Chapter 65: He's Instant Noodles 1

November 6, 1938, noon. Headquarters of the Temporary 2nd Division in Qifeng County.

Although Wang Yue possessed quite impressive martial arts skills now, the long journey back from the Mianhe Bridge had completely exhausted him. Upon returning, he collapsed onto his bed and fell fast asleep, not waking up until the noon of November 6. To be precise, he was roused from his slumber by a wave of familiar and enticing aromas. Opening his eyes, he saw that He Dana had brought over several bowls of instant noodles.

Yes, instant noodles. This item required virtually no advanced technology; its core technique was simply noodle-cake manufacturing. No cutting-edge innovations were necessary—just the most primitive deep-frying method. High oil and high salt were the top priorities for military rations. As for healthy eating and such concepts, they were out of the question; to people of this era, those were entirely non-issues.

The soup base had been custom-blended by He Dana, with only a seafood flavor available. It was not that He Dana was incapable of developing other flavors, but given the limited packaging equipment and raw materials he could currently obtain, making things like oil packets was completely out of the question. Wrapping a small portion of seasoning in a scrap of kraft paper was quite sufficient.

"Old He, are these the noodle cakes we brought over from Old Lord Temple?" Wang Yue tasted each of the bowls before him. There was little difference among them, and none had any unusual odor.

In fact, back at Old Lord Temple, Wang Yue had already been working with He Dana to develop instant noodles. Having successively overcome multiple technical bottlenecks such as flour steaming, dehydrated vegetables, and low-temperature frying, they had finally successfully created their own version of instant noodles.

Each noodle cake weighed twoliang, or about 75 grams. With the seasoning packet and the outer kraft paper packaging, it totaled less than 90 grams. Five packs were grouped together and bundled in a slightly thicker kraft paper bag. To prevent moisture, the kraft paper had been soaked in paraffin wax. Although this material fell short of plastic packaging and might even slightly contaminate the noodle cakes, it was still remarkably good under the circumstances.

The reason they ate them from time to time was to test how the passage of time affected the taste of the noodles, and how long the safe shelf life could reach. In later generations, someone had eaten instant noodles that were four years past their expiration date—they hadn't molded, the noodle cakes had no strange smell, and apart from the oil packet hardening to the point where it wasn't daring to be consumed, they tasted no different when brewed, caused no upset stomach, impaired no bodily functions, and successfully stilled hunger.

Wang Yue did not expect his homemade instant noodles to last for five years, but lasting half a year should certainly be possible. According to legend, modern instant noodles contained no preservatives, but the ones he made had nitrite added. Although the sealing was somewhat inferior, there shouldn't be any major issues.

"They all are. These four bowls are, in order, four months, three months, two months, and one month old. Even the noodle cakes made in the summer are holding up fine. Now that the weather is turning cold, I reckon they can definitely keep until next spring," He Dana said with a smile. Although the instant noodles were Wang Yue's idea, He Dana had incorporated quite a few personal touches of his own into the process.

"This dried meat lacks something. Is there any way to improve it?" Wang Yue fished out a small piece of beef with his chopsticks and chewed on it; it was still a bit too tough.

"There certainly are ways, but it will increase the cost and the packaging weight. Guaranteeing a weight of thirteen and a half liang (500 grams) for five packs of noodles makes that truly impossible," He Dana explained with a troubled expression.

"It's already quite good. If worst comes to worst, we can just drop the dried meat and add a bit more dehydrated vegetables, dried shrimp, or seaweed instead," Wang Yue nodded. Although they couldn't test the exact caloric content, it wasn't a major issue; there was really no need for such extreme precision.

"Dehydrated vegetables are still quite troublesome. I think dried seaweed and dried greens will do—those save a lot of effort," He Dana suggested cautiously. The concept of dehydrated vegetables wasn't overly difficult, but the hassle involved was immense.

The first step required washing, followed by cutting and air-drying.
The second step involved blanching certain vegetables high in (oxalic) acids, and then continuing to air-dry them after blanching.
The third step required washing vegetables with high starch content once more to remove the starch before air-drying them.
The fourth step was low-temperature drying at 50 to 60 degrees Celsius.
Finally, He Dana still had to personally taste-test them with his mouth to judge the moisture content; any batch with high moisture content had to be dried again.

"Alright, as long as we have the technical reserve, production should focus on convenience. Let's produce and test simultaneously, starting with ten tons, and then make gradual adjustments based on future circumstances," Wang Yue nodded. This was a time of war, and they didn't have the luxury of time to research these things endlessly. In truth, if these noodle cakes were simply handed out to the soldiers, 95% of them would find them delicious, much like how people in later generations loved to munch on raw instant noodles.

"Division Commander, our flour reserves are still sufficient for ten tons, but if we continue production after that, the wheat in that woman's hands won't be enough," He Dana said, looking somewhat troubled. The soldiers of the Temporary 2nd Division mainly ate rice, sorghum, and millet, and rarely consumed expensive flour.

"Procure some more as needed; you can make the call yourself. You can also try adding some bean flour," Wang Yue had always felt that consuming fine grain during the War of Resistance was akin to a crime, which was why he rarely purchased fine grain when acquiring military rations. If not for the 50,000 dan of rice obtained from Jiangcheng, the officers and men of the Temporary 2nd Division would rarely have tasted rice at all.

As for the bean flour, it was produced by Wang Yue using soybean cakes captured from the Japanese invaders, and it had already begun appearing in the division's meals. The weekly wild vegetable dumplings were made from a mixture of wild vegetables and bean flour. As for the texture—how should one put it? When hot, it was fine, but once cooled, it became hard as a stone and could easily chip a tooth if one wasn't careful.

"Won't that make them unpalatable?" He Dana worried. Bean flour could be used to make noodles, but the texture was genuinely subpar.

"Poor texture doesn't matter. No matter how bad it is, when deep-fried in oil, it will still smell fragrant," Wang Yue gently shook his head. To prevent soldiers from eating emergency rations as snacks, the U.S. military liked to add specific ingredients to their rations, and he could certainly try doing the same.

"Alright, I'll give it a try later and make sure I get this right!" He Dana thought for a moment and agreed. Soldiers in this era were capable of enduring hardship; they could even eat grain mixed with chaff, let alone just blending in some bean flour.

"Another thing is the volume; we still need to find a way to make it smaller. For instance, by making thicker noodles or increasing the density—in short, making it easier to carry. If we can make it even smaller, the outer wrapping could be changed to thin cardboard, which would also provide a certain level of protection. This paraffin-waxed kraft paper is still a bit too low-grade," Wang Yue continued to instruct. Although the instant noodles were handmade, their shape retained the familiar perm-roll appearance—or to be precise, a curved, wavy form.

Curved, wavy instant noodles increased the surface area of the noodle cake in contact with the outside, allowing it to absorb more water vapor during the steaming process and more oil during deep-frying and dehydration. This shortened the duration of those two production steps and improved efficiency. When brewing instant noodles, noodle cakes containing numerous folds and pores could also make fuller contact with boiling water, thereby shortening the brewing time. Therefore, the "curve" in instant noodles was entirely logical.