Noodles evolved over time in our food cultures
There are so many different types of noodles across the world. Various kinds of Pasta, originated in Italy.
Lanzou ramen, that includes a history of 4,000 years in China.
Various kinds of rice noodles, such as for example Vietnamese pho and Laksa of Malaysia.
Hand-pulled noodles of China. Wonton egg noodles, famous in Hong Kong. kalguksu of Korea. And, ramen, udon, and soba that grew in sophistication in Japan and overseas.
Every one of these noodles have experienced different food cultures and changed over time.
How they're made, what ingredients are employed, sizes, and textures, etc. Why do we eat noodles? It's because needless to say, we like them. There is more fundamental reason.
Noodles are easier to consume than say, flour (of wheat, rice, etc.) Maybe you have tried to consume wheat flour by itself? Noodles are element of food evolution.
Different types of noodles call for different types of noodle making methods
There's also many ways we make noodles today. Various kinds of noodles need different making methods to attain their own textures, tastes, etc.
So, you can find certain types of noodles that can not be created by certain production methods.
For Lanzou ramen to attain the unique textures, some noodles need hand-pulling method, for example.
Most types of rice noodles need He fen method where rice is liquidated to be steamed to be solidified. This calls for special equipment, which can be different from most of noodle making machine.
In this informative article, we look at what types of noodles are possible to make on which methods, thus what types of noodle making machines.
Hand making methods
We used to, and some of us still make noodles by hand.
Noodles created by this approach need lots of water/liquid. Because it is difficult to make flour with little water into noodles yourself, in the event that you make noodles yourself, you need to incorporate lots of water. By the addition of more water, you're making noodles softer. So, you can work the dough with ease.
We are discussing over 40% hydration ratio. (40% hydration means you're adding 4kg of liquid/water to 10kg of flour)
Dough with less hydration would need strong force to be processed into noodles. It could be problematic for human to process such dough yourself and impratical.
High hydration noodles
Udon noodles and soba noodles belong to the high hydration noodles. There are still many udon shops and soba shops that make their noodles yourself in Japan. Their noodles are good, but one would need to spend years on training to have the ability to make and serve good noodles. Also, そば製麺機 it is very labor intensive. So, additionally, there are many shops that depend on noodle making machine. This kind of noodle making machine uses rollers (sheeter) with smaller diameter. Dough that undergoes rollers with small diameter gets small amount of force/pressure. Dough usually gets rolled for several times to be thinned little by little. This keeps gluten structure developed inside dough from getting damaged.
Yamato's noodle making machine
designed for soba and udon noodles uses this sheeting method. This kind of machine can produce other types of noodles which can be full of liquid content and made of ingredients with some gluten. (For example, rice doesn't contain gluten) Like, it will make certain types of ramen noodles with high hydration. Sano ramen, Yonezawa ramen, and tsukemen are the examples.
Characteristics of noodles with high hydration are soft, translucent, flexible, and sleek. This kind of noodles would bring out the most effective noodles textures if made using ways and with certain ingredients.
Noodle making machine method
There are numerous different types of noodle making machines, but I'm discussing one form of noodle making machine here. This kind of noodle machine produces most of ramen noodles, certain types of Chinese noodles, and other types with low hydration. Again, dough made out of small amount of water/liquid is hard. We are discussing hydration ratio of between 25 and 40%. (to the weight of solids/flour)
So, it is problematic for human to process it into noodles by hand. And, because it forces hard dough to combine together, the device needs rollers (sheeter) with large diameter. With these big rollers, the device can press hard dough into sheet of dough. Gluten structure inside dough gets produced by passing through the rollers. Dough passes through the rollers several times to develop gluten and thin. This kind of noodle making machine uses slitting cutter to slits dough sheet into noodle strands. (It works like a report shredder.)
Low hydration noodles are difficult to make by hand
There are various types of noodles this type of noodle machine can make. The famous, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen noodles (thin and hard noodles served in rich white soup made of pork bones). A variety of other ramen noodles. Hong Kong Wonton soup noodles, made of flour, duck eggs, kansui and salt. Certain types of udon, soba, pasta, and Chinese noodles. Gyoza or dumpling skins. Wonton skins. Lasagna sheet… This sort will be the most versatile noodle making machine, but there exists a limitation. It's difficult to make noodles made of flour without gluten like rice noodles. The ingredient this type of noodle making machine processes needs to have some binding property.
Characteristics of noodles with hydration of between 25% and 40% are hard, crunchy, and springy in texture. (low to medium hydration)
Other noodle making methods
Most rice noodles are created using He Fen Method, which we touched on a bit earlier. Because rice doesn't contain gluten, standard noodle making machine cannot process it. In this approach, rice is milled with water into liquid, which can be steamed and solidified into thin sheet. This sheet gets cut into strips of noodles. This approach is used for production for rice vermicelli, Vietnamese pho, and other rice noodles.
Extrusion methods are used for various types of pasta, certain types of noodles, and noodles made of non-gluten ingredients. By forcing dough out through small holes, this type of machine makes noodles. Because of this, the noodles are apt to have granular texture. Some Chinese noodles call for knife-shaving method in cutting dough off into shreds of dough into cooking water. One needs some experiences to obtain the proper thickness in shaving off dough. The thickness and model of noodle strips affects texture.
Over 3 decades, we've done many tests and research into making of different types of noodles. And, certain types of noodles, textures, tastes, and flavors need certain ingredients, recipes, and methods. To create a certain form of noodles great, you need the best recipes, ingredients, and methods. If you have some noodles you wish to produce from scratch at heart, feel free to make contact with us.
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