat on HIGH. What kind of steam output should I be observing? A fast rushing steam, a medium level of steam, or a barely visible steam? I ask because a lot of pressure cooker recipes I see normally suggest bringing the cooker to pressure and then turning down the heat so that the steam escaping is barely visible. Can you confirm?
DeleteIt was a while ago that I did this, but I believe there was just a medium level of steam. My particular pressure cooker (in the products link above) has a sorted weighted cap for pressure release, so rather than a steady stream of steam, steam is released in short bursts at either slow or fast frequency. I think other pressure cookers work differently, with maybe something more like a valve for steam release. Either way, I guess depending on your pressure cooker, barely visible to medium level steam is ideal.
DeleteI'm pretty sure that after an hour under pressure cooking, all meats in the pot are cooked, so longer time and more heat beyond that point are just for extracting more collagen and breaking it down into gelatin. The window of time for that to occur before any overcooking happens is probably pretty large. Good luck!
So I'm happy to report the egg works very well. The layer of fat floating on the broth before adding the egg becomes tiny fat droplets after blending. I brought the soup up to 160℉, blended an egg yolk in, and continued to heat up to serving temperature. I used 1 whole yolk for about 1L of broth, and it eggy flavour was present, but very subtle. It didn't bother me, and the egginess disappeared after adding additional seasoning
ReplyDeleteThe tonkotsu did have that sticky, creamy texture but there was something missing in the depth of the flavour. I added some miso paste to give it a little more depth, but there was definitely something missing. Perhaps this tonkotsu is just a base, a blank canvas, and we season it with our favourite flavours afterwards
Glad to hear that the emulsification worked! Just to be clear, you made a full 6 qts worth, and tried emulsifying a small, 1L batch of it (because my full recipe should make ~6 qts of broth, since I used a 6 qt pressure cooker)? I'm curious as to what you mean by something missing from the flavor. Are you sure that the broth was sufficiently seasoned with salt? One batch needs a surprisingly large amount, otherwise it just tastes a bit flat.
DeleteAssuming there was enough salt, the other flavors of the broth should be pretty strong - the mix of chicken and pork lends some complexity, and the charred onion and ginger should give a noticeably smoky flavor. But yes, some broths take an extra step and add miso paste or white or black roasted garlic for even more of an intense flavor.
correction to my previous reply - probably ~3 qts broth were made, since the total volume of my pressure cooker is 6 qts but its specifications say to fill only 1/2 - 2/3 full
DeleteSo I guess there's some natural emulsifier in there anyway, seeing as it emulsifies when you boil it for ages? I'm just wondering if I can get away with not using lecithin (because I haven't got any) or egg yolks (because I'm worried about messing it up). Or is the natural emulsifier destroyed by the pressure cooker?
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll find out when my broth comes out of the pressure cooker.. thanks for the recipe!
Actually... a strange thing happened (apart from the pressure cooker scaring the pants off me...): The broth was completely emulsified when it came out of the pressure cooker! It's very possible this was something to do with me having no idea how to use it... For the first hour, I'd accidentally left the pressure valve open, so the broth got an hour of open boiling before I realized I'd messed up. After that, I cooked it for another two hours with the pressure valve closed, and it was fine. Maybe an hour of churning is all you need to get it emulsified nicely?
DeleteOne thing to look out for actually: dunno if it's just my pressure cooker, but both times I opened it, after pouring water over the lid to depressurize it, for some reason the seal failed and a load of superheated broth sprayed out around the side. This was both scary and annoying, as it meant I lost a load of broth! Maybe I'll let it cool down at its own pace before opening it next time.
I ended up seasoning it with the shoyu base from here: http://www.thepauperedchef.com/article/how-make-shoyu-ramen-home and adding some chopped up pork fatback that I'd put in the cooker for the last hour as per the original Kenji recipe. I haven't made the other stuff yet though, so I don't know how it's gonna turn out. Seems to have gone pretty well so far though.
Yes, definitely by leaving the pressure valve open, the broth is getting agitated much like in the traditional recipe, although possibly more so - which would explain why the broth was already emulsified.
DeleteThat is strange that your seal broke during depressurization, are you sure you closed and secured the pressure cooker correctly? Which type or brand of pressure cooker are you using? It is also possible this was a manufacturing problem, because I have not personally seen this happen before. Otherwise, glad to hear that it worked out, just stay safe next time!
So a strange thing happened to me as well. I was following this recipe using my instant pot. I did not leave the pressure valve open. The broth came out an orange brown as expected. I was getting ready to put an egg yolk in, but because I'm impatient I wanted to cool the broth down rather than wait for it to cool down, so decided to use the immersion blender to agitate the broth in order to cool it down. To my surprise the broth became milky white just using the immersion blender without adding the egg yolk or any other emulsifier. So yes, just simply manually agitating the broth, whether using a rolling boil or an immersion blender in a pressure cooked (separated) broth will work just as well. It's a lot like making a salad dressing -- if you think about it, you're just beating the oil and vinegar (or fats and water in this case) to emulsify. I'm sure adding an emulsifying agent works just as well, but just wanted to put this out there to save people one step if they're impatient like me. Especially after cooking a broth for hours ;)
DeleteYes, just using an immersion blender would create an emulsion out of the broth, but just like shaking up an oil/vinegar salad dressing, the emulsion would be temporary. This seemed to be more of an issue I found if one were to refrigerate and then reheat the broth - it is much easier for the broth to split again into oil and liquid without an emulsifier. But if you plan on enjoying most or all of the broth soon after blending, by all means go for it! Glad it worked out!
DeleteCan you clarify "fill to minimum volume required with water"? The minimum amount of water that I can add to my pressure cooker to obtain pressure is 1 cup. If I only add 1 cup, will the recipe yield an adequate amount of broth?
ReplyDeleteHi Johnny, just to clarify, I meant the minimum volume required to cover the feet and backs (so long as this does not exceed the volume specifications of the pressure cooker being used). I've updated the text to reflect this. Thanks for pointing that out!
DeleteIf your pressure cooker differs in volume drastically from mine (6 qts total volume), I'd recommend scaling the recipe.
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