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Ramen Forever: Recipes for Ramen Success
Ramen Forever showcases the world’s most perfect ramen.
In Ramen Forever , Tim Anderson shows you the way to enjoy delicious homemade ramen on a regular basis, and gives you the tools to build your own ramen, just the way you like it!
It is broken into five sections—Broth, Seasoning, Aromatic Oils and Fats, Noodles, and Toppings—to enable you to mix and match to create your own ramen to suit your taste. Alternatively, you can choose to follow one of several complete ramen recipes provided.
Recipes include Double Garlic Tonkotsu Ramen, Tan Tan Men, and Tsukemen, as well as The Ramen Sandwich and Garlic Sesame Miso Ramen Salad.
With recipes for beginners and casual cooks as well as serious noodle nerds, you can enjoy this superlative Japanese comfort food at home, regardless of your skill level.
In Ramen Forever , Tim Anderson shows you the way to enjoy delicious homemade ramen on a regular basis, and gives you the tools to build your own ramen, just the way you like it!
It is broken into five sections—Broth, Seasoning, Aromatic Oils and Fats, Noodles, and Toppings—to enable you to mix and match to create your own ramen to suit your taste. Alternatively, you can choose to follow one of several complete ramen recipes provided.
Recipes include Double Garlic Tonkotsu Ramen, Tan Tan Men, and Tsukemen, as well as The Ramen Sandwich and Garlic Sesame Miso Ramen Salad.
With recipes for beginners and casual cooks as well as serious noodle nerds, you can enjoy this superlative Japanese comfort food at home, regardless of your skill level.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published October 17, 2023
9 people are currently reading
111 people want to read
About the author
Tim Anderson
154 books38 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 22, 2024
I like this cookbook but upon using it, have discovered some significant pitfalls.
I love the photographs, the ramen manifesto, and the message of experimentation and learning to make your ramen over time. These are all great and seem to be in keeping with the tradition of ramen that I've been learning from other sources. It made me excited to try cooking ramen. His "broasted" chashu recipe is great, as is the recipe for ajitama eggs.
However, I've discovered some pitfalls. One is that he doesn't describe all ingredients in a way that would be helpful to someone who is not from a Japanese cooking tradition--which I'm assuming is the intended audience of this book.
For example, he lists "kombu" as an ingredient in several things, but does not include it in his ingredients list at the beginning of the book. Being a total newbie to cooking Japanese cuisine, I had to look it up (turns out, it's used all the time).
Most cookbooks I have that are for non-Western food but are for a Western audience include a list, usually with pictures, of different key ingredients. Makes sense. If you're not from that cooking tradition, you likely will know very little about it, including very basic ingredients. He does have a beautiful spread of toppings, but the same thing for cooking ingredients that aren't actual ramen toppings would be helpful. Even photographs of different bones, for example, would be very helpful. What does a pork femur bone look like? Most Western grocery stores don't carry them or display them.
I also found his discussion of Japanese seasonings somewhat lacking. He says, for example, that he usually doesn't get into differences between different shoyus, or soy sauces. However, he does sometimes call for different shoyus in recipes, which leaves you a little lost in terms of the difference between them. After doing some reading, I've discovered that the different types of shoyus are used in ramen and for different reasons. This would have been nice to learn about ahead of time. After all, if you're going to invest 8 hours into cooking one soup stock, surely spending a few minutes reading about different types of shoyus is no big deal?
There are recipes that have confusing directions. For the "broasted" chashu, he says, "remove from heat and cook for another two hours." Well, which is it? It was only because of my past experience cooking different types of braises that I was able to improvise to make the recipe work (the marinade is EXCELLENT, though). Another is his discussion on blanching bones before you start making stock. He says you "can roast them," but provides no precise directions of how. Likewise, he provides very few directions for blanching them with water, which was what I ended up doing and was super easy--but was able to do so because of help from another ramen cooking source.
Finally, my biggest criticism of the book is that he does not comprehensively write out recipes for full ramen bowls. Instead, he writes out an overall process, and suggests which components and toppings to use, but does not actually write out specific ratios of ingredients with specific toppings for a specific bowl of ramen.
On the one hand, I appreciate that he's trying to empower future ramen cooks with his sort of mix-and-match approach. One the other hand, I feel that his decision to do this is a mistake for beginners like me. I would have loved, for example, a really clear recipe with very specific measurements (300 ml stock, 20 ml tare, etc) of all ingredients. Then I could mix and match once I've succeeded at that. It's only the introductory page to tares, for example, that I found any kind of ratio of tare to broth ("20-60 ml tare per bowl of broth"), and it was still imprecise. Give me something to grab onto FIRST, and then once I've got the hang of that, I'll try something else!
So...I like this cookbook but I think it would have been improved with more breakdowns of the ABC's of Japanese ingredients, specific directions for all parts of the ramen process, and also specific bowls as a way to get started.
I love the photographs, the ramen manifesto, and the message of experimentation and learning to make your ramen over time. These are all great and seem to be in keeping with the tradition of ramen that I've been learning from other sources. It made me excited to try cooking ramen. His "broasted" chashu recipe is great, as is the recipe for ajitama eggs.
However, I've discovered some pitfalls. One is that he doesn't describe all ingredients in a way that would be helpful to someone who is not from a Japanese cooking tradition--which I'm assuming is the intended audience of this book.
For example, he lists "kombu" as an ingredient in several things, but does not include it in his ingredients list at the beginning of the book. Being a total newbie to cooking Japanese cuisine, I had to look it up (turns out, it's used all the time).
Most cookbooks I have that are for non-Western food but are for a Western audience include a list, usually with pictures, of different key ingredients. Makes sense. If you're not from that cooking tradition, you likely will know very little about it, including very basic ingredients. He does have a beautiful spread of toppings, but the same thing for cooking ingredients that aren't actual ramen toppings would be helpful. Even photographs of different bones, for example, would be very helpful. What does a pork femur bone look like? Most Western grocery stores don't carry them or display them.
I also found his discussion of Japanese seasonings somewhat lacking. He says, for example, that he usually doesn't get into differences between different shoyus, or soy sauces. However, he does sometimes call for different shoyus in recipes, which leaves you a little lost in terms of the difference between them. After doing some reading, I've discovered that the different types of shoyus are used in ramen and for different reasons. This would have been nice to learn about ahead of time. After all, if you're going to invest 8 hours into cooking one soup stock, surely spending a few minutes reading about different types of shoyus is no big deal?
There are recipes that have confusing directions. For the "broasted" chashu, he says, "remove from heat and cook for another two hours." Well, which is it? It was only because of my past experience cooking different types of braises that I was able to improvise to make the recipe work (the marinade is EXCELLENT, though). Another is his discussion on blanching bones before you start making stock. He says you "can roast them," but provides no precise directions of how. Likewise, he provides very few directions for blanching them with water, which was what I ended up doing and was super easy--but was able to do so because of help from another ramen cooking source.
Finally, my biggest criticism of the book is that he does not comprehensively write out recipes for full ramen bowls. Instead, he writes out an overall process, and suggests which components and toppings to use, but does not actually write out specific ratios of ingredients with specific toppings for a specific bowl of ramen.
On the one hand, I appreciate that he's trying to empower future ramen cooks with his sort of mix-and-match approach. One the other hand, I feel that his decision to do this is a mistake for beginners like me. I would have loved, for example, a really clear recipe with very specific measurements (300 ml stock, 20 ml tare, etc) of all ingredients. Then I could mix and match once I've succeeded at that. It's only the introductory page to tares, for example, that I found any kind of ratio of tare to broth ("20-60 ml tare per bowl of broth"), and it was still imprecise. Give me something to grab onto FIRST, and then once I've got the hang of that, I'll try something else!
So...I like this cookbook but I think it would have been improved with more breakdowns of the ABC's of Japanese ingredients, specific directions for all parts of the ramen process, and also specific bowls as a way to get started.
February 16, 2024
Ramen is delicious, and ramen is complicated. The Chef/Author crafts a pretty good presentation and education on making different styles of ramen at home. It showcases more styles than Ivan Orkin’s “Ivan Ramen”. The visuals show the steps well and the author has an engaging and humorous tone to his words.
One aspect that I found so frustrating that I may not add this book to my personal collection is that the ingredient lists are darn near illegible in such a small font.
This cookbook is worth checking out form your local library like I did. It’s a good read and you’ll learn some techniques…and if you can see the ingredient lists, then you’ll have some fun recipes to make.
One aspect that I found so frustrating that I may not add this book to my personal collection is that the ingredient lists are darn near illegible in such a small font.
This cookbook is worth checking out form your local library like I did. It’s a good read and you’ll learn some techniques…and if you can see the ingredient lists, then you’ll have some fun recipes to make.
January 20, 2025
I like niche topics and this is why I love cookbooks that a)start with their first recipe after page 200 and b) do not dwell in personal stories. This one fulfills both criteria. TIm Anderson knows without doubt a lot about Ramen and the reader feels he does as well after this book. I only would have appreceated a bit more straightforward recipes if e.g. you cannot do your own fond at this time
July 12, 2025
Interesting but didn't inspire me to follow the recipes. Shame after 5 trips to Japan, love real, localised ramen, just didn't quite get the excitement from this book (Christmas present)
December 22, 2025
Now this truly is the greatest Ramen book of all times. It is fantastic. It covers all sorts of ramen recipes and breaks down all it's components. The layout inside is very funky and retro which is a really cool touch. The author himself adds plenty of little insights insights of how it's done in a ramen shop. The images are absolutely stunning and there are simple step by step guides for each recipe. Flawless. no need for any further ramen books.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews