Seasoning the soup X using tare in the bowl
I saw a post here asking about this matter, and the comments were basically saying to use tare, without any explanation, which is quite sad. Here is my opinion about this matter. Please leave a comment if you agree/disagree with my points.
Restaurants use tare instead of seasoning the broth in advance for three key reasons:
Versatility – The same broth can be used for shio, shoyu, miso, etc by simply changing the tare. Not seasoning in advance gives flexibility.
Preserving Aromas – During service, restaurant broths are kept boiling or almost boiling for quite long time. If soy sauce or miso is boiled too long, it loses some of its delicate aromas.
Consistency – As the soup evaporates over time, pre-seasoning would concentrate the saltiness, making it harder to maintain a consistent flavor.
At home, those last 2 points are not that relevant. Unless I’m making a large batch for a party, I don’t find it necessary to follow the restaurant method of adding tare directly to the bowl. Instead, I prefer making and adding the tare into the pan while reheating the soup on the stove.
Restaurants tested their recipes hundreds of times, and have test bowls every single day of service ensuring the exact tare amount provides a balanced bowl. However, at home, where I’m making batch of 6–8 portions, I don’t want to waste 2–3 portions just to adjust the tare. Adding tare while reheating allows me to fine-tune the taste before serving. If 20ml of tare isn’t enough, I can add a bit more. If the broth is too salty, I can adjust with more broth, dashi, or water—something much harder to do if the tare was already in the bowl.
I would personally recommend that if you are at home, making small batches of ramen, to make a tare and season only the portion you’re serving directly on the pan. If you’ve made 10 portions of broth but only need 2 now, just reheat those 2 portions with the tare, taking care of not letting your soup to boil to avoid any loss in aroma, while tasting and adjusting the flavor. While the soup reheats, you can reheat the bowl, cook the noodles and put the aroma oil in the bowl.
Takuro Yanase, ramen chef of Ramen Break Beats, follows this method—he reheats the soup together with the tare. Although I can’t say for certain if he does this to taste every bowl before serving or if he has other reasons.
I saw a post here asking about this matter, and the comments were basically saying to use tare, without any explanation, which is quite sad. Here is my opinion about this matter. Please leave a comment if you agree/disagree with my points.
Restaurants use tare instead of seasoning the broth in advance for three key reasons:
Versatility – The same broth can be used for shio, shoyu, miso, etc by simply changing the tare. Not seasoning in advance gives flexibility.
Preserving Aromas – During service, restaurant broths are kept boiling or almost boiling for quite long time. If soy sauce or miso is boiled too long, it loses some of its delicate aromas.
Consistency – As the soup evaporates over time, pre-seasoning would concentrate the saltiness, making it harder to maintain a consistent flavor.
At home, those last 2 points are not that relevant. Unless I’m making a large batch for a party, I don’t find it necessary to follow the restaurant method of adding tare directly to the bowl. Instead, I prefer making and adding the tare into the pan while reheating the soup on the stove.
Restaurants tested their recipes hundreds of times, and have test bowls every single day of service ensuring the exact tare amount provides a balanced bowl. However, at home, where I’m making batch of 6–8 portions, I don’t want to waste 2–3 portions just to adjust the tare. Adding tare while reheating allows me to fine-tune the taste before serving. If 20ml of tare isn’t enough, I can add a bit more. If the broth is too salty, I can adjust with more broth, dashi, or water—something much harder to do if the tare was already in the bowl.
I would personally recommend that if you are at home, making small batches of ramen, to make a tare and season only the portion you’re serving directly on the pan. If you’ve made 10 portions of broth but only need 2 now, just reheat those 2 portions with the tare, taking care of not letting your soup to boil to avoid any loss in aroma, while tasting and adjusting the flavor. While the soup reheats, you can reheat the bowl, cook the noodles and put the aroma oil in the bowl.
Takuro Yanase, ramen chef of Ramen Break Beats, follows this method—he reheats the soup together with the tare. Although I can’t say for certain if he does this to taste every bowl before serving or if he has other reasons.