How to dry noodles

After the wet noodles are pressed out, they need to be placed in a drying room for drying so that they can be made into noodles. This is also one of the ways to make noodles we usually eat. There are many ways to air-dry the noodles. Some areas choose natural drying, which is to put them in a place with sufficient sunlight to dry. Most of them use a drying room for drying, which is more efficient.

How to dry noodles

Natural drying

That is, in an area or season with warm wind and sunshine (temperature not lower than 20℃) and relative humidity of 60% to 80%, hang the wet noodles on a hanging rod and let them dry naturally. Due to the long drying time, the product quality is good and it is not easy to have crispy surface. This method is widely used among the people in our country. Drying in the drying room can be divided into two types: fixed type and movable type. In the former, the noodles are hung on the hanging rod and then sent into the drying room to be dried by hot air. It is an intermittent production. Transition drying is a continuous drying method, which is carried out in a tunnel drying room. The drying device is composed of a blower, a radiator, a hot air duct, a diffusion fan and a humidifier, etc. The transmission device is composed of a frame, a chain, a sprocket, a transmission shaft, an electric motor, etc. The noodles are hung on a book and enter the drying room, and slowly move in the drying room to meet the drying requirements.

Moving drying room

There are two types: single-row transfer type and multi-row transfer type. The former is now more commonly used, which is characterized by low temperature, high humidity, slow speed, and long-term segmented drying. The noodles need to be transferred about 400m from being hung on the rack to being taken off the drying rack. The drying time is as long as about sh, and the quality of the noodles is good. In a single-row moving drying room, noodle drying can be divided into four stages according to the changes in temperature and humidity:

① Cold air setting stage: The wet noodles just entering the drying room are generally about 1.4m long, with high moisture content, and are easily broken due to stretching under their own weight. Therefore, the task of this stage is to remove part of the moisture on the surface of the wet noodles in order to fix its structure and increase its strength. At this stage, the water in the wet noodles is free water and can be easily removed by evaporation, so the method of increasing air flow is adopted to promote water evaporation. During this stage, the room temperature is controlled at 20-30℃, with strong ventilation, and the drying time is 15% of the total drying time. The moisture content drops from 32% to 35% to 27% to 28%.

② Moisturizing and sweating stage: The main purpose of this stage is to increase the internal temperature of the noodles in order to speed up the transfer of water from the inside to the outside. If only high temperature is used, the surface evaporation rate will increase. Therefore, at this stage, a higher relative humidity is used while the temperature is appropriately increased to limit surface evaporation and increase the internal moisture transfer rate. The temperature in this stage is 35-45℃, the relative humidity is 75%-85%, the operating time accounts for 25% of the total time, and the moisture content drops from 27%-28% to 25%.

③ Moisturizing and sweating stage: After this stage, the internal temperature of the noodles rises, and the internal moisture transfer and surface vaporization are basically balanced. Therefore, the temperature can be increased and the humidity can be lowered at this time to ensure the removal of a large amount of moisture. The temperature in this stage is 45-50°C, the relative humidity is 55%-60%, the time is 30% of the total migration time, and the moisture content drops from 25% to 16%-17%. ④Tempering and dehumidifying stage : After the first few drying stages, most of the moisture in the noodles has been removed. At this time, the temperature of the noodles is relatively high. Therefore, the main purpose of this stage is to lower the temperature of the noodles and use the residual heat to evaporate a small amount of moisture. At this stage, attention should be paid to the cooling speed. Generally, it is most reasonable to reduce 1°C in 2-3 minutes. Time accounts for 30% of the total time.