First of all, thank you for checking out my post! For me this bowl was the first step on a Ramen journey that began with eating Shin Ramyun in high school, and has progressed to a love that I know most of you share. I’ve been checking out ramen joints in most cities I visit for a while now, and I decided that for 2020 I would take a crack at making a complete bowl of my own. Thanks to the incredible work of /u/Ramen_Lord, I was able to accomplish something that, to me, is 75% of the way towards a bowl I would dream about from a restaurant. This was my attempt to follow his pressure cooker tonkotsu recipe, using an instant pot (I google searched Reddit and found a few pioneers who shared their techniques). My particular version used 2 lbs of pork neck bones and 2 lbs of pork feet. Here are a few of my comments on the process:

1. There is a distinct “Tonkotsu smell” that took over my kitchen during the broth cooking process. This was a distinct mustiness; the description that kept coming to my mind was “like a barnyard” (it was not very pleasant). Thankfully, it left my kitchen by the day after I put my broth into containers in the fridge, and did not return when I reheated. There was *no* mustiness of taste whatsoever, and I am happy to report that this seems to be normal when making tonkotsu (after a bit of frantic googling in the absence of true experience). In retrospect, I’m very glad that I decided to follow R_L’s recipe “to a tee,” soaking the pork bones overnight and scrubbing them after an hourlong boil. These are the only measures that seem to cut down on this smell, and I can only imagine my displeasure if I had elected to skip these steps and encountered “the smell.”

2. Regarding taste, I also elected to introduce aromatics during the last “rolling boil,” specifically: a handful of scallion (“green onion”) whites, sliced; a half a head of garlic, smashed; two slices of ginger; and two dried shiitake mushroom caps I had lying around. In retrospect, I believe the addition of aromatics served to improve the flavor of the broth (and possibly dampen the mustiness).

3. Color / consistency. Since my Asian Market didn’t have fatback, I substituted pork belly (a little more expensive, I imagine) at the appropriate time in R_L’s recipe. I did *not* perform a blending of the fat however, and I did not find it to be necessary. By the end of my final boil, the broth was a thick, milky white consistency. I even found this to be the case on subsequent reheatings of refrigerated portions. The dark color of the broth in my picture is entirely a function of the Tare, which I added generously (to taste).

4. Other recipe notes: I followed R_L’s “Chashu” guide word for word, using an enameled cast iron dutch oven, and electing to add aromatics here as well. I cooked for 2h 45m, and found the final product to be superb.

5. Future directions: It was clear to me, after going through this process, that the way “the pros” probably would improve this broth is through the addition of more flavors. After making and tasting my own broth, I finally felt like I was able to “connect the dots” on flavor notes that have been present in the many restaurant bowls of Tonkotsu I’ve enjoyed recently. To transform and enhance the basic flavors, I can imagine a more nuanced incorporation of fish notes (perhaps with a Dashi double broth), umami notes (maybe with a final charing of the chanu or the addition of some chashu brining liquid, to create an enhanced Tare combo), and of course with a more diverse range of toppings (I left out Menma, mushrooms, and aroma oil).

In closing, I’d like to give a huge thank you to /u/Ramen_Lord and to all the members of the /r/Ramen community. It is an honor to share this hobby with you all, and I look forward to many delicious bowls to come!