Processing Technology

Abstract

The processing of noodles looks simple but it requires skills and knowledge to obtain the desired quality with better consumer acceptability. The processing slightly differs at home scale and industrial manufacturing of yellow alkaline noodles. It should be kept in mind that currently yellow alkaline noodles are coming more from cottage industry than multinational and large-scale processing unit. One of the prime reason for this scenario is the lower shelf life of the yellow alkaline noodles. If we look at household level, the basic steps for production of yellow alkaline noodles are weighing of ingredients, dissolving the salts in water, mixing in different speeds, resting, sheeting and compounding, slitting, cooking/parboiling, rinsing and cooling, and oiling. There is little gluten development during the mixing step, since the water level is relatively low, resulting in the formation of crumbly dough with small and uniform particle size. After mixing, the dough is rested for 20–40 min before compounding (Moss et al. 1986). The dough-resting step is required to enable a uniform penetration of water into dough particles, resulting in smoother and less streaky dough as the protein mellows, and becomes more extensible (Morris et al. 2000). The compressed sheet passes through a series of rollers thus reducing the thickness. Later, the specialized cutters further shape the sheet into desirable width with a slitter. In some areas, the process of sheeting and cutting is carried out using the same machine. Wet yellow alkaline noodles are usually parboiled for 60–90 s to achieve 80–90 % gelatinization of starch. Several important steps need to be taken to ensure optimal cooking quality.