Soba noodles from scratch homemade

vatchoug

Ever since i watched this perfectly detailed video on youtube of preparing soba noodles from scratch (ps its with all purpose flour), i got obsessed with it, but i have few questions about it that i hope someone can answer them:

1. Dough:
   1. How thick should it be?
      Unintentionally i roll the dough really thin every time, and cut in uncoordinated thickness (thanks to my perfected knife skills ) it doesn't end up well.
   2. Is there a way to get more control in slicing the noodles for beginners?
2. Pot
   1. Should i add salt? if yes how much? add in dough or in water?
      It tastes bland without salt, but i'm afraid that i might ruin it if i add some.
      Adding salt to the soup does not cover the blandness of soba.
   2. What should be the water "status" before putting in raw noodles?
   3. Should i close the lid?
   4. How long should i leave soba noodles in water?
      I use soba in hot soups, it's always al dente when i rinse and drain it and turns very soft in soup.
3. Preserving
   1. How long can raw and boiled noodles be preserved?
   2. How to preserve soba?
4. Can i replace pancit with soba?
5. Hot or soup recipe suggestions please

Ps i am preparing the noodles using all purpose flour, i know i should use buckwheat for the nutty flavor and for its nutrition, but this is what i got.

BarbaraHelen2013

I’ve never made Soba Noodles from scratch but I do make pasta regularly. Since your recipe for Soba doesn’t use Buckwheat Flour, which would be more usual, I can imagine your noodles will behave much like fresh pasta.

To try to answer your questions:

Personally I’d use a pasta rolling/cutting machine. For Soba I think the tagliatelle/fettuccini cutter would work best. On my KitchenAid roller I’d roll it to a 5 or 6 (so not quite the thinnest which is a 7). Other pasta machines may be calibrated differently but that should give you an idea.

I add a little salt to pasta dough but I suspect traditional Soba noodles don’t have salt added to the dough. Buckwheat flour has its own flavour so I wouldn’t add salt, but with your recipe you may need to add a little to your dough if it’s bland otherwise.

Water should be boiling, a good rolling boil. I’d not add a lid, and I’d suggest no more than 3 mins (but best way to know is to taste test for texture) time will vary depending on how thick your noodles are, obviously.

I’ve had some success drying fresh pasta by laying it between two linen tea towels and turning a few times until it’s brittle. Then I pop it in a sealable freezer bag, and store alongside my commercial dried pasta. Lasts for months/years!

I don’t know what ‘pancit’ is so I’ll Google that once I’ve posted this! 😂

Edit to add: just googled pancit and it looks like it’s what I’d call an Egg Noodle, used in dishes like Chow Mein etc. I don’t see why you can’t use your Soba as a replacement in the same way people use both basic pasta dough and egg enriched pasta interchangeably.