
How to Ramen-ize Dried Pasta and Rice - tptacek
http://luckypeach.com/how-to-ramen-ize-dried-pasta-rice/
======
tptacek
To me, this feels like part of a cooking change we'll remember in 20 years.

We were all taught to cook dry pasta in a giant pot full of boiling salted
water, the more water the better. No! Not optimal!

A trivially simple change fundamentally alters the process for the better:
soak the pasta in cold water for a couple hours (as far in advance as you
like, for convenience). The pasta rehydrates and takes on the texture (but not
flavor) of cooked pasta.

Cook it in any hot liquid, _quickly_ (3-4 minutes). Done.

The Ideas In Food book (which is _a-m-a-z-i-n-g_ and nerdy) plays around with
this technique in a bunch of interesting ways. But they didn't manage to turn
box pasta into ramen noodles. Turns out: not so difficult if you use the
modern technique.

This article gets even cooler than making ramen at home. Read it! Strong
recommend! Extremely hacker-y!

Also: Lucky Peach is pretty great.

~~~
ZoFreX
Have you tried this yet? How does the end result compare to forking over the
extra $ for fresh pasta rather than dried?

Between this tip and the baking pasta one, my girlfriend is going to look at
me very oddly next time I cook pasta.

~~~
SixSigma
> How does the end result compare to forking over the extra $ for fresh pasta
> rather than dried?

Why not just make your own fresh pasta, it's not that hard!

I have an attachment for my food mixer - so all I have to do is put my dry
flour in the mixing bowl until the gluten is developed and then feed it
through the pasta rollers.

$200 gets you a dedicated machine

[http://www.pasta-recipes-made-easy.com/electric-pasta-
machin...](http://www.pasta-recipes-made-easy.com/electric-pasta-
machines.html)

or even cheaper

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDImZ493V3U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDImZ493V3U)

Watch Gordon Ramsay do it by hand

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VzXH3o88mw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VzXH3o88mw)

~~~
tptacek
Because it's really messy, involves a lot of counter space, takes a fair
amount of extra time, and isn't shelf stable.

Making your own pasta is a great idea. Also delicious. But it's like a Sunday
afternoon idea.

Turning dried pasta into alkalized ramen-style noodles, though, is something
you can set up in 4 minutes on a Tuesday night and then on Thursday when you
remember you did that setup have for dinner in 3 minutes of cooking time.

The two cooking techniques just aren't comparable. The point of the Ideas In
Food technique isn't to approximate fresh pasta. It's to make a better and
more interesting use of dried pasta, which is simply a different product.

~~~
carlob
> [fresh pasta] isn't shelf stable.

You can freeze it.

I use something like this [1] to make pasta very often. Ok, making ravioli is
something that takes at least 30 minutes (and up to 4 hours if you're making
an elaborate recipe for a large party). But you can make tagliatelle for four
in the time the water boils.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/CucinaPro-150-Imperia-Pasta-
Machine/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/CucinaPro-150-Imperia-Pasta-
Machine/dp/B0001IXA0I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422306543&sr=8-1&keywords=imperia)

~~~
tptacek
See definition of "shelf stable". :)

~~~
carlob
And you can cook without thawing it first :)

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kazinator
The "ramenize" process they describe turns pasta and rice into something that
resembles _instant_ ramen. Clearly, they haven't had normal ramen (from non-
instant dried pasta noodles) or even fresh noodles. The verb "ramenize" seems
rather ill-conceived.

Properly made ramen does have noodles with "al dente" texture, not mush. Some
of the cheaper instant noodles turn into mush that practically falls apart on
your tongue; sounds like what these guys are going for: that's what "ramen"
means to them, sadly.

There is "ramenized" rice in Japan: stuff you can get that comes in a heat-
resistant pouch made of a composite of plastic and aluminum foil that you open
at the top and just pour in boiling water. A minute or two later, you have
fluffy, soft rice. It's useful for traveling.

Let's just hope the word "ramenize" doesn't take off in Japan. Because then
they will turn it into katakana, after which it will be "romanized" again,
which will give us, good grief, "(re-)romanized ramenize".

~~~
eps
Pasta pre-soaked in alkaline water will have "al dente" texture, no mush.
That's just lateral take on alkaline ramen noodles.

So pretty much all your rant doesn't apply. Thanks for playing, try again next
time.

~~~
semperfaux
And in the actual context of the way "ramen" is misused in the article, your
snarky response misses the point of the GP. Thanks for trying, play better
next time.

------
dunham
The Ideas in Food guys later played with freezing individual portions these
ramenized noodles (which I've been meaning to try for an easy work lunch, but
haven't gotten around to yet).

[http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2014/12/ramen-
on-d...](http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2014/12/ramen-on-
demand.html)

~~~
jtheory
Warning, not all noodles freeze well.

Lasagne freezes well (in my experience) but we once tried freezing fresh Asian
noodles, and they were mushy and inedible when thawed -- I'm guessing the
water content was sufficiently high that the ice crystals tore them up inside.

------
ecmendenhall
The Harold McGee article linked on the right mentions that the alkaline
ingredients in ramen noodles are slightly different from baking soda:

> _As for the particular alkaline ingredients that are added to noodles,
> Chinese and Asian alkaline noodles, in general, contain potassium and sodium
> carbonate, which are not the sort of things that we usually have lying
> around in our kitchens. They’re carbonate salts of those metals, sodium and
> potassium. They’re standard ingredients in Asia but not so much in the
> West._

> _However, you can easily make your own version of them by taking baking soda
> and baking it at a low temperature—200°, 250°F—for about an hour. You take
> baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and turn it into sodium carbonate just by
> that gentle heat. Now, that leaves out potassium carbonate, but I’ve found
> that when I’ve experimented with it, simply using sodium carbonate gives you
> most of the effect that you’re looking for in an alkaline noodle._

Would it make sense to prebake the baking soda? I'll have to experiment
myself.

~~~
dagw
My local Asian supermarket sells the alkaline McGee is talking about as "lye
water". Check if yours does as well. A lot easier to just buy a bottle rather
then screwing around with baking soda in the oven.

~~~
jessaustin
Yeah but sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), which McGee is baking up in his oven,
isn't as dangerous to use and have around as sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is.

~~~
dagw
The stuff sold as "Lye Water" in Asian supermarkets isn't actual lye (NaOH),
but rather a dilution of potassium carbonate or a mixture of sodium carbonate
and potassium carbonate.

------
adam-f
Is anyone else having cognitive dissonance with the % of ingredients in so-
many-grams of water?

Does 1% baking soda and 0.5% salt in 2000 grams of water mean 20 grams of
baking soda and 10 grams of salt?

~~~
nkatsaros
That's exactly what it means. It's called baker's percentage[1]. I find it
useful for getting repeatable results when scaling a recipe.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_percentage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_percentage)

------
jcomis
Crazy, I have been experimenting with this very thing since I read about
creating alkaline noodles. The texture is not exactly optimal (more
chewy/stretchy), at least compared to traditional. Also tried adding small
amounts of baked soda to typical home made pasta dough base, with less success
(tastes different).

Also inspired me to add semolina flour to my ramen noodles rather than AP
which I love.

~~~
tptacek
American alkalized noodles are also a hobbyhorse of Dave Arnold's; another
reason to listen to his (amazing) Cooking Issues podcast, which is amazing and
people should listen to it, because it's amazing.

~~~
attackcrow
Can you recommend some episodes to start with?

~~~
heydenberk
Not the parent, but I'd recommend listening to whatever recent episode, in a
less intentional, more ambient way. It uses a talk show format, and while it's
full of fascinating information, it's very casual and unstructured.

------
nether
Sounds like Mountain House beef stroganoff!

