Basic Pho Cooking Secrets and Techniques

It's so hard to get the flavor of pho broth just right. You're best off leaving it up the professional cooks at pho noodle shops. Don't even try. It takes so long to make the broth, anyway.  It's more convenient to go out. I don't have the time. Ha! You're teaching non-Vietnamese people to make their own pho? That should be interesting...

Cooking is a skill and craft that just takes practice to master. I've never been one to be discouraged from tinkering in the kitchen. At the end of the day, it's just food. If you mess up, you can still eat whatever you made. It's not likely to harm you.

But there's something about pho. I often hear from young Viet people about how her or his mother, father, grandmother or grandfather says that there's no way to make a bowl of homemade pho that's as good as what you'd get out. Indeed, the fragrant noodle soup is practically Vietnam's national dish, but it's no State secret! I suspect that the elders themselves don't know how to make a good bowl at home so there isn't much wisdom to impart to the kid. 

That, fortunately, is not how I was raised. My parents were determined to tease out the secrets and techniques for making all kinds of Vietnamese foods. They'd ask their friends, professional cooks and family members. They also read stuff too. Their mantra was that they could make most dishes just as good, if not better than store-bought. (My mom stopped at Chinese roast pork when she was shown the inside of the roasting chamber at a Chinese barbecue shop.)

With regard to pho noodle soup, it's really not hard to make a fabulous bowl.  There are detailed recipes in my book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, as well as at the Vietworldkitchen.com mega pho page.  Vietnamese cooks have lots of tricks up their sleeves, but my approach is to keep things straightforward and true.  Before leaping into making pho yourself,  consider the following:

Basic Pho Tips and Techniques

1. Start with good beef bones: Avoid neck bones. Look for knuckle bones and leg bones that contain marrow. At Asian markets, you'll find beef bones cut and bagged in the refrigerated section. Vietnamese markets will sometimes have the leg bones at the butcher counter. You can specify how you want them sawed; ask for two- to three-inch sections.

If you have to buy a little more than what the recipe calls for, lucky you! Your broth will be extra beefy. Miko in Seattle said that his bones were on the biggish side but he bought more than what was called for. I suggested that he thrown them all in for a more intense broth. There was more fat than usual, but Miko refrigerated the broth and lifted the congealed fat off.

From eating pho in Vietnam and observing how the cows there live low-key lives grazing in the countryside, I was inspired to make pho broth from the fragrant bones of grass-fed and natural beef. The experiments have consistently yielded amazing results, with the essence of beef captured every time. To find the bones, ask a butcher who breaks down large beef carcass sections into small retail cuts. Also check these sites for sources for natural, organic or grass-fed beef: Eatwellguide.org, Localharvest.org, Eatwild.com

2. Aim for a clear broth: This is achieved by parboiling and rinsing the bones, which greatly reduces the amount of residue in the broth. You may think you're pouring essential flavors down the drain, but you're not. The bones exude their essence during the three-hour gentle simmer. Cooking at a low heat also helps produce clear broth. [1/19/08 -- Check out the great tool for efficiently skimming scum and fat!]

3. Char the onion and ginger: It imparts a wonderful brown color and deepens the overall flavors. DO NOT skip this step.

4. Use yellow rock sugar: It rounds out all the rough edges and brings the flavors together. Many Viet cooks in the past used granulated sugar and the flavor is just sweet and flat. Look for the golden-yellow sugar sold in plastic bags or paper boxes at Chinese and Vietnamese markets. Avoid the insipid white version, which is like using regular sugar.  Note that the sugar may be labeled rock candy. One package lasts a long time. Just bang on large chunks with a hammer to break them up.

5. Don't dilute. Why simmer broth for hours to create an intense flavor and then dilute it with water? I never got that approach. As my friend Linda Carucci points out in her helpful book, Cooking School Secrets for Real-World Cooks, bones give up their all after about 3 hours of simmering. Unless you're simmering industrial quantities of bones (then you don't need my help), there's no need to simmer the broth for half a day. The only time that'd you need dilute the broth is if you added too much fish sauce or salt and need to correct the seasoning.

6. Leave some fat: Despite all the talk about obesity in the United States, I like some shiny globules of fat floating in the broth. They lend a richness that underscores pho's beefiness.

7. Serve it hot: To cook the raw beef and warm the cooked beef and noodles, the broth must be boiling when it's ladled into the bowl. But hot pho shouldn't be left to sit in the bowl. The noodles will absorb too much broth.

8. Freeze it! Leftover broth and cooked meats may be frozen for a treat on another day.

Pho Secrets?

• Roasting the bones. I've tried this and have not found that it's done much to the broth aside from making the broth dark, something that I've not found to be attractive. If you start with good bones, there's no need to roast, as the French would do for a veal stock, or demi-glace, as Miko pointed out.
• Filet or Wagyu beef in pho. I like my beef to have taste and have never found super tender, rich filet or Wagyu (American Kobe) to have much oomph. There's plenty of flavor and fat from regular (and cheap) brisket, chuck, drop flank (nam), tendon, etc. Pho is humble food and to add filet or Wagyu removes some  soul from the soup.  Finally, after reading a story by Gary Estabrook in the December 2007 issue of Gourmet on how Kobe and Wagyu cows are raised, I refuse to eat that meat. Let's say that the cotws are massaged because they're arthritic from having to standing still and carrying all that weight!
• Pho seasoning packets. These little bags sold at Viet markets save you no time. You still have to simmer the bones and meats for broth. You don't know how old the spices are too. Why not gather them yourself?
• Instant pho extract/paste. Can contain MSG.  If you don't use bouillon for broth, why would you use something like this?
• Hoisin. Spicy sweet hoisin sauce adds flavor and is something that southern Vietnamese folks like. For me, it obliterates a well crafted broth. Perhaps pho shops set the bottles of Lee Kum Kee out and encourage diners to squirt it into their bowls because their broth isn't well-flavored? I reach for the hoisin to dip a beef meatball into, but that's about it.

Feel free to debate the points I've made here, or add any tips, etc.  of your own!

Related information:

• History of pho (history and background)
• Chicken pho noodle soup recipe
• Beef pho noodle soup recipe
• Advanced  Pho Secrets and Techniques
• Growing Vietnamese Herbs
• Instant Pho Noodles taste off
• Faux Pho: What is it and Does it Matter?

Comments

[Binh]

Great article, Andrea. I particularly agree wholeheartedly about 2, 3 and...ah well, all of them.

I have experimented various time and I find that you can get a clear broth without parboiling. You need to rinse the bones well in cold water, start the pot with cold water and skim the raft/debris off of the surface once it forms. When you do the parboiling, you don't really care about this since you are discarding everything first, however I prefer to make my broth with bones that still have some meat and cartilage and I don't want to lose that part of the flavor. I believe the protein in the meat works in the similar way to clarifying a consomme. Also, no stirring the pot and disturbing the bones is essential.

After you remove the bones from the broth, strain it with cheese cloth and refrigerate. Overnight, whatever debris left will sink to the bottom and give you the clearest broth.

Serving the broth scalding hot also serves the purpose of enhancing/releasing the flavor of the scallion/cilantro on top.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Binh, yes, you can skim the scum just as you say. That works just as well. The initial boiling for a few minutes only doesn't rob the broth of much flavor. In fact, when you dump the bones out into the sink, they're barely hot.

Some cooks swear by marinating the bones first with ginger and salt and then rinsing the bones. I've tried that method and it didn't seem to do much. My guess is that in Vietnam, beef bones may have been questionable at times, given limited refrigeration, etc. Marinating them would be a good way to 'refresh' them!

[Frank in Austin]

As an addict of Vietnamese food and Pho, this is great! I plan to cook more of it in 2008! Happy New Year!
FM

[steamy kitchen]

great tips! i haven't made beef pho is a few months...maybe that's what i'll make tonight for new year's eve.

[Nate]

Andrea,

do you have a recipe for bun bo hue? That has replaced pho as my new favorite Vietnamese noodle dish. Also, what's your favorite restaurant to have bun bo hue?

[Chuck]

Thanks for the tips Andrea! I'm glad I'm using almost all of your tips. My mom has taught me well. I have never parboiled the bones and just skim the scum, which is tedious. I will definitely parboil next time. Thanks and Happy New Year!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Skimming scum seems like an endless task. "Where does it all come from?" is what I asked myself before I learned to parboil. Parboiling the bones takes care of the scummy issue quite handily!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Nate, there's a little BBH place on Story past Keyes in a strip mall in San Jose. They do it well and that's all they serve.

[T Alexander]

I've tried Andrea's recipe exactly and it was a success. Of course, for my taste, after the broth had simmered for 3 hours (worth the wait), I added more fish sauce. Since I don't have gas stove, I used the broiler to char the ginger and onion. I put them on disposable aluminum pie pan (to catch the juice of the onion)and check from time to time until they sufficiently charred. Thank you again, Andrea.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Great tip on broiling the ginger and onion. Glad to know you made awesome pho at home!

[Kevin]

Thank you for this post. I will happily refine my techniques with your wisdom!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Oh please, Kevin. No flattery. Just good food from your kitchen is what I ask for!

[Tiffany Ta]

My secret ingredient to a great PHO pot is daikon. I always drop one inside the pot for great PHO flavor without the MSG and pho flavor enhancer. My husband likes to eat it on the side with his other favorite side fares of red onion and red vinegar, beef oxtails and tendon. Like you, I also parboil my bones so that the broth is always clear. Also, do not let the soup boil, simmering is the secret for a clear broth. I also like to pan roast my star anise and cinnamon stick to kick up the flavor. Instead of using a cheesecloth to put these spices in, I use the disposable Japanese tea bags.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Tiffany, great tips! Yes, there are cooks (mostly often southern Viet cooks) who like to add daikon to the broth.

[eatdrinknbmerry]

hi andrea,

very informative posting. when i was researching recipes, i found your site to contain the best listing of things i needed. you can see the result here if interested:

http://eatdrinknbmerry.blogspot.com/2007/03/pho-bo-vietnamese-beef-noodle-soup.html

making pho is extremely time-consuming, but for obsessive cooks like i am, i believe that i can make a just-as-good version of a dish at home. and in the case with pho, it really is worth it to just fork/spoon out that $4.50! haha. i will try making pho again with your tips.

i own your book and love it. My gf's mom (vietnmese), really enjoys looking through it. reminding her of her wonder years in beautiful vietnam.

also if you're interested, my gf (she has a blog as well oishiieats.blogspot.com) did a great photojournalistic posting on Saigon, Hue and Hanoi. Please come check it out.

http://oishiieats.blogspot.com/2007/12/hungry-in-vietnam-cha-ca-va-long.html

regards, ED&BM.

[gregor]

Andrea
Thanks so much for sharing your insight on how to make great Pho. My wife and I spent August last year in Vietnam, and have now settled in Edinburgh, Scotland. I made a big pot of Pho last week and we ate the last two bowls today. Once I got the bones boiling with the ginger, onion, star anise and cloves the smell brought us right back to the streets of Hanoi. Rat Ngon! We even found ourselves missing the little plastic seats, and reminiscing about our wonderful trip.
Unfortunately we had to use Thai fish sauce since we haven't been able to find any vietnamese brands here in Scotland. We tried to bring some back from Phu Quoc, but they wouldn't let us take it on the plane, even in our hold luggage!!!
Keep up the great work, and if you are looking for suggestions a Bun Cha or Bun Bo Hue recipe would make me and my wife so so happy!
Gregor

[Beth]

Wow, I just found your blog and am really loving it! Thanks for sharing such great and detailed information about Vietnamese cooking. And I love pho...just had it for the first time this summer and have been dreaming about it ever since.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Gregor, Phu Quoc fish sauce is lovely. You're lucky to have tasted it. If you can get Knorr fish sauce in Scotland, it's likely to come from Phu Quoc. The plastic seats add to the pleasure of eating in Vietnam! Makes things that ngon! (really good!)

[Andrea Nguyen]

Beth, there's no reason why you can't make pho too! Try it out. It's not hard stuff. Just lots of passive cooking time.

[Mai]

I like your technique. I cook pho all the time but I didn't know that I have to let the bones simmer for 3 hours. I'm trying it next time but I was wondering what about the spices. How do you make the smell of pho last for the whole day. Everytime I cook the pho smell doesn't last that long and it fading really quick. Is there any technique for the pho smell to last?

[Andrea Nguyen]

Yes, you have to simmer for a long time. I think that if you do that, you won't lose the fragrance in the broth. Also, make sure you count out the number of star anise points. Make sure each one is "robust" (big and fat). However, you don't want the fragrance to be overwhelming, either. Pho is a balance, nuanced broth and you want to taste the beefy goodness too. Too much spice may take away from the beefiness. Overall, use spices that are fragrant and you'll get the fragrance to last in the broth. Also, leave a bit of fat.

[Tasha]

I read a lot of blog and recipe about pho but it hardly mention when to put the spice (anise start, cinamon stick, etc).

[Tana]

Where would you buy these meats locally, Andrea?

[cakewardrobe]

Your site is so informative! Now I must buy your book! I hope you will be conducting classes in NY this year!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Tana, the bones are at Staff of Life, Shopper's, etc. The specialty cuts, like tripe, require a trip to San Jose.