Upgrade your Ramen with Fermentation
Fermentation and ramen are best friends. Soy sauce, miso, sake, mirin, and even MSG are produced via fermentation.
But some of the best ways to use fermentation to increase umami and add acidity are underutilized by ramen chefs. In this post, I share how I use fermentation to improve my ramen.
When I’m making ramen, I use fermentation to increase umami in my broth and tare; to add acidity to my broth, tare, or oils; to produce acidic toppings; and even to preserve ramen ingredients that have a short season. I’ll share all you need to know to do the same, but first let’s talk about fermentation itself.
About fermentation
Fermentation is the process wherein certain microorganisms (think friendly bacteria or mold) feast on food and, in the process, convert that food’s complex molecules into simpler ones. The simpler molecules are easier for our taste buds to comprehend, so we often find them tastier.
I find two particular methods of fermentation useful when making ramen:
1. Lacto-fermentation
Lacto-fermentation is a natural process wherein good bacteria called lactobacillus (found on the skins of fruits and veggies) break down sugars in foods to form lactic acid.
Lactic acid (like in sauerkraut or kimchi) is sour in a rounder, subtler way than citric acid (like in lemon or lime); the flavor profile lends itself to uplifting a heavy ramen dish rather than distracting from it like citrus does. Since lactobacillus can withstand the acidity of lactic acid in ways that other bacteria cannot, lacto-fermentation is also useful for preserving food.
Traditional ramen uses of lacto-fermentation include:
The use of soy sauce and miso, which owe their subtle acidity to lacto-fermentation
The use of lacto-fermented toppings such as menma
2. Enzymatic fermentation
Enzymatic fermentation is a natural process wherein enzymes break down molecules into their component parts. To be specific, lipase enzymes break down fats (converting them into fatty acids), protease enzymes break down proteins (converting them into glutamic acid and other stuff), and amylase enzymes break down starches (converting them into sugars).
Protease enzymes are particularly useful for fermentation, because one of the resulting simpler compounds of the enzymatic process is glutamate — the source of umami. Through enzymatic fermentation of proteins, a low umami protein can be transformed into a total umami bomb.
Traditional ramen uses of enzymatic fermentation include:
The use of koji to create miso and soy sauce. Protease enzymes found in koji break down the proteins in soybeans to increase umami.
The use of koji to create sake and mirin. Amylase enzymes found in koji break down the starches in rice to produce sugar. This sugar is then fermented with yeast to create alcohol.
Using LActo-fermentation for Ramen
I use lacto-fermentation in the following ways to improve my ramen. At the end of this post, I explain exactly how.
1. Adding acidity to broths and tare
Lacto-fermented ingredients can be added directly to broths or tare to add acidity. Acidity can be useful in ramen to brighten an otherwise heavy dish and make it easier and more interesting to consume. It can also impact how we perceive salt, so you can create a low-salt experience that is still flavorful.
I create lacto-fermented liquids for my ramen in many ways:
By lacto-fermenting an ingredient then using the resulting liquids. See the tare recipe for my vegan ramen as an example; it is made with lacto-fermented koji (i.e. shio koji). I’ve also experimented with adding lacto-fermented mushroom juice to my ramen.
By lacto-fermenting an ingredient, dehydrating it, then using it as an aromatic. See my soy-less sauce recipe as an example. You can create a sauce like I did or just throw the ingredient right in with your broth. Dehydrating mushrooms also increases their umami, so this method helps your broth in two ways.
When I make my own miso, the result is typically a bit more watery than mass-produced miso. This extra liquid increases lacto-fermentation in the early days of miso production, so my miso tends to be more sour than what I can buy in stores.
2. Adding acidity to oils
I do the same when making flavored oils. Putting your acidity in the oil can make each sip of your bowl of ramen a bit more diverse; some slurps get plenty of oil and others don’t.
The process of preserving citrus in particular mutes the acidity of citric acid and introduces a bit of lactic acid into the mix. When making an oil, I sometimes chop up preserved meyer lemons or sudachi and add them to the oil while it’s cooling down.
3. Adding acidic toppings
Menma is lacto-fermented bamboo shoots, and we know how well it works with ramen. But you can lacto-ferment other fruits and vegetables too. I recommend trying something such as daikon or the whites of negi, and I explain how at the end of this post.
Despite its popularity, lacto-fermented bamboo shoots aren’t as straightforward a lacto-ferment as the many other ingredients you could lacto-ferment for a topping. That’s because bamboo shoots contain a toxin that thrives in similar temperatures as lactobacillus. To lacto-ferment bamboo shoots, you have to either (1) kill both the toxin and the lactobacillus then add a backslop of lactobacillus to ferment after the fact or (2) do your best to kill just the toxin.
Another way to add acidity to toppings is to marinate them in lacto-fermented shio koji. This is especially helpful because shio koji kicks off enzymatic fermentation as well.
4. Preserving epic ingredients
Since lacto-fermentation helps preserve ingredients, you can capture the best of what’s in season and use it all year long. I bought sudachi in December, preserved it via lacto-fermentation, and have been using it for my ramen the last three months – long after they stopped selling sudachi at farmers markets. Try with yuzu!
Using Enzymatic fermentation for Ramen
Enzymatic fermentation is how I add insane amounts of umami to my ramen. I never need MSG — even for my vegan ramen that uses neither soy sauce nor miso.
1. Add umami to toppings
Your chashu (whether it be pork or maitake mushroom, as long as it has protein) can be marinated for a few hours in the fridge with shio koji. You could also just put the shio koji in your sous vide bag.
2. Add umami to broth
You can add koji (be it dehydrated or whole) to your broth just as you would any other aromatic. Provided the temperature of your broth isn’t too high, the protease in the koji will break down some of the proteins in the broth to increase the umami. You’ll also be adding the glutamates that the koji already converted from the rice.
Since the koji is also sweet from the amylase enzymes converting the rice’s starches to sugars, this will subtly sweeten your broth as well (so much so that I don’t use mirin in my tare). The substrate can also add a bit of an earthiness to your broth (especially when it is pearl barley instead of rice).
3. Add umami to tare
Okay, this one is expert mode because I am quite confident that no other ramen chef is doing this right now. But it’s by far the most effective way that I’ve tested to add umami to ramen.
In essence, this technique has you utilize the science behind fish sauce to convert your whole tare into glutamate soup. Just as fish sauce is made by completely breaking down the proteins in fish into glutamate and other stuff, you can completely break down the proteins in your tare using the same enzymes.
Fish sauce takes many months to do its thing, but you can simply add a ton more enzymes than are in fish and get the job done in an hour. To do so, I utilize the fact that pork pancreas is rich in these enzymes and you can buy freeze-dried pork pancreas on Amazon. I’ll share the recipe at the end of this post, but feel free to learn more about the science of it here.
Why Use Enzymatic Fermentation When I can Use MSG?
As you know, it’s also possible to increase umami in your ramen by adding MSG. Totally agree.
But consider that MSG is produced by fermenting glucose. Why ferment glucose when you can ferment the very ingredients that you’ve chosen to honor with your ramen? The enzymatic fermentation of your ingredients won’t produce just umami — it will produce other flavor compounds that express your chosen ingredients in new, more complex ways, too. Those ways might not always be better, but they often are.
A good metaphor is musical instruments. A C note from a piano sounds vastly different from a C note from a guitar. Both instruments play the dominant note of C, but each instrument brings with it a unique timbre consisting of dozens of quieter overtones that influence the richness of the experience. When you use MSG, it’s like you’re playing C without any overtones.
Okay, but How do I ferment?
In addition to learning how to make your own misos, shoyus, and koji, you can practice your own simpler ferments at home to enhance your ramen.
How to lacto-ferment
Since the lactobacillus bacteria can survive in salt and most other bacteria cannot, it’s really easy to lacto-ferment fruits and vegetables. In fact, it’s so easy that you literally just have to add salt. That’s right, if you weren’t aware, pickles are just salty cucumbers that have fermented their way to their own funky vibe.
Now, to make sure you are fermenting safely, it’s a little more complex than salting at random. Here are the rules (and we’ll go through the specific steps later on):
You need to add the right amount of salt. You need around 2% of the weight of the fruit or vegetable in salt. It’s helpful to have a digital scale so you can measure in grams.
You need to ferment at around room temperature. Somewhere between 60f to 80f is ideal.
You need to ensure that the salted fruit or vegetable isn’t exposed to air.
There are three methods for ensuring your lacto-ferment isn’t exposed to air.
Lacto-fermenting with an added brine: In this method, you are submerging your fruit or vegetable in water. This method is ideal for making sauces, pickles, menma. The salt you add should equal 2% of the weight of the water plus the weight of the fruit or vegetable. I use that method here.
Lacto-fermenting with juice as a brine: For fruits or vegetables that are primarily liquid (like mushrooms or tomatoes), you don’t need to add water. The salt will wick the moisture from the fruit or vegetable and submerge it for you. You just need to add 2% of the weight of the fruit or vegetable to a mason jar. I use that method here.
Lacto-fermenting with a vacuum-sealed bag. This method is good for something where you don’t want the weight of the fruit or vegetable to push itself down and mess with its shape, such as for lacto-fermenting berries. You just need to add 2% of the weight of the fruit or vegetable to a bag and vac-seal. I use that method here.
How to preserve citrus (a specific lacto-ferment)
This is my all-purpose recipe for preserving citrus. I made it because I wasn’t satisfied with the lack of ratios in other recipes. I’ve used it for lemons, meyer lemons, and sudachi so far.
How to add koji to broth or tare
This one is easy. The last hour of your cook, add the koji as an aromatic, just as you would add garlic and onions. I add enough to cover most of the top of my pot (or break it up to fill the cracks between other aromatics), which is something like adding 250g of dehydrated koji per 8 servings of ramen.
Note that this method assumes that you are making a chintan at around 176ºf. Protease die at this temperature after 15 minutes. But the top layers of your broth should decrease in temp for a while if you’re adding a full layer of aromatics, giving those enzymes enough time to do a bit of magic.
How to turn your tare into a garum
This is best used for a tare that is based on a dashi of some sort. It’s going to increase the cooking time for your tare by an hour.
Make the dashi for your tare (see here for how I make mine).
Before you add any shoyu, mirin, sake or equivalent, mix in 0.5% of the tare’s weight in pancreatic supplements. These supplements contain powdered pork pancreas that have an insane amount of protease. They are going to break down the proteins in your tare to create umami.
Cook the tare with the supplements at 140ºf for one hour. Occasionally mix or agitate to ensure that the enzymes are distributed.
Strain and add remaining ingredients.
