Boiled noodles contain fully cooked and parboiled types. Parboiled types include both hokkien and Chinese wet noodles. In addition, wet noodles are parboiled in most of Asia.
Parboiled noodles are produced by partially cooking raw noodles in water, so they have much higher moisture content than raw noodles. After parboiling, Chinese wet noodles and hokkien noodles are rinsed in cold water, drained and coated with 1-2% vegetable oil to prevent sticking.
Boiled udon and soba noodles are not coated with oil. Boiled noodles are re-cooked for another 1-2 minutes before serving.
Frozen noodles include frozen raw and frozen cooked noodles. Both are prepared using a quick-freezing process at −35°C. Steamed noodles are cooked in a steamer to the required moisture content and are mostly alkaline noodles.
Frying the noodles in oil decreases the moisture content of noodles to about 2–5%, whereas in hot air-dried noodles, it is about 8–12%. The heating during frying or hot air drying further gelatinizes the starch and the noodles attain a porous texture, which facilitates rehydration process while cooking the product.
Frying is the preferred method of drying and more than 80% of instant noodles are fried because hot air drying can result in uneven drying that adversely affects the texture of the finished noodles. Non-fried instant noodles also require a longer cooking time.
The drying process reduces the sizes of air cells in the noodles and the noodle structure becomes dense; therefore, dry noodles generally require a longer cooking time, especially for flat and thick noodle types. Dry noodles generally have a harder and less elastic texture than fresh raw noodles upon boiling.
Cooking process of noodles
