Asian customers prefer bright yellow alkaline noodles that retain a stable color for 24–48 hour after preparation and perceive red or dull grey colors as undesirable.
Noodles nutritional quality depends on wheat quality, basic flour specifications, ingredient functions, and production variables according to the type of noodles process. Yellow alkaline noodles are prepared from wheat flour along with water and alkaline salt as their basic ingredients and are usually parboiled. In this regard, noodles prepared with the addition of egg (wantan noodles) are also popular which are parboiled using steam and dried.
The noodle properties are firm, chewy, springy texture and bright yellow appearance due to the natural flour flavonoid pigments at alkaline pH. Yellow noodles are typically made by adding alkaline salt to the ingredients. The alkaline salt added imparts the unique features of Chinese noodles with pH 9.0-11.0 , whereas the yellowness of the noodles is produced when the flavones react with the alkaline water.
Yellow alkaline noodles are usually sold in wet form containing moisture contents in the range of 50–60 % (final product). Chinese noodles are made from wheat flour that should contain protein contents in the range of 10–13 % but preferable protein contents are in the range 11–12 %.
In the interior of alkaline noodles, the inherently low-swelling starches of hard wheats are further restricted from swelling by the carbonate salts. The alkaline salts toughen the dough, affect the pasting properties of starch by retarding gelatinization and increasing paste viscosity, inhibit enzyme activity, and suppress enzymatic darkening.
Flour used for yellow alkaline noodles usually contains 11.0–13.5 % proteins. The gluten proteins constitute∼ 80 % of proteins present in wheat flour. They are further comprised of two districts types, that is, gliadin and glutenin. The gliadin fractions are important in formation of disulfide bonds thus rendering firmness against aggregate formation, while glutenin are elastic in nature.
High quality yellow noodles should be free from discoloration, having symmetrical dimensions, should not be sticky after being cooked, as well as showing sufficient firmness and springiness.
Characteristics of yellow alkaline noodles
