Noodles are a type of food typically made from unleavened dough which is 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. Italian noodles are known as pasta, while Chinese noodles are known by a variety of different names as there is no single unifying concept or terminology for "noodles" within Chinese culture. Additionally, many Chinese foods labeled as "noodles" in the English language are not made from dough but are called "noodles" because they serve a similar culinary role to dough-based noodles.
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 language word
Nudel ().
The German word likely came from Knodel or Nutel, 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
Han dynasty period (25–220 CE), and describes a
noodle soup dish called "tang bing".
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, made by the
Qijia culture.
These noodles were said to resemble
lamian, a type of Chinese noodle.
Analyzing the husk
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 medical text in Arabic written by a Jewish doctor living in Tunisia in the early 900s" (Dickie 2008: 21).]
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 Chinese, 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. Similarly, 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 cuisine 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 after World War II.
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.
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 Jewish 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.
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.
Polish Jews
Zacierki is a type of noodle found in
Polish Jewish.
It was part of the rations distributed to
Holocaust 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
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Arishta: Armenian thick noodles made from wheat, salt and water combined into stiff dough.
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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.
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Chūka men (中華麺): Japanese for "Chinese noodles", used for ramen, champon, and yakisoba
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Kesme: flat, yellow or reddish brown Central Asian wheat noodles
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Kalguksu (칼국수): knife-cut Korean noodles
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Lamian (拉麵): hand-pulled Chinese noodles
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Mee pok (麪薄): flat, yellow Chinese noodles, common in Southeast Asia
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Long Pasta: Italian noodles typically made from durum wheat (semolina)
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Reshte: , flat noodle, very pale in colour (almost white) used in Persian cuisine and Afghanistan cuisine
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Sōmen (そうめん): thin variety of Japanese wheat noodles, often coated with vegetable oil
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Thukpa (): flat Tibetan noodles
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Udon (うどん): thicker variety of Japanese wheat noodles
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Kishimen (きしめん): flat variety of Japanese wheat noodles
Rice
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Bánh phở (餅𬖾), thick fresh rice noodle used in popular Vietnamese phở noodles soup
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Flat or thick rice noodles, also known as Shahe fen or ho fun (河粉), kway teow (粿條) or sen yai (เส้นใหญ่)
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Rice vermicelli: thin rice noodles, also known as mǐfěn (米粉) or bee hoon or sen mee (เส้นหมี่) or "bún"
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Sevai, a variant of rice vermicelli common in South India
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Idiyappam is an Indian rice noodle
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Mixian and migan noodles of southwest China
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Khanom chin is a fermented rice noodle used in Thai cuisine
Buckwheat
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Makguksu (막국수): local specialty of Gangwon Province in South Korea
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Memil naengmyeon (메밀 냉면): noodles made of buckwheat, slightly more chewy than soba
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Soba (蕎麦): Japanese buckwheat noodles
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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.
Others
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Acorn noodles, also known as dotori guksu (도토리국수) in Korean, are made of acorn meal, wheat flour, wheat germ, and salt.
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Olchaeng-i guksu, meaning tadpole noodles, are made of maize 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.
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Cellophane noodles are made from mung bean. These can also be made from potato starch, canna starch or various starches of the same genre.
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Chilk naengmyeon (칡 냉면): Korean noodles made of starch from kudzu root, known as kuzuko in Japanese, chewy and semitransparent.
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Shirataki noodles (しらたき): Japanese noodles made of konjac (devil's tongue).
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Kelp noodles, made from seaweed.
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Mie jagung, Indonesian noodles made from Maize starch.
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Mie sagu, Indonesian noodles made from sago.
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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
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Baked noodles: Boiled and drained noodles are combined with other ingredients and Baking. Common examples include many .
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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.
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Chilled noodles: noodles that are served cold, sometimes in a salad. Examples include Thai salads and cold udon.
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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.
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Noodle soup: noodles served in broth. Examples include phở, beef noodle soup, chicken noodle soup, ramen, laksa, mie ayam, saimin, and batchoy.
Preservation
See also
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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