Making Potato Starch Noodles

1. Process flow. Raw material selection → starch processing → making the starch paste and kneading the dough → extruding the noodles through a perforated ladle → cooling and drying the noodles as the finished product.

2. Key operating points:

(1) Raw material selection: choose potatoes free of insect damage and rot, and wash off the mud, sand and dirt on the skin.

(2) Starch processing: crush and filter the washed potatoes, add an appropriate amount of sour slurry and stir to let it settle (the sour slurry water is made by separately storing the clear water from the first settling). The amount of sour slurry used depends on the air temperature. If the temperature is around 10°C, the pH value should be adjusted to 5.6-6.0; if the temperature is above 20°C, the pH value should be adjusted to 6.0-6.5. Quickly drain off the clear water from the settled starch liquid, scoop away the upper layer of black starch, then add clean water once more and stir evenly with a wooden stick. Let it settle, drain the water, take out the starch and hang it in a cloth bag to increase its stickiness and make the starch white and clean. After hanging in the bag, it can be broken into pieces by hand, placed in an airtight container and fumigated with sulfur.

(3) Making the starch paste and kneading the dough: in a basin, add warm water at 50°C in an amount equal to 2 times the mass of the starch, stirring while adding water to form a thin starch batter. Then quickly pour boiling water into the prepared thin batter and stir rapidly clockwise with a wooden stick until the starch is transparent and uniform, and the starch paste is ready. Then mix the starch paste with wet starch. The amount of starch paste used in the dough is 5% in winter and 4% in spring, summer and autumn, and the dough kneading temperature is around 30°C; in cold weather, place the kneading basin in warm water at around 40°C. The mixed dough has a water content of 48-50%, and before kneading, white alum powder equal to 0.3-0.6% of the total starch amount should also be added.

(4) Extruding the noodles through a perforated ladle: put the well-kneaded dough into the noodle-extruding ladle, and while extruding, pat it and add more dough. After the noodle strands drop evenly, move the ladle over the pot; the distance between the ladle and the water surface in the pot should be 45-55 cm, and heat at the same time to keep the water at a gentle boil.

(5) Cooling and drying: the water in the pot should be kept at the same level as when the noodles come out, so that the boiled noodles can be taken out of the pot and immersed in cold water. The cooling water should be changed frequently. Scoop the noodles gently and hang them evenly. Hang the scooped noodles on noodle poles to dry. Once the noodles are dry, they can be bundled and sold.