21 March 2020 | New Scientist | 51MAKING noodles by hand is an
art, practised most spectacularly
by chefs in China who pull, twist
and stretch a single piece of dough
into hundreds of strands as diners
watch. It takes years to master this,
but some types of noodle are
pretty easy and fun to make at
home. One is biang biang noodles,
which originated in Shaanxi
province in central China.
Hand-pulled noodles are
testament to the stretchy and
springy properties of gluten, a mix
of two groups of wheat proteins:
glutenins and gliadins. When flour
and water combine, glutenins link
into a large network, while tightly
folded gliadins bond weakly
to glutenins and to each other.
Dough is stretchy because
the gliadins act like ball bearings,
allowing glutenins to slide past
each other. It is elastic because
coiled stretches of protein resist
deformation and pull back to their
original shape. To make noodles,
you need the gluten to be strong
enough that you can pull the
dough without it breaking, but
not so strong that it won’t stretch.
One consideration is the protein
content of the flour. Plain flour has
around 10 per cent protein and
strong bread flour has up to 15 per
cent. I have made noodles with
both, but the plain flour dough
was slightly easier to work with.
To make noodles for two, take
300 grams of flour and mix in half
a teaspoon of salt. Salt strengthens
the gluten network because it
interacts with charged portions of
the proteins, helping them bond.
Mix in 150 millilitres of waterwith your hands to make a fairly
stiff dough. Cover and leave for
half an hour for the flour to
hydrate and start forming gluten.
After this, knead the dough for
2 minutes, then divide it into six
pieces and roll each into a log
shape. Coat them with oil, then
cover and leave for 2 hours. In this
time, protease enzymes will break
down the gluten a bit, making the
dough softer and more stretchy.
Meanwhile, prepare the
toppings: minced garlic and
spring onions, ground Sichuan
pepper and chilli flakes.
After 2 hours, get a large pot
of water on the boil and flatten
a log of dough into a rectangle
with a rolling pin. Take a chopstick
and press it lengthways down themiddle of the rectangle to
create two strips that are still
joined together. Pick them up
and, holding each end throughout,
stretch them horizontally, moving
your hands up and down as you
pull to make the noodles slap
on the work surface. Aim for
metre-long noodles. Then pull
the two strips apart.
When you have prepared
half the noodles, cook them for
a minute and then remove from
the water. Prepare and cook the
rest. Now heat 5 tablespoons of oil
until almost smoking. In a bowl,
pile the toppings on the noodles,
then pour over the hot oil. Add
2 tbsp soy sauce and 2 tbsp Chinese
black vinegar, then mix until all
the noodles are coated. ❚It is easy and fun to make hand-pulled noodles if you understand
how gluten works, says Sam WongPuzzles
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on the world p53SIMONREDDY/ALAMYSam Wong is social media
editor at New Scientist.
Follow him @samwong1Science of cooking Week 12
It’s all about the stretch
Science of cooking online
All projects are posted at
newscientist.com/cooking Email: [email protected]What you need
Flour
Salt
Vegetable oil
Garlic
Spring onions
Sichuan pepper
Chilli flakes
Soy sauce
Chinese black vinegar
Next week
Pastry: gain mastery
over this kitchen staple by
understanding how fat
and water interact with flour,
and make a rhubarb tart
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