The Onoshiki: My 50-Year-Old Hand-Cranked Ramen Machine
Wednesday, Mar 13, 2024
I’m going to use this blog to teach you about a machine I bought last year. It makes ramen noodles.
I’m hoping that in the process of reading this, you’ll also learn something about ramen noodles themselves!
A Brief Intro to Ramen Noodles
If you’ve ever had good, fresh ramen noodles before, you know that compared to other noodles or even fresh egg pasta, there is a certain bite, and also chew, that makes ramen special.
Achieving this effect takes time, practice, and a surprising amount of precision. There are several factors that make ramen noodles unique.
Kansui
In ramen, an alkaline agent is added to the water before mixing with flour. The two you’ll find most typically are sodium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate. Both have different properties that yield different effects on the bite and chew of the noodle.
Alkaline noodles are said to have originated in Mongolia, from a naturally alkaline water source. What I do know is that noodles with alkaline agents were present in China a couple hundred years ago or more, and then came to Japan via Chinese immigrants in Yokohama in the late 1800s. The noodle soup—originally called Chuuka Soba or “Chinese noodles”—took off, and today, Japanese law mandates that only noodles with kansui can legally be called ramen[citation needed].
Gluten Development
Like other wheat noodles or pasta, the process of extruding the dough and laminating, or folding the dough on top of itself and then compressing, helps to build the gluten network. There are many resources and videos out there that go in-depth about ways to achieve well-developed gluten. In fact, there are new methods being tested for home cooks today! In case you needed evidence that there is much, much for us to learn about making good ramen.
Hydration
This part is very subjective, but the ramen noodles you typically enjoy are of a lower hydration than other style of noodles. I surmise that a fair amount of noodles you’ll find at the Asian grocery fall into this low-hydration category, but nonetheless, here’s the idea: ramen noodles traditionally are comprised of a range of (ballpark) 28-42% liquid. This is much lower than udon, much lower than pasta. It makes them really good at picking up soup. The consequence of this is that it makes the dough sheets much tougher. So tough in fact, that at-home ramen makers tear up traditional pasta machines like it’s no one’s business. Most beginner advice you’ll hear is to stay at the upper end of the hydration range. Anything below 40% becomes dangerous, quick. But once you have more experience, you’ll get good enough to start dropping the percentage without breaking your machine.
The Onoshiki
Ok so, the Onoshiki. I just mentioned that if you’re using a western-style pasta machine, either motorized or hand-cranked, it can be really easy to destroy the rollers and/or the cutters.
What then is a home ramen cook to do? Just make 40% hydration noodles until the end of time on a KitchenAid pasta attachment?
Well, being a young(ish) white dude and all, I didn’t realize that purpose-built noodle machines have existed for a really, really long time. In fact Japan is credited with revolutionizing automated noodle machinery in 1894[citation needed]. And so noodles went from being hand or knife cut, to being spooled through rollers and cutters. Originally, these machines were powered by hand. The local factory was just someone with some combination of the following:
- A mill to mill rice or wheat flour
- A machine to extrude dough
- Some cutters to cut noodles