How to make Pho at home - Page 5

On June 19 2011 18:45 Endymion wrote:
This looks delish, I've never actually tried Pho but now I'm gonna go looking for some Korean spots in Denver!

On June 19 2011 19:07 bubblegumbo wrote:
The best way to make Pho is to marry a Vietnamese girl.

On June 19 2011 09:20 Quochobao wrote:


Yeah right. GL with that. I'm having trouble finding girls who can make Pho even in Vietnam. Seriously what has the world become. (Recent PvZ is a good analogy.)

On July 13 2011 02:43 T0fuuu wrote:
I failed miserably. I used 2kg cow bones and 1kg oxtail. 2 sticks of cinnamon, a cartoon pod and 4 whole star arise with a healthy amount of ginger. Topped it up to cover the bones and kept topping it up. Boiled it for 4 hrs, no good, 6hrs no good, 16 hours no good. It ended up being a mildly spiced ox tail soup.

Real pho should be light and spiced and taste of cow.

In the end I salvaged it and made a stew. It made for a beastly stew after some kimchi and potato noodles went in. But it wasn't pho. I think that many of the recipes I see aren't pho and just beef broth with some ox tail and spices. Ox tail is simply too fatty to be used in the quantities some of these recipes require and I don't know what bones ppl are using but even with knuckle, spine or tail bones you can't get a real beef taste in the soup after 3 hours or even 5. And by the time the broth does have a beef taste the spices have been boiled out of the broth.

If only I could get a real vietnamese family to spill the beans on the specifics of what they use.
Now I understand why my friend wasn't taught his family's pho recipe cos his mother didn't consider him serious enough. This ship is serious...

On June 21 2011 03:04 cccalf wrote:

My wife is Vietnamese as well as a chef, so I've got a pretty sweet deal going. Depending on how much time we have, we make pho different ways. There is a very good pho bullion that tastes great and is very quick and easy. I'll find out what the brand is. However, if we are having a dinner party or just an occasion when we want to spend 6+ hours on dinner, we do everything from scratch. Homemade authentic pho is on a level that no pre-made pack or restaurant can ever match.