Toasted Rye Roasted Garlic Mazemen
焙煎ライ麦 マー油 まぜそば·(baisen raimugi māyu mazesoba)
Chapter 2 — The Noodles, Aroma Oil & Toppings: The Components
This is not weeknight food; this is a weekend obsession. A proper bowl of mazemen trades a swimming pool of broth for a high-impact collision of intensely concentrated tare, pitch-black roasted garlic oil, and earthy, uncompromisingly chewy rye noodles. It demands patience for heavily agitated bone broths, reverence for alkaline dough, and a willingness to push garlic right to the edge of burnt carbon. When you finally fold this unapologetic bowl together, it shouldn't just taste good—it should taste exactly like a loud, crowded counter in Little Tokyo at midnight.
Before you start
Bake the baking soda.
To create the essential alkaline kansui substitute, spread standard baking soda on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and bake at exactly 350°F for 1 hour. Weigh out exactly 10g for the noodles.
Blanch the bones.
This initial blanch is an absolute, non-negotiable imperative. Bring the pork trotters and neck bones to a boil, discard the liquid, and scrub them aggressively under cold water to purge blood and impurities.
Ingredients
- split pork trotters3 lb
- pork neck bones2 lb
- high-gluten bread flour620 g
- cake flour300 g
- dark rye flour75 g
- cool water430 ml
- kosher salt13 g
- baked baking soda10 g
- pork lard150 g
- toasted sesame oil100 g
- fresh garlic cloves100 g
- Japanese soy sauce300 ml
- mirin50 ml
- sake20 ml
- dried kombu10 g
- niboshi15 g
- katsuobushi10 g
- brown sugar1 tbsp
- skinless pork belly2 lb
- water1 cup
- soy sauce1 cup
- sake1/2 cup
- mirin1/2 cup
- sugar1/4 cup
- fresh ginger1 med
- scallions3 large
- large eggs8 large
- white vinegar2 tbsp
- scallions8 large
- nori8 small
Method
- 01
Agitate the bones into a milky-white broth.
Boil the blanched pork bones at a violent rolling boil, replacing water as needed, for 8 to 18 hours. This mechanical violence is what emulsifies the fat and gelatin into the broth; clarity is your enemy here.
- 02
Braise and cold-slice the chashu.
Braise the rolled pork belly in soy, 1 cup water, sake, mirin, sugar, ginger, and 3 scallions for 3 to 4 hours. Let it cool completely in its liquid, refrigerate overnight, and cold-slice it into perfect discs—if you warm-slice it, the rendered fat collapses and the meat will shred into a pile.
- 03
Execute the 6:30 egg.
Lower cold eggs into boiling water with vinegar for exactly 6 minutes and 30 seconds, immediately shock in an ice bath, peel, and marinate for 12 hours. This rigid grammar is required to achieve that flawless, custardy bullseye yolk.
- 04
Toast the rye flour.
Dry-toast the dark rye flour in a skillet over medium-high heat for four minutes until it smells intensely nutty and wisps of smoke appear. Let it cool completely.
- 05
Laminate the alkaline dough.
Whisk the baked baking soda and kosher salt into the cool water, then mix into the flours until shaggy. Rest the dough for an hour, then sheet and fold it repeatedly through a pasta machine until leathery and smooth before cutting.
- 06
Isolate the seasoning in the tare.
Cold-steep the 300ml soy sauce, 50ml mirin, 20ml sake, kombu, and niboshi overnight. Bring to a simmer, remove the kombu, stir in the brown sugar and katsuobushi, steep for 10 minutes, and strain. Remember: the broth itself remains unseasoned; this intensely salty reduction is the locus of flavor.
- 07
Fry the garlic through three stages.
Melt the lard and sesame oil, and add the minced garlic. Fry to a pale blonde and remove one-third. Continue to a deep mahogany brown and remove another third. Let the final third go unapologetically pitch-black and slightly acrid—this is the intended grammar of proper mayu.
- 08
Blend the roasted garlic oil.
Carefully pour the hot oil and pitch-black carbonized garlic into a blender with the first two stages, blending on high until it forms a gritty, opaque, black liquid.
- 09
Assemble with urgency.
Warm a bowl, add 2 tablespoons each of tare and tonkotsu broth, and 1.5 tablespoons of warmed mayu. Boil the noodles for exactly 60 to 90 seconds, drain vigorously, and fold them aggressively into the liquid emulsion. Top with the torched chashu, the halved egg, scallions, and nori. Serve immediately.