![]() In instant ramen, some of that depth is lost because when the seasonings are dried, aromatic components can become volatile and float away. Umami is enhanced by synergistic interactions of glutamate with (the) nucleotides inosinate and guanylate." (Read more about the science of umami in an earlier column here.) ![]() "When you combine kombu or MSG, which contain glutamate, plus meat, which contains inosinate, and dried shitake mushrooms, which contain guanylate, each part interacts with each other to intensify the flavour. "When building flavour during the cooking process, there's a scientific reason why certain combinations and pairings in ramen taste so delicious," says Sasaki. Ramen soup is traditionally made of two components: a broth using seaweed, dried mushrooms, fish, or meat, and a pungently salty flavouring, like miso or soy sauce. But in a way, freezing simplifies the team's goal. The seasonings, that other distinctive feature of the ramen, are likewise complex. ![]() (In fact, Ajinomoto has patented the roller system.) The pooled expertise of an entire team of food scientists, people who've spent decades getting to know the inside of a noodle, from the molecule upwards, went into that frozen package. The engineering required to produce this effect is far from minimal. They can stand up to being cooked twice: once in the factory, where they are cooked, arranged into little nests with seasonings and toppings, packaged up, and frozen, and once in the microwave, where four minutes gives the office dweller a hot bowl of noodles. Stacking three of these sheets atop each other, then rolling them out leads to noodles that are significantly denser than normal ramen. That smooth surface makes it more difficult for water to penetrate the noodle's structure. The rollers also produce a fine, smooth texture on the dough sheet – the scientists checked it using a microscope. But then the dough is run through a series of rollers covered in grooves, which press the air bubbles out of the dough as if they were toothpaste in a tube. The process that they developed starts with a fairly standard ramen dough. So, he and his colleagues aimed for a noodle that was the opposite of the instant version – one that was very dense.
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