If you are an avid ramen lover, then you may have come across the word tare before. In fact in Japanese, the term tare, translates to sauce.
Thus, in a lot of ramen recipes, you will find tare being used, which is a concentrated seasoning mixture. This is often added into your serving bowl before the broth, noodles, and toppings.
Tare is what gives a bowl full of ramen its rich, deep and delicious flavor. However, every ramen chef and establishment have their own unique recipe on how they create their tare.
These recipes are usually held quite close, since they don’t want other chefs copying their tare.
In this article, we will go into more detail on what tare in ramen is.
About Tare In Ramen
As mentioned above, tare is another word for sauce, it is typically a concentrated seasoning mixture. This seasoning will be added to your bowl first before anything else is added.
It is thanks to this liquid that ramen gets its delicious but rich flavors from.
There are various different recipes out there for tare, which you could use at home. As each recipe is slightly different, you will find that this adds a slightly different flavor to your bowl of ramen.
Many recipes out there for tare are kept secret from anyone else.
According to tradition, only four individuals in the entire globe are aware of the fiery red tare served at the well-known ramen restaurant chain Ichiran.
It is said that none of those four are permitted to board the same aircraft at the same time. This is how far some people will keep their tare recipes a secret.
Different Types Of Tare
You can easily make your own tare for your ramen at home, using basic ingredients. Even though certain tare recipes are a secret, there are some more commonly known recipes which you could have a go at.
The three most common types of ramen tare are:
Shio
Shio is a salt based type of ramen tare, with shio meaning salt. Sometimes, the only ingredients in shio tare are water, sake, and salt.
The components can also be layered intricately to create a much more complex depth. This can include bonito flakes, shiitake mushrooms, sugar, kombu, dried anchovies, mirin and dried sardines.
Shoyu
This is a soy sauce based tare, since shoyu literally translates to soy sauce. If you are looking for the most traditional and oldest tare out there, then it is this one.
For shoyu ramen, it delivers the most concentrated flavor. You may make it with just soy sauce, sake, and mirin. You could customize this recipe and include bonito flakes, chili pepper or kombu.
Miso
Miso, a salty paste prepared from fermented soybeans and other grains, serves as the foundation for this tare. Typically, mirin, ginger, sake, sesame paste, and soy sauce are added to miso paste.
A lot of people enjoy making a spicy version of miso tare, which includes chili paste.
Why Is Tare Important For Ramen?
This is considered an important element of any good bowl of ramen. Especially, as the tare is responsible for the acidic, umami and salty flavors that you may associate with this dish.
Hence, by getting the tare correct and to your liking, you can transform a good bowl of ramen to something incredible.
You shouldn’t underestimate the power and influence that tare has. While it may go unnoticed by most people.
If you sampled a bowl of ramen that included tare and one that didn’t, you would see how powerful this seasoning is.
How To Make Tare
It’s not difficult to make tare, but it may take some trial and error to create the most perfect tare for your taste buds. Below is how you can make a simple shoyu tare.
Ingredients Required For Shoyu Tare
You will need the following ingredients to make this simple tare for ramen.
- 20g of salt,
- 450g of soy sauce,
- 10 to 15 g of fish sauce,
- 50g of mirin.
Shoyu Tare Steps
Follow these steps to make this tare yourself.
- Step 1: Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan. Mix well to ensure everything is combined.
- Step 2: Boil the contents of the saucepan over a high heat for a couple of minutes.
- Step 3: Remove from the heat and cool down, then serve.
This recipe is incredibly simple and anyone could do it. All you need to do is refrigerate the leftovers until you need them again. What is great is that tare won’t go off, so this liquid can stay in your fridge until you run out.
Conclusion
Tare is a liquid that is added to your bowl before the broth, noodles, or toppings. It acts as a type of seasoning that makes your bowl of ramen taste a lot better.
In fact, what makes ramen taste so good is the tare sauce that is used. Especially, as you can easily customize it to suit your tastes.
We hope this article has made it clear what tare in ramen is.
Frequently Asked Questions
The majority of ramen shops will use tare. In fact, you may find the ramen offered to be categorized by the tare that will be used.
Brown sugar can balance out the flavors of your tare. It can provide a slight sweetness that works well with the salty flavors already present.
The most basic purpose of tare is to add a salty element to the ramen.
Therefore, the first flavor you should notice is saltiness, but additional flavors you may notice include spicy, sourness, umami, and sweetness.
Although, this depends on the type of tare being used
So, if you’re planning a trip to Japan anytime soon, do exactly that - plan! Read up on all of the amazing things to do here to make the most of your time. I can bet that you’ll still return home feeling like you could’ve explored much more.
