A girl's search for hand-pulled noodles results in her having to learn how to make her own Recipe for the noodles can be found here: www.tinyurbanki...
IMPORTANT CLUE: I just stumbled across Autolysis, which involves allowing sufficient time for a flour that still retains enough natural enzymatic content to allow amalyze and protease activity to slowly alter the dough's structure ... in this case to develop and then denature gluten. Definitely a direction worth exploring.
i've been curious about making hand-pulled noodles. This is the first tutorial for true beginners that I've found! Thanks for making and sharing this video!
Thank you for showing. I am very surprised when you use cake flour. I had attended a school in HK for just learning to pull noodles. The teacher never explained to us what kind of flour to use. He just said "flour." Of course, I have never been able to make it at home because it keeps breaking. The cake flour never came to my mind at all for its low protein strength. Thanks for showing.
For those of you who are not aware ... They use Borax to break down the molecule of gluten and gliudine. Yes ... borax IS acceptable in food in small quantities. You can find it in a lot of Chinese food stores. You only put a small amount (1tsp) with water into a condiment bottle. Borax, given the E number E285, is used as a food additive in some countries, but is banned in the US. The slippery molecule allows it to stretch without breaking but to not snap back. Knowing how much to use is the trick. The resultant douch, made with a harder flour than cake flour will appear glossy.
That's how all of these videos go. Someone puts some dough in a mixer and it comes out wonderful. Everyone at home follows the recipe exactly and it never works. Over and over again.
For Boston: You can find hand pulled noodles at the Flat Bread Cafe in Boston's Chinatown (Xi'an food). I think it's only open for lunch. Try the #4 noodles - they're fantastic. Skip the soup there - not worth it. Their pork bun is great though (I think #9). Check it out!
Wonderful Job, and thank you very much for posting this video. I have been searching all over the internet trying to find ways to make these noodles and you are the only one I have found that does it from start to finish. Thank you very very much. Now, thanks to you I can now make these for my family and friends.
I'm reposting this, in the hopes it will be considered worth of pinning, to avoid falling off the bottom of the discussion. I describe some other common alkalai in a separate post further below. HOMEMADE SODIUM CARBONATE (Alkalai): IMO, the easiest and most reliable product for home cooks to use as a strong food grade alkalai is "baked" baking soda. Baking supermarket baking soda for 30 mins at 400F (in a foil lined sheet filled to a depth no greater than 1/4") drives off 30% of the total weight in the form of trapped water vapor and CO2, thus reducing the sodium bicarbonate to simple sodium carbonate, which is a much stronger aklalai. However, unless packaged in an airtight container (I prefer a glass jar with a vaccum-sealed universal lid, and a dessicant packet inside), this alkali degrades over the course of 6 months (or less) due to exposure to airborne humidity and CO2, after which it must be 'refreshed' by re-baking it. Storing in a glass jar will slow, but not stop, this degradation, because every time you open it you allow a fresh dose of airborne humidity and CO2 to fill the headspace of the jar, which is then absorbed slowly into the powder until reopened yet again. SIMPLE STRENGTH TEST: You can roughly check the alkalai strength of your homemade sodium carbonate by dissolving 1gr in 1 cup cool water (if your water is hard use distilled water for this), and dip a universal pH test strip in for 1 second (available on Amazon for about 10 cents apiece ... I prefer pH 0-14 strips with at least 4 reagent pads, for best accuracy). A very fresh sample should read as almost pH 12, a slightly less fresh sample will read as close to 11, and an expired sample that's in need of re-baking will read as 10 or less. Another telltale that your sodium carbonate is not at peak freshness is if there is any visible sign of caking, which indicates it has absorbed moisture.
@weicc84 You haven't worked it enough. You have to knead for at least 20min after it comes out of the the machine. It takes time to break down the glutens properly.
this is sooooo great ... I have for a year telling kids they should learn NOODLES not "play doh" .....think of this... daughter brings home yankee boy with pimples ... THEN he offers to make noodle soup for you .... (see how fast "hate turns to love")
what are the exact measurements for this dough. I've been looking everywhere for it and you have it here, but you don't have the measurements can I please get them. I would be ever so grateful.
Baking baking soda at 300* for an hour increase the alkalinity, so you don't have to use so much. The traditional way is to use lye water, instead of baking soda.
Can you post a measurement on the ingredients you use? I posted a comment couple yrs ago but never got a reply. I tried with every type of flour every combination (more cake flour less all purpose lye water, baking soda, working the dough for 30mins-4hrs vise versa. Now there's something called something grass ash that makes any flour I used into stretchable dough just like in the video. But unfortunately this has arsenic or something that considered to be poison in large quantity. I tried more than 30 times past two year only because your video. So if possible that you could help me out would be a blessing. Thank you
hi Jen ,I try make it but fail 3 time then I stop doing ,but I like do again some time later can you make new have other video so I can learn more thank you Jen
Believe it or not, Ive never had real noodles before. Only ones out of a packet, and ramen type stuff and...well, pasta. Does this type of noodle actually taste different/better?
You're making a lot of assumption there buddy. I love how you perceive things: you watch this video, see an Asian face, and come to the conclusion that this is authentic AND that she learned the recipe from grandma. You're not the first fish to swallow that one. . .Go to her blog, it turns out she does give credit to Mr. Rymarz. LoL!
lol on your website it says "It takes a trained artisan to understand how to work the dough" i thought artisan said asian.. im like.. WHAT... great post.. thanks :)
@tripp0417 same with me..after kneading the dough for about 20 mins it becomes stretchy and warm. when i start to twirl and pull, they break and I have to start all over again. when i get to the point where i already have like 10 strans and try to multiply them, they break. I cannot get the correct consistency that it needs to be. i also notice after several tries with the same dough, the dough becomes tougher to handle and it needs to bet re knead to get it soft and warm again.
To make pull noodle with cake flour is like trying to paint with a camera. It beats the whole point. What is the texture of the chew when you boil cake flour noodle? :)
I've got no other flour than Wheat flour, so i've tried to make a dough with it which was easy but then.. It doesn't really stretch and always breaks due to the gluten i guess. I've used 300g wheatflour, one Egg (70g), 2 teaspoons baking soda and as much water as needed. So what did i do wrong? Should i look for another flour? How do i know that my flour is the right flour?
I tried without the cake flour... not the best idea I've had x3 The dough was very thick and very tough than usual, took a good hour to get it to a pullable consistency. So word of advice to anyone, DON'T SKIP THE CAKE FLOUR. :3
The information is not correct! Good tasting Chinese hand pulled noodle needs high gluten. You did the opposite of using cake flour which is low gluten.
