A recent trip to Noodle Hole in Marshall, NC got me wondering, "How hard could it be?" I have to say, before leaving this paragraph, that Noodle Hole dishes up an absolutely superb dish of noodles, and the line out the door is justified.
How hard could it be to make these noodles? Pretty hard, but not impossible, I reckon. Of course my first step was to look at YouTube videos.
There I learned that good noodle dough needs a good balance of elasticity (so it doesn't tear) and extensibility (so it can get very long and skinny without bouncing or shrinking back). I think "extensibility" is a very close substitute for "plasticity." In my limited physics education in college I remember being told about elastic deformation vs. plastic deformation. In dough made with wheat flour, gluten gives the elasticity. Plasticity can come from several causes (long rest and overworking being two), but the shortcut for noodles is the addition of alkaline. I had already heard this about ramen noodles.
So here's the professional Chinese way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wajz9sp7oKE
And here's a shortcut/hack/homegamer method, which introduces elasticity via a readily available ingredient (spoiler: nutritional yeast): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmwRAnd-mQo
If I try it out, I'll report back here.
