Here is the thing almost nobody tells you about ramen: the broth, the part that takes all day, arrives at the bowl unseasoned. On its own it is rich, or clean, or deep, but it is not yet salty and it does not yet taste of anything in particular. The seasoning is a separate thing, made separately, and it goes into the bowl first. It is called tare, and it is the most important ingredient most people have never heard of.
What tare actually is
A small amount of something very concentrated. A few tablespoons in the bottom of the bowl, then the broth poured over it, and only then does the bowl become ramen. Because it is separate, one pot of broth can become several different bowls. The same tonkotsu with a salt tare is one thing; with a soy tare it is another; with miso it is a third. In a ramen shop the broth is the engine and the tare is the steering.
The three families
Shio, which means salt. The lightest and, I think, the hardest to get right, because there is nowhere to hide. Salt, usually more than one kind, with something underneath it for depth: kombu, dried fish, sometimes a little sake or mirin. A good shio tare makes a broth taste more like itself.
Shoyu, soy sauce. The classic Tokyo seasoning: soy sauce simmered with aromatics until it rounds off, then rested. It brings colour, sweetness and that deep savoury note people mean when they say umami. Most ramen you have eaten in Britain was probably shoyu.
Miso. Fermented soybean paste, loosened with fat and aromatics into something you can stir into hot broth. It is the heaviest of the three and the one that changes the texture of a bowl, not just the taste. It came out of Sapporo, in the cold north, which tells you what it is for.
What sits under our bowls
Our Proper Tonkotsu Ramen has a shio, a salt tare: sea salt, an oak-smoked salt and kombu, with lots of aromatics going in alongside to season the broth. There is no soy in that broth at all. People assume a rich pork broth needs soy to stand up to it, and it doesn't. Salt lets the pork be the flavour, and the smoked salt puts a bass note under it that you feel more than taste.
The Roast Chicken Ramen is seasoned with a smoked chicken garum and a little katsuobushi (bonito that's been dried and fermented), which is why a clear chicken broth ends up tasting of so much more than chicken.
The Smoked Tofu and Spiced Miso Ramen is built on an aged miso tare, which we make and then leave to age: two misos, a red and a white, one for depth and one for sweetness, with sesame and kombu underneath.
Why this matters when you cook
Because the order matters. Tare goes in the warm bowl first, with the aroma oil, and the hot broth is poured over both. That is how the seasoning spreads through every spoonful instead of sitting at the bottom. In our kits we do that hard part for you: the tare is already in the broth pouch, seasoned to where it should be, so every bowl comes out even and consistent, and the only thing you need to remember is the oil. Oil in the warm bowl first, broth over it.
If you would like to taste three tares side by side, the three signature bowls are here. Order by Sunday 8pm. Delivered Thursday or Friday.
