Noodles

Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures and made into a variety of shapes. The most common noodles are those derived from either Chinese cuisine or Italian cuisine. Chinese noodles are known by a variety of different names, while Italian noodles are known as pasta.

While long, thin strips may be the most common, many varieties of noodles are cut into waves, helices, tubes, strings, or shells, or folded over, or cut into other shapes. Noodles are usually cooked in boiling water, sometimes with cooking oil or salt added. They can also be steamed, pan-fried, deep-fried, or baked. Noodles are often served with an accompanying sauce or in a soup, the latter being known as noodle soup. Noodles can be refrigerated for short-term storage or dried and stored for future use.

Etymology

The word for noodles in English was borrowed in the 18th century from the German word ' (). The German word likely came from or , and referred to any dumpling, though mostly of wheat.

Colloquial uses for noodle to refer to someone's head, or to a "dummy" are unrelated, and likely came from the older English word ''noddle.''

History

Origin

The earliest written record of noodles is found in a book dated to the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE). Noodles made from wheat dough became a prominent food for the people of the Han dynasty. The oldest evidence of noodles was from 4,000 years ago in China. In 2005, a team of archaeologists reported finding an earthenware bowl that contained 4,000-year-old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, made by the Qijia culture. These noodles were said to resemble lamian, a type of Chinese noodle. Analyzing the husk phytoliths and starch grains present in the sediment associated with the noodles, they were identified as millet belonging to '' Panicum miliaceum'' and '' Setaria italica''. However, other researchers cast doubt that Lajia's noodles were made from specifically millet: it is difficult to make pure millet noodles, it is unclear whether the analyzed residue were directly derived from Lajia's noodles themselves, starch morphology after cooking shows distinctive alterations that does not fit with Lajia's noodles, and it is uncertain whether the starch-like grains from Laijia's noodles are starch as they show some non-starch characteristics.

The general consensus among food historians is that pasta originated somewhere in the Mediterranean region: a homogenous mixture of flour and water called ''itrion'' was described by 2nd-century Greek physician Galen, among 3rd to 5th-century Jews ''itrium'' was described by the Jerusalem Talmud and ''itriyya'' (Arabic cognate of the Greek word), referred to string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking - as defined by the 9th-century physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali.

Historical variations

East Asia

There are over 1,200 types of noodles commonly consumed in China today. They vary widely according to the region of production, ingredients, shape or width, and manner of preparation. Due to the vast diversity of Chinese noodles, there is no single Chinese word equivalent to the Western concept of "noodles," nor is the notion of "noodles" as a unified food category recognized within Chinese cuisine.

In Standard Mandarin, ''miàn'' (simplified Chinese: 面; traditional Chinese: 麵) means "dough" but can be used to refer to noodles made from wheat flour and grains such as millet, sorghum, and oats. While ''fěn'' (粉) means "powder" but can be used to refer to noodles made from other starches, particularly rice flour and mung bean starch.

Wheat noodles in Japan (''udon'') were adapted from a Chinese recipe as early as the 9th century. Innovations continued, such as noodles made with buckwheat ('' naengmyeon'') were developed in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (1392–1897). Ramen noodles, based on southern Chinese noodle dishes from Guangzhou but named after the northern Chinese lamian, became common in Japan by 1900.

Central Asia

Kesme or erişte noodles were eaten by Turkic peoples by the 13th century.

West Asia

Ash reshteh (noodles in thick soup with herbs) is one of the most popular dishes in some middle eastern countries such as Iran.

Europe

In the 1st century BCE, Horace wrote of fried sheets of dough called '' lagana''. However, the cooking method does not correspond to the current definition of either a fresh or dry pasta product.

Italy

The first concrete information on pasta products in Italy dates back to the Etruscan civilization, the Testaroli. The first noodles will only appear much later, in the 10th or 11th centuries, and there is a popular legend about Marco Polo bringing the first pasta back from China. Modern historians do not give much credibility to the story and rather believe the first noodles were imported earlier from the Arabs, in a form called ''rishta''. Pasta has taken on a variety of shapes, often based on regional specializations.

Germany

In Germany, documents dating from 1725 mention '' Spätzle''. Medieval illustrations are believed to place this noodle at an even earlier date.

Armenia

An Armenian variety of noodle, Arishta, is prepared from wheat, water and salt. It is thick and is usually eaten with matzoon, clarified butter and garlic.

Ancient Israel and diaspora

The Latinized word ''itrium'' referred to a kind of boiled dough. Arabs adapted noodles for long journeys in the fifth century, the first written record of dry pasta. Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote in 1154 that ''itriyya'' was manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily. ''Itriyya'' was also known by the Persian Jews during early Persian rule (when they spoke Aramaic) and during Islamic rule. It referred to a small soup noodle, of Greek origin, prepared by twisting bits of kneaded dough into shape, resembling Italian orzo.

=Polish Jews

=
''Zacierki'' is a type of noodle found in Polish Jewish cuisine.
It was part of the rations distributed to Jewish victims in the Łódź Ghetto by the Nazis.
(Out of the "major ghettos", Łódź was the most affected by hunger, starvation and malnutrition-related deaths.)
The diary of a young Jewish girl from Łódź recounts a fight she had with her father over a spoonful of ''zacierki'' taken from the family's meager supply of 200 grams a week.

Types by primary ingredient

Wheat

*'' Arishta'': Armenian thick noodles made from wheat, salt and water combined into stiff dough.
*'' Bakmi'': Indonesian Chinese yellow wheat noodles with egg and meat, usually pork. The Chinese word bak (肉), which means "meat" (or more specifically pork), is the vernacular pronunciation in Hokkien, but not in Teochew (which pronounced it as nek), suggesting an original Hokkien root. Mi derives from miàn. In Chinese, miàn (simplified Chinese: 面; traditional Chinese: 麵; often transliterated as "mien" or "mein") refers to noodles made from wheat.
* ''Chūka men'' (中華麺): Japanese for "Chinese noodles", used for ramen, champon, and yakisoba
*'' Kesme'': flat, yellow or reddish brown Central Asian wheat noodles
*'' Kalguksu'' (칼국수): knife-cut Korean noodles
*''Lamian'' (拉麵): hand-pulled Chinese noodles
*'' Mee pok'' (麪薄): flat, yellow Chinese noodles, common in Southeast Asia
*'' Long Pasta'': Italian noodles typically made from durum wheat (semolina)
*'' Reshte'': Central Asian, flat noodle, very pale in colour (almost white) used in Persian and Afghani cuisine
*'' Sōmen'' (そうめん): thin variety of Japanese wheat noodles, often coated with vegetable oil
*'' Thukpa'' (): flat Tibetan noodles
*''Udon'' (うどん): thicker variety of Japanese wheat noodles
*''Kishimen'' (きしめん): flat variety of Japanese wheat noodles

Rice

*'' Bánh phở'' (餅𬖾), thick fresh rice noodle used in popular Vietnamese phở noodles soup
*Flat or thick rice noodles, also known as '' hé fěn'' or ''ho fun'' (河粉), ''kway teow'' (粿條) or ''sen yai'' (เส้นใหญ่)
* Rice vermicelli: thin rice noodles, also known as ''mǐfěn'' (米粉) or ''bee hoon'' or ''sen mee'' (เส้นหมี่) or "bún"
*'' Sevai'', a variant of rice vermicelli common in South India
*'' Idiyappam'' is an Indian rice noodle
*'' Mixian'' and '' migan'' noodles of southwest China
*'' Khanom chin'' is a fermented rice noodle used in Thai cuisine

Buckwheat

*'' Makguksu'' (막국수): local specialty of Gangwon Province in South Korea
*''Memil naengmyeon'' (메밀 냉면): Korean noodles made of buckwheat, slightly more chewy than soba
*'' Soba'' (蕎麦): Japanese buckwheat noodles
*'' Pizzoccheri'': Italian buckwheat '' tagliatelle'' from Valtellina, usually served with a melted cheese sauce

Egg

Egg noodles are made of a mixture of egg and flour.
*'' Youmian'' or ''thin noodles'': Asian egg noodles common throughout China and Southeast Asia
*'' Lokshen'': wide egg noodles used in Eastern European Jewish cuisine
*'' Kesme'' or ''erişte'': Turkic egg noodles
*'' Spätzle'': Egg noodle generally associated with the southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
*Certain egg-based long pasta, such as '' Tagliatelle'', '' Fettuccine'', and '' Pappardelle''

Others

* Acorn noodles, also known as ''dotori guksu'' (도토리국수) in Korean, are made of acorn meal, wheat flour, wheat germ, and salt.
*''Olchaeng-i guksu'', meaning ''tadpole noodles'', are made of corn soup put through a noodle maker right into cold water. It was named for its features. These Korean noodles are mostly eaten in Gangwon-do.
*Cellophane noodles are made from mung bean. These can also be made from potato starch, canna starch or various starches of the same genre.
*''Chilk naengmyeon'' (칡 냉면): Korean noodles made of starch from kudzu root, known as kuzuko in Japanese, chewy and semitransparent.
* ''Shirataki'' noodles (しらたき): Japanese noodles made of konjac (devil's tongue).
* Kelp noodles, made from seaweed.
*''Mie jagung'', Indonesian noodles made from corn starch.
*''Mie sagu'', Indonesian noodles made from sagu.
*''Mie singkong'' or ''mie mocaf'', Indonesian noodles made from cassava.

File:Pasta 2006 5.jpg, Egg pasta
File:Pasta 2006 6.jpg, Fresh pasta
File:Pasta 2006 1.jpg, Long pasta
File:Idiyappam with Egg Masala Curry.jpg, Idiyappam, Indian rice noodles
File:Mixian Rice Noodles Being Prepared in Copper Pots.jpg, Mixian (米线) rice noodles being cooked in copper pots (铜锅), China
File:Egg noodles.JPG, Wide, uncooked egg noodles
File:Noodle.jpg, Some different types of noodles commonly found in Southeast Asia

Types of dishes

*Baked noodles: Boiled and drained noodles are combined with other ingredients and baked. Common examples include many casseroles.
*Basic noodles: These are cooked in water or broth, then drained. Other foods can be added or the noodles are added to other foods (see fried noodles) or the noodles can be served plain with a dipping sauce or oil to be added at the table. In general, noodles are soft and absorb flavors.
*Chilled noodles: noodles that are served cold, sometimes in a salad. Examples include Thai glass noodle salad and cold udon.
* Fried noodles: dishes made of noodles stir fried with various meats, seafood, vegetables, and dairy products. Examples include chow mein, lo mein, mie goreng, hokkien mee, some varieties of pancit, yakisoba, tallarín saltado, and pad thai.
*Noodle soup: noodles served in broth. Examples include phở, beef noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, ramen, laksa, mie ayam, saimin, and batchoy.

Preservation

* Instant noodles
* Frozen noodles

See also

References

Bibliography

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* Errington, Frederick et al. eds. ''The Noodle Narratives: The Global Rise of an Industrial Food into the Twenty-First Century'' (U. of California Press; 2013) 216 pages; studies three markets for instant noodles: Japan, the United States, and Papua New Guinea.
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Ancient dishes
Chinese inventions
East Asian cuisine
Staple foods