Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Pp-semi-indef Template:Lead too short Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox food

Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures and made into a variety of shapes. The most common noodles are those derived from either Chinese cuisine or Italian cuisine. Chinese noodles are known by a variety of different names, while Italian noodles are known as pasta.

While long, thin strips may be the most common, many varieties of noodles are cut into waves, helices, tubes, strings, or shells, or folded over, or cut into other shapes. Noodles are usually cooked in boiling water, sometimes with cooking oil or salt added. They can also be steamed, pan-fried, deep-fried, or baked. Noodles are often served with an accompanying sauce or in a soup, the latter being known as noodle soup. Noodles can be refrigerated for short-term storage or dried and stored for future use.

EtymologyEdit

The word for noodles in English was borrowed in the 18th century from the German word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The German word likely came from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and referred to any dumpling, though mostly of wheat.<ref name="BA-etymology">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Colloquial uses for noodle to refer to someone's head, or to a "dummy" are unrelated, and likely came from the older English word noddle.<ref name="BA-etymology" />

HistoryEdit

OriginEdit

The earliest written record of noodles is found in a book dated to the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE).<ref name="Roach">Template:Cite journal</ref> Noodles made from wheat dough became a prominent food for the people of the Han dynasty.Template:Sfn The oldest evidence of noodles was from 4,000 years ago in China.<ref name="Roach" /> In 2005, a team of archaeologists reported finding an earthenware bowl that contained 4,000-year-old noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, made by the Qijia culture.<ref name="mill-noo">Template:Cite journal</ref> These noodles were said to resemble lamian, a type of Chinese noodle.<ref name="mill-noo" /> Analyzing the husk phytoliths and starch grains present in the sediment associated with the noodles, they were identified as millet belonging to Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica.<ref name="mill-noo" /> However, other researchers cast doubt that Lajia's noodles were made from specifically millet: it is difficult to make pure millet noodles, it is unclear whether the analyzed residue were directly derived from Lajia's noodles themselves, starch morphology after cooking shows distinctive alterations that does not fit with Lajia's noodles, and it is uncertain whether the starch-like grains from Laijia's noodles are starch as they show some non-starch characteristics.<ref name="exp-star">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The general consensus among food historians is that pasta originated somewhere in the Mediterranean region:<ref name="nationalgeographic">Template:Cite news</ref> a homogenous mixture of flour and water called itrion was described by 2nd-century Greek physician Galen,Template:Sfn among 3rd to 5th-century Jews itrium was described by the Jerusalem TalmudTemplate:Sfn and itriyya (Arabic cognate of the Greek word), referred to string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking - as defined by the 9th-century physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali.<ref>"A medical text in Arabic written by a Jewish doctor living in Tunisia in the early 900s" (Dickie 2008: 21).</ref>

Historical variationsEdit

East AsiaEdit

Template:See also

There are over 1,200 types of noodles commonly consumed in China today.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They vary widely according to the region of production, ingredients, shape or width, and manner of preparation. Due to the vast diversity of Chinese noodles, there is no single Chinese word equivalent to the Western concept of "noodles," nor is the notion of "noodles" as a unified food category recognized within Chinese cuisine.

In Standard Mandarin, miàn (simplified Chinese: 面; traditional Chinese: 麵) means "dough" but can be used to refer to noodles made from wheat flour and grains such as millet, sorghum, and oats. While fěn (粉) means "powder" but can be used to refer to noodles made from other starches, particularly rice flour and mung bean starch.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wheat noodles in Japan (udon) were adapted from a Chinese recipe as early as the 9th century. Innovations continued, such as noodles made with buckwheat (naengmyeon) were developed in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea (1392–1897). Ramen noodles, based on southern Chinese noodle dishes from Guangzhou but named after the northern Chinese lamian, became common in Japan by 1900.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Central AsiaEdit

Kesme or erişte noodles were eaten by Turkic peoples by the 13th century.

West AsiaEdit

Ash reshteh (noodles in thick soup with herbs) is one of the most popular dishes in some middle eastern countries such as Iran.

EuropeEdit

In the 1st century BCE, Horace wrote of fried sheets of dough called lagana.Template:Sfn However, the cooking method does not correspond to the current definition of either a fresh or dry pasta product.Template:Sfn

ItalyEdit

The first concrete information on pasta products in Italy dates back to the Etruscan civilization, the Testaroli. The first noodles will only appear much later, in the 10th or 11th centuries,Template:Sfn and there is a popular legend about Marco Polo bringing the first pasta back from China. Modern historians do not give much credibility to the story and rather believe the first noodles were imported earlier from the Arabs, in a form called rishta.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pasta has taken on a variety of shapes, often based on regional specializations.

GermanyEdit

In Germany, documents dating from 1725 mention Spätzle. Medieval illustrations are believed to place this noodle at an even earlier date.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ArmeniaEdit

An Armenian variety of noodle, Arishta, is prepared from wheat, water and salt. It is thick and is usually eaten with matzoon, clarified butter and garlic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Ancient Israel and diasporaEdit

The Latinized word itrium referred to a kind of boiled dough.Template:Sfn Arabs adapted noodles for long journeys in the fifth century, the first written record of dry pasta. Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote in 1154 that itriyya was manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily. Itriyya was also known by the Persian Jews during early Persian rule (when they spoke Aramaic) and during Islamic rule. It referred to a small soup noodle, of Greek origin, prepared by twisting bits of kneaded dough into shape, resembling Italian orzo.Template:Sfn

Polish JewsEdit

Zacierki is a type of noodle found in Polish Jewish cuisine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was part of the rations distributed to Jewish victims in the Łódź Ghetto by the Nazis. (Out of the "major ghettos", Łódź was the most affected by hunger, starvation and malnutrition-related deaths.) The diary of a young Jewish girl from Łódź recounts a fight she had with her father over a spoonful of zacierki taken from the family's meager supply of 200 grams a week.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Types by primary ingredientEdit

Template:See also Template:Col-begin Template:Col-break

WheatEdit

  • Arishta: Armenian thick noodles made from wheat, salt and water combined into stiff dough.
  • Bakmi: Indonesian Chinese yellow wheat noodles with egg and meat, usually pork. The Chinese word bak (肉), which means "meat" (or more specifically pork), is the vernacular pronunciation in Hokkien, but not in Teochew (which pronounced it as nek), suggesting an original Hokkien root. Mi derives from miàn. In Chinese, miàn (simplified Chinese: 面; traditional Chinese: 麵; often transliterated as "mien" or "mein") refers to noodles made from wheat.
  • Chūka men (中華麺): Japanese for "Chinese noodles", used for ramen, champon, and yakisoba
  • Kesme: flat, yellow or reddish brown Central Asian wheat noodles
  • Kalguksu (칼국수): knife-cut Korean noodles
  • Lamian (拉麵): hand-pulled Chinese noodles
  • Mee pok (麪薄): flat, yellow Chinese noodles, common in Southeast Asia
  • Long Pasta: Italian noodles typically made from durum wheat (semolina)
  • Reshte: Central Asian, flat noodle, very pale in colour (almost white) used in Persian and Afghani cuisine
  • Sōmen (そうめん): thin variety of Japanese wheat noodles, often coated with vegetable oil
  • Thukpa (Template:Bo): flat Tibetan noodles
  • Udon (うどん): thicker variety of Japanese wheat noodles
  • Kishimen (きしめん): flat variety of Japanese wheat noodles

RiceEdit

Template:Main article

  • Bánh phở (餅𬖾), thick fresh rice noodle used in popular Vietnamese phở noodles soup
  • Flat or thick rice noodles, also known as hé fěn or ho fun (河粉), kway teow (粿條) or sen yai (เส้นใหญ่)
  • Rice vermicelli: thin rice noodles, also known as mǐfěn (米粉) or bee hoon or sen mee (เส้นหมี่) or "bún"
  • Sevai, a variant of rice vermicelli common in South India
  • Idiyappam is an Indian rice noodle
  • Mixian and migan noodles of southwest China
  • Khanom chin is a fermented rice noodle used in Thai cuisine

Template:Col-break

BuckwheatEdit

EggEdit

Egg noodles are made of a mixture of egg and flour.

  • Youmian or thin noodles: Asian egg noodles common throughout China and Southeast Asia<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Kesme or erişte: Turkic egg noodles<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

OthersEdit

Template:Col-end

Types of dishesEdit

Template:See also

File:Wok cooking.jpg
Stir-frying noodles using wok
File:SevMamra.jpg
Sev mamra, an Indian snack

PreservationEdit

See alsoEdit

Template:Sister project Template:Portal Template:Columns-list

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

Template:Refbegin

Template:Refend

Template:Noodle Template:Pasta Template:Jewish baked goods Template:Authority control