Boil, remove from the pan, add the soul – ham sausage and eggs – and a bowl of instant noodles in three or four minutes is done.
Eager to catch the noodles, blow them hard, and then take a deep breath —well, still the taste of childhood.
I still remember when I was a child, as soon as I smelled the aroma of instant noodles, I would drool, and there was even a legend among my classmates that workers stayed up late to weave instant noodles.
Why make instant noodles bent? This question has been bothering you.
Bending is a matter of nature
As an adult, you must now understand that instant noodles are not woven with sweater sticks. After all, in 2020 alone, the world will eat about 116.6 billion servings of instant noodles, and even if the weavers work hard every day 996, they can't keep up with the speed of people eating noodles.
So, how is instant noodles produced?
Like regular noodles, instant noodles first need to go through the noodle process.
The characteristics of flour play a key role in the quality of instant noodles. Take the protein in flour, for example, the higher the content, the harder the cooked instant noodles will be, and the darker the color.
In addition to flour and water, salt, alkali, compound phosphate, thickener, emulsifier and other excipients are added to the noodle process to improve the quality of instant noodles. The reason why instant noodles are so tender and smooth that we can't stop sucking is largely due to processing accessories such as compound phosphate and guar gum (a thickener).
Instant noodles and noodle process / Insider
After full and mature, the dough will be repeatedly flattened and eventually turned into a dough that is only a few millimeters thick.
The thickness of the noodles produced varies greatly from the packaging of instant noodles.
To meet the needs of brewing and eating, the thickness of the noodles in the cup is only about 0.3 mm, while the thickness of the cooked bag fried instant noodles is slightly higher, about 1-2 mm.
Instant noodle compound calendering session / Insider
However, the above steps are not much different from the production process of straight-tube noodles, and the key to making instant noodles really bend is the cutting and folding of flowers.
It is a cut-out folding device, and when a cicada-like-wing strap passes through here, it is first cut into noodles of the same width and then passed through a rectangular molded guide box. Here, the noodles collide with the front and rear walls inside the guide box and then begin to curl up.
Schematic diagram of the process of cutting strips and folding flowers / Bai Baolan, Liu Yan, & Li Xiang. Food Technology. Beijing University of Technology Press.
However, this is not enough.
The lower part of the molded guide box is placed with a "conveyor belt" that can regulate the speed. The speed of this "conveyor belt" is only about 1/8-1/6 of the speed of noodle production. Because of the speed difference, the noodles pile up at the outlet, thus forming a wavy shape.
The speed difference limits the stretch of the noodles, forcing the noodles to bend / YouTube@Best Ever Food Review Show
Why is instant noodles so bent
When the first instant noodles with chicken soup were invented in 1958, they were already curved in shape. Although the production process has been greatly improved today, most instant noodles still inherit this tradition.
Why bother bending instant noodles?
First of all, of course, for the sake of good looks, the unique "perm style" can make instant noodles stand out from the crowd and make people never forget it. However, more importantly, it can play a lot of role in the subsequent production and transportation process.
After being made into a wavy shape, the instant noodles need to be steamed in a rectangular steaming box, this step is to change the noodles from raw to cooked, so that we can eat them later.
If the instant noodles are not "bent", but choose to do "straight face", in the case of the same production speed, a longer steaming box is required.
The bigger trouble is that the straight noodles side by side tend to stick together easily when steamed. Friends who have cooked noodles should have a deep understanding, when we are below, there are always a few noodles will be difficult to give up, not easy to cook, bite and even see the white core in the noodles, helplessly we can only give them up.
Instant noodles have almost no such troubles, and the curved shape gives enough space between the noodles and the noodles, which allows the water vapor to move around, and the noodles are not easy to stick while cooking quickly.
Similarly, in the dehydration and drying process, whether it is fried or air-dried, the void of the instant noodle allows the moisture to overflow more quickly.
Especially for fried instant noodles, shortening the time of frying is conducive to reducing the inhalation of oil.
Now, the crispy instant noodles are finally being packed. Compared with straight noodles, the length of instant noodles is shortened by about 2/3, saving a lot of packaging costs. For producers who even have to worry about the beef pellets in the ingredients, how can they miss such a good opportunity?
In addition, manufacturers do not have to worry about instant noodles crushing into slag during transportation, resulting in too much loss, because the numerous curved structures enhance the compressive resistance of instant noodles.
As in the production process above, bending instant noodles creates a lot of space, which allows the noodles to be fully in contact with the soup while also allowing it to be cooked quickly. After all, if you cook for too long, you may lose patience.
With a snort, the noodles went down to the stomach and a mouthful of satisfaction.
Carefully you will find that compared to straight noodles, the curved shape of instant noodles allows us to fish out the noodles more efficiently, and we don't have to worry about it slipping off and splashing our own face with the soup. A manufacturer of instant noodles claims that this is because the "several" font of instant noodles increases the resistance between forks and noodles.
I have to say that the curved design of instant noodles contains a lot of ingenuity. However, there are also instant noodle manufacturers who try to break this "instant noodles only bend" cognition. In 2010, some brands launched "face-to-face" instant noodle products, which also caused quite a stir at the time, but unfortunately, this product has disappeared in the market.
It seems that instant noodles are still bent.