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Types of Ramen according to the taste of the broth
There are many ways to prepare Ramen. Depending on the region in which the ramen is prepared, you will be influenced by the local products and ingredients when preparing the recipe. This is also found in different ramen restaurants.
On the coast there will be more fish and seafood, on the mountain there will be more mushrooms and meat, for example. So the ramen according to where it is prepared is different from the rest.
Nevertheless, we can classify 4 types of main ramen, although there are tens or hundreds of Ramen and ways to prepare the dish that at least have to have broth, noodles and some topping.
The tastiest and thickest broths are called Kotteri, such as the Tonkotsu Ramen, while the lightest and most transparent are called Assari, such as the Dashi broth made with kombu seaweed and Katsuobushi.
Then we have different combinations between Assari and Kotteri that will give foot to umami and tasty flavors for the different ramen that we will comment you next.
The four main types of ramen
Shio Ramen
It is one of the first known varieties of ramen and one of the oldest ways to make ramen or give it flavor. It stands out for its salty taste, Shio means salt. It is generally made with a broth based on chicken and pork, sometimes has a high amount of algae so if you have problems with sodium, better avoid it. It has a clearly yellowish color.
Miso Ramen
It is a ramen made with chicken and pork broth usually to which miso or miso paste is added. A broth also yellowish, mustard, light brown … depending on the color of the miso paste used for the dish. It is usually a little thicker. It comes from Hokkaido, it is considered one of the youngest ramen broths, and it was developed in the 60s.
Shoyu Ramen or Soy Ramen
In many places, it is also written as Shouyu Ramen, but it is not correct. We have a broth made with chicken and pork (along with dashi broth) to add soy sauce to it. A broth not so thick and dark due to the soy sauce. It is usually accompanied by meat (chashu) and if you visit Tokyo, it is one of the most popular.
Tonkotsu Ramen
A ramen made with broth made from pork bones, has a whitish tone due to collagen and gelatin from the bones and is one of the tastiest and most famous ramen. To be considered an authentic Tonkotsu broth must boil from 8 to 20 hours at low heat depending on the quality of the bones used, if boiled for a short period of time would be just a normal pork broth. Tonkotsu literally means pork bones (Ton = pork and Kotsu = bones).
Other types of Ramen
Although these are the four types of ramen according to the most popular broth, there are other varieties that should be mentioned, we leave you some of them:
Yasai Ramen
It is a ramen that is made with a 100% vegetable broth without meat and perfect for vegetarians or vegans. It is added as topping tofu, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, carrot, cabbage, soya sprouts and spring onions, etc..
Tsukemen
It’s probably one of the funniest ramen. This ramen is served the with broth on one side in the form of sauce to spread and on the other the pasta with toppings. The broth of this type of ramen is usually somewhat thicker so that when wet the noodles are well impregnated with all the flavor, while the chashu, Tamago, bamboo, etc.. that you use as topping.
