After eating instant noodles for so many years, I finally know why it is bent…

Boil, put in the pot, and add the soul-ham and egg. It only takes three to four minutes to complete a bowl of instant noodles.

I can’t wait to pick up the noodles, blow them hard, and then take a sip—well, it’s still the taste of childhood.

I still remember when I was young, when I smelled the aroma of instant noodles, I would drool, and there were even legends among my classmates that workers stayed up all night to knit instant noodles.

Why make instant noodles curved? This problem has been bothering you.

Bend this thing is born

As an adult, you must now understand that instant noodles are not knitted with sweater sticks.

After all, in 2020 alone, about 116.6 billion instant noodles were eaten in the world. Even if the noodle weavers work hard every day 996, they cannot keep up with the speed at which people eat noodles.

So, how are instant noodles produced?

Like ordinary noodles, the first thing you need to go through for instant noodles is the kneading process.

The characteristics of flour play a key role in the quality of instant noodles. Take the protein in flour as an example. The higher its content, the harder and darker the cooked instant noodles.

In addition to flour and water, salt, edible alkali, compound phosphate, thickener, emulsifier and other auxiliary materials are added in the process of making noodles to improve the quality of instant noodles. The reason why instant noodles are so soft and smooth that we can’t stop sucking is largely due to processing accessories such as compound phosphate and guar gum (a thickener).

Instant noodle making process

After the dough is fully mixed and cooked, the dough will be repeatedly flattened, and finally it will become a sheet of only a few millimeters thick.

Different packages of instant noodles have very different thicknesses of noodles.

In order to meet the needs of brewing instant noodles, the thickness of cup noodles is only about 0.3 mm, while the thickness of cooking type bag fried instant noodles is higher slightly, about 1-2 mm.

Instant noodle compound calendering link

However, the above steps are not much different from the production process of straight noodles. The key to making instant noodles really bends is the cutting and folding process.
This is a cutting and folding device. When the noodles thin as cicada wings pass through here, it will first be cut into noodles of the same width, and then pass through a rectangular forming guide box. Here, the noodles will collide with the front and rear walls of the guide box, and then start to curl up.

Schematic diagram of cutting and folding process

But this is not enough.

A speed-adjustable “conveyor belt” is placed under the forming guide box. The transportation speed of this “conveyor belt” is only about 1/8-1/6 of the speed of noodle production. Because of the speed difference, the noodles accumulate at the exit, thus forming a wavy shape.

The speed difference limits the extension of the noodles and forces the noodles to bend

Why are instant noodles so curved

In 1958, when the first chicken soup instant noodle was invented, it was already curved. Although today’s production process has been greatly improved, most of the instant noodles still inherit this tradition.

Why bother to make the instant noodles bend?

First of all, for the sake of good-looking, the unique “perm shape” can make instant noodles stand out from the crowd of noodles, making people never forget it. However, more importantly, it can play a lot of roles in the subsequent production and transportation process.

After being made into a wave shape, the instant noodles need to be placed in a rectangular steamer for steaming. This step is to turn the noodles from raw to cooked for later consumption.

If the instant noodles are not “bent”, but choose to be “straight noodles”, a longer steaming box is required under the condition of the same production speed.

The bigger trouble is that the side-by-side straight noodles tend to stick together during cooking. Friends who have cooked noodles should have a deep understanding. When we are below, there are always a few noodles that are difficult to separate and difficult to cook. One bite can even see the white core in the noodles. In desperation, we only Can discard them.

The instant noodles have almost no such troubles. The curved shape gives enough space between the noodles and the noodles, which allows water vapor to move around, and the noodles are not easy to stick while they are cooked quickly.

Similarly, in the dehydration and drying process, whether you choose to deep-fry or air-dry, the voids of instant noodles allow moisture to overflow more quickly.

Now, the crispy instant noodles are finally about to be packaged. Compared with straight noodles, the length of instant noodles is shortened by about 2/3, saving a lot of packaging costs. For manufacturers who care about the beef cubes in the ingredients, how can they miss such a good opportunity?

In addition, manufacturers don’t have to worry about instant noodles being broken into slag during transportation, causing too much loss, because many curved structures enhance the pressure resistance of instant noodles.

As with the above production process, making curved instant noodles creates a lot of space, which allows the noodles to fully contact with the soup and also allows it to be cooked quickly. After all, if you cook for too long, you may lose patience.

With a chuckle, the noodles are eaten down, satisfying in one bite.

Careful you will find that compared to straight noodles, the curved shape of instant noodles allows us to fish the noodles more effectively. We don’t have to worry about it slipping off and splashing the soup on our face. An instant noodle manufacturer claims that this is because the “ji” shape of instant noodles increases the resistance between the fork and the noodles.

I have to say that the curved design of instant noodles contains a lot of ingenuity. However, there are also instant noodle manufacturers trying to break the perception that “instant noodles are only curved”. In 2010, a brand launched the “Straight Noodle” instant noodle product, which caused quite a stir at the time, but unfortunately, this product has disappeared from the market.

It seems that curved instant noodles are still good.

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