so you really dont need to rest the knead in the fridge? i leave it out for 30 then knead it and then fridge it for 2 hours. cold makes it less sticky feeling but doesnt matter its placebo to me i guess lol
@@typerightseesight The dough gets rested for 2 hours. You don't need to put it in the fridge. Putting it in the fridge will make the dough harder to roll out, but it would be easier to cut.
I just did a survey of udon recipes and this the best I have seen yet. Thanks for clarity and enthusiasm. I usually make Italian noodles, but it’s soup season and udon is what I am craving.
I still think it's criminal that you don't have more subscribers than this, Mark. By far the best Japanese cooking channel on youtube. Keep it up please!
I've made this recipe a number of times and they're wonderful. I do freeze them uncooked in individual portions. Then I just boil them straight from the freezer. If you use too much starch to keep them from sticking the water can get gloopy, but since you're rinsing them, it doesn't really matter. They keep for about 3 months frozen, then they start to get freezer burn. I recently found a source for frozen udon. I'm going to have to make a batch of these and do a taste test. The ready-made ones may win, just because they may beat out sore arms!😂💪
Hi Kathy, thanks so much for reporting back on your freezer process and shelf life! For me, the home made ones are better than the frozen ones, but I still use the frozen ones a lot more than these because of the convenience😆
I do not think that homemade noodles will have to look exactly like those coming from the factory. I like it better when you can see slight incongruities with handmade stuff. The real trick is to perfect imperfection. I love this recipe, it's incredibly helpful!
I subscribe to nobody.... this recipe was clear, concise and explained BEFORE how mistakes can be made in the method You have earnt one of the only subscriptions I’ll ever give Go you.... 💪🏼
I can’t believe this video doesn’t have a million views! This is the best video for udon out there😃 You are so bright, entertaining, and best of all very informative down to the very end! Thank you so much!
Ive made Udon Noodles from a lot of recipes, other than adding an Alkaline agent like Sodium Carbonate which you simply make by baking Baking Sodium, this recipe is so simple and if one tries, they will be amazed by the chewy yet soft texture. Thank you for sharing.
There is a man in Japan that makes udon, but what makes it different he covers the dough and uses his feet to knead the dough. he keeps doing it until he gets the right consistency.
Kneading udon with feet is pretty common, especially when making a big quantity of dough. This is a small enough amount that I prefer to do it by hand because it goes a lot faster (doing it with your feet requires taking it out of the bag and folding it over repeatedly).
The first of your videos that I have seen but must say good presentation and thankyou for explaining at the end that there is an art to making udon and that this is just the starting point in what could be a life long journey on perfecting your own udon!
Welcome to the channel! Japanese food is very simple in terms of the number of ingredients, so the outcome of the dishes are largely dependent on 1) the quality of each ingredient 2) your technique. I try and explain the techniques as best I can in an 8ish minute video but the rest takes practice. I'm here to help if you ever have any questions.
Heey, Thank you so much. I tried it, and it's AMAZING, the texture is chewy and smooth at the same time. Soo worth the two hour wait, but I have to work on the cutting part 😅😅Better then store bought, totally gonna make it myself from now on, No More Store bought Udon😍😍😍😍 Thank u soo much No recipes👍👍💞💞
You're welcome! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it! I'm still working on my cutting technique so I think this is one of those things that you can learn in a day, but it takes a lifetime to perfect 😆
I made udon noodles following this recipe, and put them in homemade ramen noodle soup. I think they were really good and easier to make then I expected, so thank you very much for the good instructions!
i saw you waste those noodles. the noodle gods are angry. but on a serious note your recipe is super fantastic and awesome i appreciate your time and dedication to giving us this recipe
I had a lot of trouble remaking this recipe. I think its because i use all purpose flour. So heres a couple tips that helped me after watching a bunch of other videos. If youre using all purpose you have to use more water, another 30g should do. It should be a little over 50/50 ratio water and flour. If you dont use more water your dough will be more stiff and hard to shape later and the noodles will taste a lot harder. I did 200g flour and 110g water and that finally felt right. I;d like to try using even more. A lot of other videos show stepping on the dough in a plastic bag and i thiink thats a better way to knead the dough. I stepped it out in a bag and rolled it back into a ball five times. Lastly, when cutting cut them way thinner than you think you need to as theyve expanded much more than i thought they would every time. hope this helps :) Edit : i also boiled mine for 17-20 minutes
Hi Nelson, sorry to hear you had trouble with this and thank you for sharing your suggestions. Unfortunately the term "All Purpose Flour" is a vague label that includes a range of gluten content (8-11%) as well as a variety of milling processes that results in a powder that can range from 10 to 300 microns in size. There's also the problem with flours in general where freshly milled flour tends to have a higher moisture content than flour that's been milled and has been on the shelf for a while in a dry environment. I'm glad to hear you were able to find a ratio of water that works for your flour. By the way, udon dough should be much more stiff that dough for pasta or most other types of noodles (soba and ramen are two exceptions). I weight about 75kg and I have to put most of my weight into my hand to flatten the dough with my hand. For more compact people the stepping method might work better, but for me it's easier to use my hands because you don't need to keep taking it out of the bag and folding it (5 times is probably not enough to get the desired texture).
Glad to see this one. I also made the dough following the recipe but even after kneading a few minutes it still stayed lumpy and uneven. I'll be adding a little more water next time.
Uncanny: that's exactly what I was going to tackle next! Thank you for the very detailed video and your honest assessment of the difficulty. Recipes with few ingredients are really useful right now, too.
new subscribe here..1st im just looking a restaurant that serve udon..i realy love udon and i missed it so much but here in Istanbul is only have one store i knew and it is very far it is the NOODLE HOUSE ..so i try to find a way how to satisfy my craving for udon and i found this..im gonna try during my day off..thankz a lot..and i really like ur enthusiasm..Godbless you☺️
I’ve been making this recipe of yours now and it’s my wife’s favourite! So easy and consistent. I do find the all purpose flour needs a little more water than this recipe calls for (about 10-15ml more). I never thought to ask but do you rest the dough in the fridge or outside?
Hi Faraz, I'm happy to hear you've been enjoying this! Flour usually comes out of the mill with a moisture content (i.e. water) of about 14.5% but as it gets shipped and sits on a store shelf the moisture content will drop to half of that, or even less (particularly in a dry climate). This is probably why you needed to add a little more water. As for resting the dough, I usually leave it room temperature (20-25°C). Putting it in the fridge will make it harder to work.
A crazy amount of work! I love Udon noodles, but will continue to buy them fresh at Japanese grocery stores. It's great served cold, mixed with freshly made wasabe and Yamasa soy sauce.
Grated ginger is commonly used as a condiment in Japanese cuisine. As for how it tastes, that's a matter of personal preference so I can't really say whether you'd like it or not.
Hi Iman, I've tried but the dough is too tough and it stopped the motor on my Ktchen Aid. If it's too much exertion for you, you can put the dough in a clean bag and use your feet to step on it to flatten it out, and then remove it from the bag and fold it over twice and repeat. This method is great when you're making a large amount of dough, but for this amount I usually find it's more trouble than it's worth as you need to repeat the process about 20 times to get the dough to a smooth elastic texture.
No, comparing ramen and udon is like comparing oranges to limes. Ramen includes a strong alkali which changes the the texture of the flour while also giving it a yellow color. The dough has a lower % hydration as well and is cut much thinner.
Hi Yilun, I've been working on a recipe for a while but still haven't quite gotten it to place I'm happy with. I'm not sure when it will be ready, but it's on the list😉
To be honest I’ve never tried it, but I think it’s low enough moisture enough it should work. Just make sure you dust the noodles enough so they don’t stick together. You also might want to go straight from the freezer to lots of boiling water or the condensation from defrosting might make them sticky.
What do you think about the passive autolyse process vs. manually kneading? I want to try autolyse with these instructions just because I am a lazy (AKA efficient) cook. Some kneading may ultimately be necessary but from just letting a dough ball rest has many good results in my experience.
It's a cool idea, but the hydration of this dough is so low, I don't think it will work. If you want to try and A/B test it, I'd be curious to hear how it turns out.
I had the same thought once and tried it, but it makes the dough unworkable. Udon flour usually has about 9% gluten. Also there is something about flour processed in Japan that makes it work better for udon than French or American flours I've used in the past. Part of it is how finely the flour is milled but I don't think that is all as the color ends up a creamy white, where as udon made with flour from other countries turns greyish beige. Most udon flour in Japan uses ASW (Australia Standard White) wheat, so I don't think the difference is in the wheat.
I have leftover dashi stocks and eventually looked up to this video. Although mine doesnt looks as good as you made but thank you so much ! Your recipe and explanation is so great! Its tasty!
You might be able to pass it through the rollers to sheet it, but udon dough is too soft to cut with the cutters on a pasta machine. As for thickness you'll want to get it about 3-4mm thick (depending on how wide you plan on cutting your noodles).
Hi Carmen, you could try it but my hunch is that it won't work very well. The dough for udon is much softer and it's rolled out thicker, so using a pressing action (like from a rolling cutter) would probably smush the noodles around the edges. By using a sharp knife, you can use a forward slicing motion which will leave you with nice square corners.
@@NoRecipes Thank you! Yes I was wondering about that and I was talking about the roling cutter you described. Thank you very much for your advice! 🙏🏻✨
Thanks! I tried doing this with a kitchenaid and the motor wasn't powerful enough (it stopped spinning and started smelling like smoke). If you have a more powerful mixer you might be able to get it to work, but try it at your own risk. The traditional method for kneading udon dough is to put the dough in a bag and step on it until it's flat and then fold it over a few times and repeat. It's a little more time consuming, but it makes it easy enough for even kids to be able to do.
You're welcome to try, but I almost fried the motor on mine so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a more powerful one (I just have the base model).
Hi Thao Mi, I'm not sure I understand your question... I do have a lot of recipes for udons with soup (like chicken udon, kitsune udon, curry udon, etc.) But I'm not familiar with a dish called "soup udon".
I've tried mixing the dough in a kitchen aid and it stopped the motor and made it smoke, so I would not recommend it. As for a noodle maker, I haven't tried it so I can't say for sure, but I don't think you'll be able to get the right shape or texture with a pasta maker.
Hi Linda, I tried it in my Kitchenaid and it stopped the motor and it started smoking, so I don't recommend it. The traditional way of doing this is to use your feet, so you could put the dough in a very large ziploc bag and stomp on it for a while, fold it and repeat.
Love your content and enthusiasm! Just one question regarding the udon noodle recipe. Are you using normal table salt or coarse kosher salt. I was a little confused with the comparisons. Thank you for sharing
Thanks Mark! You can use whatever salt you like (as long as it will fully dissolve), but you need to use a weight measurement. Different types of salt take up different amounts of space, so using a volumetric measurement like teaspoons will result in different amounts of salt. By using weight you're always guaranteed to get the correct amount of salt. Put another way, certain brands of kosher salt are very flakey so 17 grams of it may take up twice the amount of volume as table salt, but as long as you weigh it, you'll always have the right amount.
@@NoRecipes Awesome, and thank you. I decided to move forward and used regular table salt and followed your directions to the letter. I am happy to report that the recipe is a complete success, and we completed our 1st batch this evening and moved forward and made a Chicken Stir Fry with the noodles! Easy to follow, easy to execute....fantastic results. thank you for sharing.
@@marks5436 You're welcome! I'm happy to hear you all enjoyed it. I have a bunch of udon-based recipes on this channel (check the pinned comment for links) so I hope you have a chance to try some of them out as well.
@@anushakhan6094 No, glutenous rice flour does not contain gluten and will not work for making udon. I generally suggest alternatives and substitutes in my recipes when there is an option. In this case there is no suitable alternative. You can make noodles using a variety of flours, but you'll need a recipe made especially for that type of flour, and it will not have the same texture as udon made with wheat flour.
Hi so, I tried to make these noodles today and followed all the instructions but when I had to boil them up for 15 minutes, they didn't cook- or well, not fully. The outside was cooked but you could see that inside, it was still raw. I made a new dough but yeah, still raw, any clues what I did wrong?
Hi Lyssors, sorry to hear it didn't work out. It sounds like 15 minutes wasn't long enough for your noodles. This could be for a number of reasons such as the thickness of your noodles, the type of flour you used, and the altitude of the place you live. Udon will almost double in thickness when boiled, so you want to roll and cut them to about half the thickness you want the boiled noodles to be. Next time, I would recommend trying to roll and cut them thinner and then start testing them every minute after the core of the noodles starts going translucent.
