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 Nudel (German: [ˈnuːdl̩] ^ⓘ).^[2] The German word likely came from Knodel or Nutel, and referred to any dumpling, though mostly of wheat.^[3]

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.^[3]

History

Origin

The earliest written record of noodles is found in a book dated to the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE).^[1] Noodles made from wheat dough became a prominent food for the people of the Han dynasty.^[4] The oldest evidence of noodles was from 4,000 years ago in China.^[1] In 2005, a team of archaeologists reported finding an earthenware bowl that contained 4,000-year-old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site.^[5] These noodles were said to resemble lamian, a type of Chinese noodle.^[5] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

The general consensus among food historians is that pasta originated somewhere in the Mediterranean region:^[7] a homogenous mixture of flour and water called itrion was described by 2nd-century Greek physician Galen,^[8] among 3rd to 5th-century Jews itrium was described by the Jerusalem Talmud^[9] 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.^[10]

Historical variations

East Asia

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.^[17] However, the cooking method does not correspond to the current definition of either a fresh or dry pasta product.^[18]

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,^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[21]

Armenia

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.^[22]

Ancient Israel and diaspora

The Latinized word itrium referred to a kind of boiled dough.^[8] 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. Itriya 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.^[23]

Polish Jews

Zacierki is a type of noodle found in Polish Jewish cuisine.^[24] 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.^[25]^[26]

Types by primary ingredient

See also: List of noodles

WheatArishta: 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 yakisobaKesme: flat, yellow or reddish brown Central Asian wheat noodlesKalguksu (칼국수): knife-cut Korean noodlesLamian (拉麵): hand-pulled Chinese noodlesMee pok (麪薄): flat, yellow Chinese noodles, common in Southeast AsiaLong 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 cuisineSōmen (そうめん): thin variety of Japanese wheat noodles, often coated with vegetable oilThukpa (Tibetan: ཐུག་པ་, Wylie: thug pa): flat Tibetan noodlesUdon (うどん): thicker variety of Japanese wheat noodlesKishimen (きしめん): flat variety of Japanese wheat noodlesRiceMain article: Rice noodlesBánh phở (餅𬖾), thick fresh rice noodle used in popular Vietnamese phở noodles soupFlat 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 IndiaIdiyappam is an Indian rice noodleMixian and migan noodles of southwest ChinaKhanom chin is a fermented rice noodle used in Thai cuisine

BuckwheatMakguksu (막국수): local specialty of Gangwon Province in South KoreaMemil naengmyeon (메밀 냉면): Korean noodles made of buckwheat, slightly more chewy than sobaSoba (蕎麦): Japanese buckwheat noodlesPizzoccheri: Italian buckwheat tagliatelle from Valtellina, usually served with a melted cheese sauceEggEgg noodles are made of a mixture of egg and flour.Youmian or thin noodles: Asian egg noodles common throughout China and Southeast Asia^[27]Lokshen: wide egg noodles used in Eastern European Jewish cuisine^[28]Kesme or erişte: Turkic egg noodles^[29]Spätzle: Egg noodle generally associated with the southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria^[30]OthersAcorn 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.

Egg pasta
Fresh pasta
Long pasta
Idiyappam, Indian rice noodles
Mixian (米线) rice noodles being cooked in copper pots (铜锅), China
Wide, uncooked egg noodles
Some different types of noodles commonly found in Southeast Asia