How to Make an Awesome Simple Shoyu Tare (Recipe)

Follow me on instagram: / wayoframen
Support the Channel on Patreon: / wayoframen
Shop Way of Ramen: wayoframen.com/shop
My Podcast: anchor.fm/wayoframen
Twitter: / wayoframen
Recipe from Menya Gakucho, Please subscribe to his channel! / @menya_gakucho
This is a simple but pretty awesome shoyu tare recipe for making ramen. Tare is one of the five core components of ramen and is what gives the flavor to the soup. I usually enjoy a pretty complex shoyu tare, but I recently made a soup which needed a very simple tare and this one worked out great. I think there is a trend in Japan towards simplifying ramen, especially chicken based ramen and I can see why. This tare rocks! For us home cooks, we can instead put more focus on making a great tasting soup and use a simple tare like this to support the complexities we put into the soup.
Ingredients (15 Servings):
250ml of Koikuchi shoyu (Kikkoman or Yamasa or other)
150ml usukuchi shoyu wayoframen.com/product/suehir...
30ml saishikomi shoyu (or tamari) wayoframen.com/product/yugeta...
40ml of ryori shu or cooking sake
40ml of hon mirin
and a quarter teaspoon of crystalized umami extract
Directions:
1. Put everything into a pot and heat up to around 83 degrees Celcius
2. Once it hits that temp keep it at that heat for 1 minute then remove from heat
3. Cover pot with newspaper and let cool overnight.
4. Transfer tare to a container and store in the fridge indefinitely. Should be better after resting a week but I used it on the 2nd day and it was good.
Recommended usage:
30ml Tare, 300ml Ramen Soup/Stock (no salt added), 20ml chicken fat, lemon zest, green onions.
I think this would probably even work with an instant chicken stock powder but you would have to halve the amount of tare.

[@WayofRamen]

As Mrricebox pointed out in the discord server and I forgot to mention, because this is a simpler tare, the quality of ingredients make a huge difference. The better quality shoyu you use, the better it will taste.

[@LowLolhow]

Why so many different ones tho?

[@billysmith6794]

If you are serving a group, does tare need to be added to individual bowls vice just adding it to the soup? It makes sense with the aroma oil because it would be tough to get the desired amount in each bowl.

[@akaiappears]

@@billysmith6794 i know i am late but definitely store and add them seperately. usually in this order: bowl, tare, oil, soup, noodles, toppings. I think that pre-mixing those degrades their individual taste, although feel free to experiment

[@akaiappears]

@@billysmith6794 I read your comment again. if you plan to serve everything immediately and you have everything measured then i dont see why you shouldnt dump the tare into your soup for faster serving. mix well. wouldnt do that with miso maybe.

[@wrxtuan]

2:55 is where the tare starts.

[@WayofRamen]

Da Real MVP!

[@michaeltrimble7680]

Way of Ramen: Let me SHOYU how to make Tare!

[@WayofRamen]

Dang, I missed an opportunity with that one

[@pocketpicker6613]

@@WayofRamen Somebody finna lose their Dad card lol

[@_DamyK_]

@@WayofRamen you can still do it

[@vizanonn1728]

Damn straight.... Makes miso hungry.

[@miniac5307]

The thing I like most about this channel is your honesty about how your experiments came out. Always keeping it real. And that soup to noodle ratio looks about perfect to me I always find it a little disappointing when I run out of noodles too fast. Thanks again for another great video!

[@NamaJapan]

The world needs more tare recipes!

[@TheMadSlavik]

Not sure if it can be called "shoyu tare" but when I made my first ramen bowl inspired by this channel I just added a table spoon of soy sauce to my chicken soup and chicken fat aroma oil. And it was by far the best bowl I've ever had (I live in Russia) no matter the price range. The fat and soy souce elevated my rather blant soup to level I didn't know was possible)

[@WayofRamen]

That definitely works. Good job

[@benzeh4769]

Glad your happy about this man! I could tell from your past few videos you really weren't a fan and thinking about it so its nice to see you working through this! Really inspiring.

[@Frore]

I'm ready, teach me.

[@philippciunis]

Hello there

[@pocketpicker6613]

You will learn the ways of the Ramen....

[@fingerbottom]

Notice me senpai, notice me.

[@CoRascal]

I know him, he's me

[@jdam8674]

I have been watching your channel from day one. I just wanna say when you said you were taking a break it broke my heart but* I understand why. I am happy that you still bring out stuff though you are busy! I love that you don’t fake your foods and say omg it’s so good when in reality it’s not. Always stay truthful in your videos! Love this channel!!!

[@WayofRamen]

Thanks very much for sticking around!

[@sims737477]

Can't wait for the Soup video! Thanks for all the help! I made a turkey ramen for Thanksgiving that was a big hit! I used all of the techniques I've learned from your channel!

[@justalpha9138]

I made a turkey ramen for Thanksgiving as well oddly enough. It was surprisingly good!

[@Panurg81]

dude! i love the and the attention you give to everything in ramen. its awesome! anyone in any kitchen cooking any dish should be as passionate about it. you may find a result to be "crappy" but rest assured, many non-kitchen-experts will still love it. aside from that, I am grateful for your expertise and so many hints, I can incorporate into my own - probably crappy from chefs POV - ramen. thanks so much and I will continue to learn!

[@matthewcoble3976]

Thanks for the videos. Love the content and getting ready for some shoyu ramen tonight..

[@WayofRamen]

Thanks very much for watching! Good luck with your shoyu ramen tonight!

[@johnyle6906]

too much noodles????? looks like my perfect serving size LOL

[@WayofRamen]

Yeah I ate them all, just didn't like how it looked lol

[@RatBasterd]

Made this last month. Had to use the recipe for usukuchi shoyu substitute from one of your previous videos, but it turned out phenomenal! Literally the best shoyu ramen I've ever had, and I can make it myself now!

[@loganpriest6029]

Thanks man, made this tare with kombu and bonito dashi and homemade pork broth and it blew my mind so delicious, msg is now my new seasoning of choice it gives the umami boost that you're searching for but at the same time makes it alot easier and significantly cheaper to achieve, some people may look at it as cheating but I see it as total convenience for the busy working man on quite a tight budget. Many thanks again man

[@captamuro]

I love how I can learn about ramen even though I dont cook. Love your vids

[@WayofRamen]

Thanks for watching!

[@soulchorea]

"your complaining about the ramen was worse than the ramen itself..." MAN that is the story of my life 😂 I always make it so much worse than it needs to be

[@WayofRamen]

Yeah, I'm never serving experimental ramen again. It was so bad.

[@lastcall8286]

Thank you for honesty

[@Zackyfox-wp9zm]

thank you for the idea

[@blossumgang1357]

Dude that stop motion intro was amazing!

[@kattkatt744]

Umami extract, lol... nice rebranding of MSG there! But, yeah, I understand why you do it, people who don't understand chemistry and food science in general probably need that rebranding to not go haywire.

[@WayofRamen]

oh they'll be here in no time

[@brettcox5548]

So is that just MSG then? I can go buy that instead?

[@jeremytee9960]

@@brettcox5548 At 3:19 you can see the box. At the bottom of the Ajinomoto package it says Monosodium Glutamate, i.e. MSG.

[@starfishgurl1984]

Can’t believe I missed this and am just seeing it now but as a seafood hater who has really been into trying to branch out with my ramen styles I absolutely love this! I’ve been addicted to the microwaveable shoyu ramen bowls from Annie Chun because they aren’t seafood based at all which is what got me wanting to eventually make my own so I’m so happy I found this. (The shoyu in the ramen book I have is seafood based otherwise I would’ve just tried that one long ago).

[@linaresvarga]

I always watch your videos and really enjoy them, but today i had to pause in awe and rewind. Was that Brigada Cola? Wait, WHAT!?. I laughed so hard. That was amazing. And the tare looks amazing too.

[@chikiechieka]

i expected to see only one type of shoyu used from the word "simple" in the title, turns out it uses even more types of shoyu compare to your previous tare vid :( Nice recipe there tho :D

[@WayofRamen]

Sorry about that. It's simple, but maybe not simple to find the ingredients 😬

[@ddsssll]

Still rewatching your videos :)

[@bensmith7536]

Gotta say, been looking forward to someone figuring this out.

[@skargp]

THE MEMES WERE VERY GUD

[@forrestcarvalho4458]

Looks great

[@WayofRamen]

It actually was pretty good!

[@SUSHI4lyf]

I see the word "simple", I think it's because of easy to get ingredients. Watching it made me ask, where in the world??? Nvm.

[@SEJIBAQUI475]

Yeah really...my kroger has soy sauce, and sometimes mirin that's it lol

[@loganpriest6029]

If you've got an Asian grocery store nearby it's relatively easy to pick these ingredients up or you can get the truly authentic ingredients shipped to you from Japan if that's more your bag

[@e_3261]

I made this week a kind of this Tare. I used instead of Ajinomoto Konbu and Shitake and it come out pretty good. I used this to eat with Tonkotsu Ramen and it was amazing. Next time I gonna go for a simple Shōyū Ramen. Thanks for this recipe bro

[@nhrdy]

love the glamour shots in this one 😆

[@WayofRamen]

Glamour shots by Deb 😙

[@seanimationsyt2220]

As Uncle Roger would have said: "You should have added MSG to make it all better"

[@WayofRamen]

Uncle Roger is a smart man

[@baron6797]

Ai yaaaa

[@RH-sp9zd]

just discovering your channel today. The calmness and pragmatic way of sharing info is so nice. Not trying to be all too much of a 'youtube entertainer' but just keeping it down to earth. I'm going to try elements of this tare into the bowl of ground chicken / dashi powder stock that's bubbling up and it will be my first ramen experiment that's taking things more deep, watching info like this! Normally I would always make Justonecookbook's veg ramen with soymilk, doubanjiang and miso - but very curious to go more delicate. Earned my sub right there! Have a great evening.

[@mnt87]

Thanks for the recipe. Aguante Francella!

[@joaonunes782]

Nice editing

[@nitemare3904]

Gonna do this right now.

[@WayofRamen]

yay!

[@andrewswalls]

Once you make it what is the shelf life, and do you have to keep it in the fridge or can you keep it in the cupboard. Looks great and good for the cold weather.

[@Anishdude18]

Hey! great video to watch on the beginning of my Ramen quest (made my fist batch yesterday and decided I needed a deeper dive). I have a question about mirin. Which one to buy, or what to look for. I'm never sure if I have the right stuff, or 'mirin like'-stuff. How do I know if I have the right stuff?

[@mrobershaw2]

Sounds like you’re still not over it. Even professional ball players only hit .333. Great channel. Love your teaching.

[@WayofRamen]

I learned more from that experience than anything in the prior 2 years combined

[@personanongrata7862]

Wow, shoyu tare is such a complex seasoning, even the "simple" one.

[@jsshaun725]

oh man ur channel grew from the time i saw u !

[@WayofRamen]

yeah I'm as surprised as anyone

[@saviyou]

Do you have a list of the books you use as a reference? I'd love to add some to my collection!

[@the_purple_mage]

Can you clarify what each of these three types of shoyu contributes to the overall flavor, and which are necessarily essential for those of us who may not be able to find those specific types of shoyu locally?

[@coasterkraken6088]

He's so hard on his self haha, I'm sure it was delicious both times. I will definitely be subscribing, I have so much to learn!

[@AlecCapel]

Made the simple chicken ramen with bullion and it was amazing. Had a great bowl in twenty minutes. I'll second the good ingredients, especially ginger. Grow it if you aren't in permafrost, it'll grow almost anywhere.

[@nyaqua]

Simple chashu was amazing, have high hopes for this one :p

[@WayofRamen]

This is a great one for home cooks!

[@forbiddenspatula4243]

I don't like strong fish or sea flavors so this was perfect. I added a bit of lemon zest and yuzu to make this a good dipping sauce for soba noodles.

[@MrWhateverthenameis]

Hey! What to do if I don't have access to all kind of different shoyu? Pretty much I will only have a light and dark soy sauce (kikkoman of sort), what should I do? And another question, what is the difference between cooking sake and mirin? I've always thought mirin IS cooking sake haha appreciate your vids! Love from Indonesia

[@joptha_3075]

Any advice on how to find real hon mirin? I'm having trouble finding it and the local Japanese store was out of stock. Does anyone have a link?

[@PiroMunkie]

As someone who loves noodles. That is an appropriate amount of noodles.

[@grillmeister0815]

Crystallized Umami Extract is the most fancy way to describe MSG I have heard in my life 😂 Aji No Moto for life. Best brand

[@thynaruto]

What are the difference betwee n those Shoyu? Can I just use 1 Japanese Shoyu to replace them?

[@tovoanugerah3801]

Hey bud, what can i use to subtitue sake and mirin?

[@PorkChopify]

Can you use sesame oil as an oil for flavoring?

[@jiotower6147]

I can't find usukuchi shoyu are there any alternatives?

[@linitweapon]

How do you think this would work with a vegan ramen? My wife is vegetarian but it seems I have all the ingredients for this and would love to try it

[@WayofRamen]

yup it would! Something like the dashi soup Ramen Kaonashi did in his recent shoyu ramen video might work.

[@xFiizZy]

can you make a recipe on how to make kitakata ramen?

[@dempa3]

"Crystalized Umami Powder". LOL. Watch out for Glutamate Enforcement Agents!

[@WayofRamen]

They'll be here any second

[@seanimationsyt2220]

Uncle Roger Approves

[@MrVonDutchman]

whats the difference between the three shoyus?

[@alandubois159]

So honest question here. Would a miso shoyu tare be too much or idk contradictory in flavor profile.

[@thin_blue_grunt]

How long do you think tare can last in the fridge? I made the tare from your vegan ramen video and I just can’t eat that much ramen so often so I kept it in the fridge for a while. Made another bowl and the tare appeared fine.

[@WayofRamen]

A long time. They tend to get better with age

[@thin_blue_grunt]

@@WayofRamen perfect, thanks. I assumed that especially with high salinity of the tare but wasn’t sure.

[@SpeedemonR1]

Looks great, when can we buy this online?

[@WayofRamen]

The harder to find shoyus are for sale on my website, but that's a good idea I should just sell the tare. haha

[@bababooey3579]

Is koikuchi shoyu just the regular dark soy sauce you buy in the store and usukuchi shoyu just light soy sauce? As I'm looking at the ingredients they are really expensive online.

[@WayofRamen]

Koikuchi shoyu is standard japanese soy sauce. Usukuchi shoyu is a lighter color but saltier soy sauce. I have a video in the channel how go make a substitute with regular soy sauce and salt. You have to do some math though.

[@almarosas7990]

Hi! Is there an even simpler tare recipe that I can use without having to purchase three different shoyu bottles? I don’t cook Asian food often so don’t want the bottles to just sit there but I always have a bottle of regular shoyu in the house. Please and thank you!

[@CigarettesAfter126]

Have u made turkey ramen, sometimes the turkey are so damm cheap around thanksgiving and a huge bird and leftovers

[@johnsnow3602]

It would be great if you can tell the characteristics of each souyu since we may have different brands of souyu in Chinese grocery store but not the Japanese ones.

[@orioncosx3893]

I searched internet, koikuchi shoyu is the regular soy sauce, usukuchi shoyu is the premium darker one and lastly saishikomi shoyu is double fermented

[@proot.]

@@orioncosx3893 don't you have koikuchi and usukuchi backwards?

[@orioncosx3893]

What if I use just 430 ml of koikuchi like yamasa? I can't seem to find the other two in my town, and on internet is pretty expensive... :V

[@cumnmrmptaaa4234]

Do I have to use all those different shoyu or can I just use 1 if that's all I can find in stores?

[@WayofRamen]

there are ways to make tare with just 1 soy sauce, using different ones just add depth and complexity

[@YwY-ct5yq]

In the Philippines we call MSG Betsin(Bechin)

[@Duckling77]

This was the first tare I’ve ever made...so this is what ramen is supposed to taste like XD

[@ChauNyan]

Can you describe it

[@samsr2887]

Where can i buy hon mirin? I've never found the real stuff in stores, only mirin-type, loaded with corn syrup

[@WayofRamen]

Asian grocery stores might have it but the other mirin would work too

[@okitasan]

Dumb question but when you say let it rest do you mean in the fridge? And also do you have to allow it to get to room temp before putting it in the bowl or can you warm it up in a pot first?

[@WayofRamen]

The flavor of the shoyu will change as it rests. Sometimes right after you heat shoyu it develops what's called shiokado which roughly translates to a 'salt edge'. Resting mellows that out. You don't have to heat it up before using, the soup should be hot enough to warm it up.

[@okitasan]

@@WayofRamen for sure-but when you say to rest it overnight with the newspaper covering it, is that done on the counter, or do you put it in the fridge?

[@JamesChenisKing]

My mom owned a Chinese restaurant when i was growing up, i should’ve told her about umami extract since we couldn’t use MSG.

[@JennyDarukat]

Looks great, just wish I could source any of these specialised shoyus here.. 😬

[@WayofRamen]

I'll do a video in the future using things that are more easily accessible

[@JennyDarukat]

@@WayofRamen would absolutely love that! common substitutes for this and that and the other, or analogues in other dishes that might be more familiar to people to at least understand the role each ingredient plays in the recipe a little better I remember seeing a video on another ramen channel about alternative umami boosters and that was super interesting, would absolutely love a series on this, say, for cooking alcohols or vinegars, shoyus etc - it's probably a lot of work, but it'd go a long way for many people I can imagine

[@rowandick4646]

Am I able to freeze this?

[@WayofRamen]

You don't need to freeze it, it'll last in the fridge for a long time.

[@nunyabiznes33]

Wait, you have multiple types of soysauce? *cries in salty Filipino soysauce*

[@timvvs]

You teling me that aint coffee in the intro and thumbnail?

[@peterlustig4500]

Could I substitute the usukuchi shoyu? I can not find it anywhere...(And can't order it from the shop because I am not living in NA.) Also is it right that tamari shoyu is just glutenfree soysauce? I can't find saishikomi either.

[@WayofRamen]

Check out the 1 chicken ramen video I put out a few weeks ago. There's a different tare recipe in there that might be easier to make.

[@peterlustig4500]

@@WayofRamen thank you mate! Keep up the good work. I would love to see some more instant pot recipies

[@pavansharvirala1296]

Plz give some recipes for vegitarian ramen.

[@WayofRamen]

I have a couple of vegan ramen recipes on the channel. both of them are good.

[@azimuth9751]

this is off topic but WHAT IS THAT FIGHT SCENE FROM @ 1:53, I've got to know!!!

[@dannychane]

What are the differences between all these kinds of soy sauces?

[@WayofRamen]

koikuchi is standard japanese soy sauce, usukuchi is a lighter colored soy sauce but its much saltier. Saihikomi is a double brewed soy sauce, it's less salty but has more umami, almost to a sickening level so you need to use it sparingly. I have another video on the channel that shows how to make an usukuchi substitute with regular soy sauce.

[@dannychane]

@@WayofRamen Ah, I see! You mentioned lighter soy sauce in other videos before, which is usukuchi shoyu then! 😁 Thank you so much for taking your time answering my question! 🙏

[@sablelion]

I think it's a perfect amount of noodles

[@WayofRamen]

Haha a lot of people agree with you

[@T3haw3som3g33k]

My number one question about all this: Where the hell are you getting hon mirin in the us? It seems near impossible to even order the stuff online. Best you can do is salt mirin or the stuff from eden. Did you get it locally?

[@WayofRamen]

It's surprisingly easy to get in Hawaii because Don quijote, the Japanese mega chain bought out one of our local supermarket chains and have been bringing in Japanese ingredients.

[@Rotorzilla]

Where do you find these shoyu? Even when I goto Asian grocery it's not easy to get Japanese shoyu other than kikoman. Most are Korean or Chinese sometimes Thai Has TantanMan returned to the discord? I miss his obsession with tantanmen

[@WayofRamen]

I have shoyu in my shop, wayoframen.com/shop

[@dru4135]

O yeah so simple.

[@dsweep9576]

Ramen Gang

[@lolasimor2895]

Your wife must be very, very wise - I do agree - Complaining about how bad food the food is , is indeed worse than having to eat the said " bad food "! Cheers.

[@nicolasubiera5956]

Seems like the right amount of noodles to me

[@ramen1sm]

Crystalized Umami extract 😂😂😂

[@dongypooh]

2:55

[@eduardorosales6026]

Hands up! recipe begin at 2:55

[@WayofRamen]

Da real MVP!

[@facu2101994]

Me parece fantastico que aparezca ese Francella salvaje en el medio de un video de ramen

[@federicopresti]

De donde salió jjajajaj

[@tannazafshar5107]

Honestly cooking for the in laws just does something to all skill and ability lol don’t be hard on yourself

[@nutchan1500]

I tried this recipe. It is good but I would add some salt into it. The problem is that shoyu flavor can overpower broth flavor before you can achieve the just right amount of saltiness for ramen.

[@ScottyM1959]

Great video and I loved the story, I hate when that happens. You mentioned that you added too much noodle for that serving what is the proper portion for a serving and please use imperial measures this old guy doesn't know about metric and I don't have a kitchen scale for weights.Thanks!

[@WayofRamen]

the proper serving size depends on the thickness of the noodle but its usually a handful of noodles, 130-140g.

[@miya705]

Trying to find hon mirin has been an absolute nightmare. The Asian grocery I went to was completely out of everything but the Aji mirin that you can get from Walmart, and online people love to advertise anything made from sweet rice as hon mirin. I'm going to have to stalk my local market and snatch up two bottles as soon as they restock.

[@adrianguth]

1:52 jajajaaj que hace Francella en un video de ramen xD

[@delloda]

This is similar tothe classic chinese noodle or dipping sauce. Light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, msg, sugar, a dash of cooking wine and a dash of sesame oil. Then cook it till all is dessolved

[@zensempai7371]

I love my cup of hot soy first thing in the morning 🤠

[@WayofRamen]

that'll put some hair on your chest

[@sleepinggoat3220]

What if you make bone broth but instead of tare you use your favorite instant noodle packet

[@Riko_KP]

Then you have wasted a good broth.