Noodle Making

Overview

Turn flour into dough and shape it into udon, soba, somen and other noodles. A noodle workshop takes field harvests beyond milling, using dedicated tools to give dough its shape.

Things to enjoy

Choose flour and liquid

Choose wheat or buckwheat flour and prepare dough for the noodle you want. Some noodles use alkaline noodle water.

Shape noodles in different ways

Different combinations of tools let you roll and cut, extrude or stretch noodles.

Finish a noodle dish

Take fresh noodles to the kitchen and combine them with broth and toppings for a finished meal.

Key items

IshiusuA stone mortar for milling grain.
Wheat FlourWheat milled in an usu.
Soba FlourPale flour milled from buckwheat in an ishiusu.
Nihachi Soba FlourBuckwheat flour cut with wheat flour as a binder.
Rice FlourWhite flour milled from polished rice in an ishiusu.
Plant AshThe ash left from burning plants.
Lye TubA tub of ash with water run through it, the lye dripping from the plug hole in its bottom.
Kansui BottleKansui BottleAlkaline water leached from wood ash.
Dough MixerA hand-cranked machine that works flour and liquid into dough.
Udon DoughWheat flour kneaded with brine.
Soba DoughNihachi soba flour kneaded with water.
Chukamen DoughWheat flour kneaded with kansui.
Rice Noodle DoughRice flour worked with water.
Dough SheeterA hand-cranked machine that presses dough between two rollers into a sheet.
Udon Noodle SheetDough pressed flat between rollers.
Soba Noodle SheetSoba dough pressed flat between rollers.
Chukamen Noodle SheetChukamen dough pressed flat between rollers.
Cutting RollsA hand-cranked machine whose grooved rollers cut a sheet into noodles.
Fresh UdonThick noodles cut by the rolls.
Fresh SobaThin noodles cut from a soba sheet by the rolls.
Fresh ChukamenYellow noodles cut from an alkaline dough sheet.
Noodle ExtruderA hand-cranked machine that forces dough through a perforated plate.
Fresh BifunThin rice noodles from the extruder.
Drying RackThe stick-and-string rack; dries under open daytime sky instead of heat.
Dried BifunBifun dried and coiled into a nest.
Noodle RopeA thick rope cut spirally from a noodle sheet, ready to be drawn out fine on the stretching rack.
Stretching RackStretching RackA two-block rack the drawn-out noodles hang from to dry.
Cutting BoardLay food on the board and work it with a knife — the heart of prep work.
SomenHand-stretched dried noodles, very fine.