Ingredients

Soup:
150 g (5.3 oz) 背ガラ pork backbone / 400 g (14.1 oz) ゲンコツ pork knee bones / 600 g (1.3 lbs) 背油 pork back fat / 2 kg (4.4 lbs) 豚ロース pork loin / キャベツの芯 one cabbage core / ねぎ頭 a big welsh onion with many stalks, green parts only / にんにく one garlic bulb, peeled and cut in half / たまねぎ half of an onion / しょうが 3 very thickly cut slices of fresh ginger

Tare sauce:
180 cc (3/4 cup) しょうゆ soy sauce / 60 cc (1/4 cup) みりん mirin sweet cooking sake / garlic / 4 tbsp MSG powder

Noodles:
6 g (1 tsp) かんすい lye water / 6 g (0.2 oz) 塩 salt / 186 cc (6.3 fl oz) 水 water / 600 g (1.3 lbs) オーション Nisshin Oshon Flour (a high-protein bread flour with 0.52% ash content and 13% crude protein)

Toppings:
キャベツ cabbage / もやし bean sprouts / にんにく garlic / 背油 pork back fat / ブタ char siu (made in recipe) / 生卵 raw egg (optional)

Instructions

Parboil pork backbones and knee bones then remove from boiling water. Drain, then return to a pot of fresh water. Add back fat, bring to a boil then lower to medium heat, periodically removing scum from the surface. (If you have leftover back fat, cut it into chunks and store it in freezer bags). Tie up pork loin with butcher's twine. (If your pot is too small, transfer ingredients to a larger pot). Add pork loin to pot. Simmer for 3 hours. Add cabbage, welsh onion, onion, garlic, and ginger. When the pork back fat has become soft and gelatinous, remove it from pot. Smash fat in a bowl to break it down, optionally keeping some larger chunks (Jirolians will recognize these as はんぺん hanpen, one of which is usually placed on top of the vegetable mound). If needed, add more water to the pot. Remove welsh onion.

To make the char siu, in a separate pot, mix soy sauce, mirin, and MSG powder (adjust to taste). Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Transfer to a large, sturdy ziplock bag. Add garlic cloves (about 3 or 4 cloves, cut in half) and the pork loin from the big pot which should be kept simmering for another 3 hours. Let ingredients marinate in the bag for 2 hours, then remove pork loin. Keep the tare sauce and discard the garlic.

Pass all of the contents of the big pot through a sieve to obtain the soup. Discard solid ingredients.

To make noodles, put flour in a large bowl or pot, then add a mixture of water, lye water and salt. Blend well to form the dough, knead well, shape into a squat loaf-like shape then wrap in plastic wrap and let sit for an hour. Cut the 'loaf' into four or five chunks. For each chunk of dough, knead with a rolling pin. The dough will be hard, so use your body weight. If you have a pasta maker, press them well until they're about 1/2 inch thick (store the long pieces by rolling them up on a suspended rolling pin), then cut them into noodles with a pasta maker. Finally, cut the noodles into appropriate lengths. This should result in 31% water content 太麺 futomen thick-cut ramen noodles. Place noodles in a large ziplock bag and sit them in the fridge for 24 hours.

Slice cabbage and lightly boil together with bean sprouts. Remove twine from char siu block and cut into thick slices. In a small pot, reheat back fat. If you're going to also enjoy dipping your noodles in raw egg, as some Jirolians do, crack one into a bowl and set aside. Remove the portion of noodles you want for your meal and lightly squeeze them, being careful since the low water content makes them prone to breaking, before cooking them in a pot of boiling water to desired consistency.

To finish up and serve, heat your serving bowl, add some tare first, add the soup (reheated if necessary), cooked noodles, then top with drained vegetables (adding a large amount makes it 野菜マシマシ yasai mashimashi "extra veg"), coarsely chopped garlic cloves, three slices of char siu and back fat.