Forms of noodles made on noodle making machine

Noodles evolved over time in our food cultures

You will find so many various kinds of noodles across the world. Various kinds of Pasta, originated in Italy.
Lanzou ramen, which has a history of 4,000 years in China.
Various kinds of rice noodles, such as for instance 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.
All these noodles have been through different food cultures and changed over time.
How they're made, what ingredients are used, 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.) Perhaps you have tried to consume wheat flour alone?
Noodles are section of food evolution.

Different types of noodles call for different types of noodle making methods

Additionally there are many ways we make noodles today.
Various kinds of noodles need different making methods to achieve their own textures, tastes, etc.
So, there are certain forms of noodles that can not be made by certain production methods.
For Lanzou ramen to achieve the unique textures, some noodles need hand-pulling method, for example.
Most forms of rice noodles need He fen method where rice is liquidated to be steamed to be solidified. This calls for special equipment, which is completely different from most of noodle making machine.
In this informative article, we look at what forms of noodles are possible to create about what methods, thus what forms of noodle making machines.

Hand making methods

We used to, and many of us still make noodles by hand.
Noodles made by this process need lots of water/liquid. Because it is difficult to create flour with little water into noodles yourself, in the event that you make noodles yourself, you'll need to add lots of water. By the addition of more water, you are making noodles softer. So, you can work the dough with ease.
We are referring to over 40% hydration ratio. (40% hydration means you are 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 difficult for human to process such dough yourself and impratical.

High hydration noodles

Udon noodles and soba noodles belong to the high hydration noodles. You will find 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 be able to make and serve good noodles. Also, it is very labor intensive. So, there are also many shops that rely on noodle making machine. This sort of noodle making machine uses rollers (sheeter) with smaller diameter. Dough that goes through rollers with small diameter gets little bit of force/pressure. Dough usually gets rolled for all 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 sort of machine can produce other forms of noodles which can be high in liquid content and manufactured from ingredients with some gluten. (For example, rice does not contain gluten) For example, it can make certain forms 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 sort of noodles should bring out the best noodles textures if made in certain ways and with certain ingredients.

Noodle making machine method

There are many various kinds of noodle making machines, 蕎麦製麺機 but I'm referring to one form of noodle making machine here. This sort of noodle machine produces nearly all of ramen noodles, certain forms of Chinese noodles, and other kinds with low hydration. Again, dough made out of little bit of water/liquid is hard. We are referring to hydration ratio of between 25 and 40%. (to the weight of solids/flour)
So, it is difficult for human to process it into noodles by hand. And, since it forces hard dough to mix together, the machine needs rollers (sheeter) with large diameter. With one of these big rollers, the machine can press hard dough into sheet of dough. Gluten structure inside dough gets manufactured by passing through the rollers. Dough passes through the rollers repeatedly to produce gluten and thin. This sort 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

You will find various kinds of noodles this type of noodle machine can make. The famous, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen noodles (thin and hard noodles served in rich white soup manufactured from pork bones). A number of other ramen noodles. Hong Kong Wonton soup noodles, manufactured from flour, duck eggs, kansui and salt. Certain forms of udon, soba, pasta, and Chinese noodles. Gyoza or dumpling skins. Wonton skins. Lasagna sheet… This kind could be the most versatile noodle making machine, but there exists a limitation. It's difficult to create noodles manufactured from flour with no gluten like rice noodles. The ingredient this type of noodle making machine processes needs some binding property.
Characteristics of noodles with hydration of between 25% and 40% are difficult, 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 slightly earlier. Because rice does not contain gluten, standard noodle making machine cannot process it. In this process, rice is milled with water into liquid, which is steamed and solidified into thin sheet. This sheet gets cut into strips of noodles. This method is useful for production for rice vermicelli, Vietnamese pho, and other rice noodles.
Extrusion methods are useful for various kinds of pasta, certain forms of noodles, and noodles manufactured from 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 necessitate knife-shaving method in cutting dough off into shreds of dough into cooking water. One needs some experiences to obtain the appropriate thickness in shaving off dough. The thickness and shape of noodle strips affects texture.

Over 3 decades, we've done many tests and research into making of various kinds of noodles. And, certain forms of noodles, textures, tastes, and flavors need certain ingredients, recipes, and methods. To produce a certain form of noodles great, you'll need the proper recipes, ingredients, and methods. If you have some noodles you intend to produce from scratch in your mind, feel free to contact us.