Noodle

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 either those derived from Chinese cuisine or Italian cuisine.

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 are often pan-fried or deep-fried. Noodles are often served with an accompanying sauce or in a 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 word English, 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 4000-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]

Food historians generally estimate that pasta's origin is from among the Mediterranean countries:^[7] a homogenous mixture of flour and water called itrion as described by 2nd century Greek physician Galen,^[8] among 3rd to 5th century Jews as itrium as described by the Jerusalem Talmud^[9] and as itriyya (Arabic cognate of the Greek word), string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking as defined by the 9th century Aramean physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali.^[10]

Historical variations

East Asia

There are over 1,200 types of noodles commonly consumed in China today.^[11] Due to the vast diversity of Chinese noodles available, there is no unifying Chinese word for the Western concept of "noodles". In Mandarin, miàn (simplified Chinese: 面; traditional Chinese: 麵) refers to noodles made from wheat flour and grains such as millet, sorghum. and oats. While fěn (粉) refers to noodles made from other starches, particularly rice flour and mung bean starch.^[12]

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.^{[13][14][15][16]}

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, which was brought through Turco-Mongol.

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]

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.^[22]

Polish Jews

Zacierki is a type of noodle found in Polish Jewish cuisine.^[23] 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.^[24][25]

Types by primary ingredient

• 
  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

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