I had an experience buying bucatini some time ago at the supermarket.
These are hollow noodles and when I put them in a pot to boil, I found
all the little eggs and baby weevil like insects floated at the top.
That was my motive to make my own noodles.

I purchased a noodle press and now I'm quite good at making fetuccini.
My question is for noodle makers out there reading this. How does one go
about drying a noodle so that they remain flat, and most importantly,
don't stick to one another? My current method is lying them flat on a
cookie pan and sprinkling flower on top of them so they next layer
doesn`t stick. When I'm done, I put the pan in an old fashion gas pilot
oven. The ongoing heat from the lit pilot is warm enough to dry the
noodles from one day to the next.

I've considered hanging them up to dry separately, allowing a single
noodle its place on the line but haven't gotten to that point of
experimentation yet. I'm using the 4 cup recipe and usually divide the
dough in half for the noodles I dry per pan using the oven. I discovered
if I try to do the whole mass of dough, sticking is unavoidable. Tell me
I'm not doing this wrong because I need to dry a single layer at a time
in the oven.

"Bier de Stone" > wrote in message
...
> I had an experience buying bucatini some time ago at the supermarket.
> These are hollow noodles and when I put them in a pot to boil, I found
> all the little eggs and baby weevil like insects floated at the top.
> That was my motive to make my own noodles.
>
> I purchased a noodle press and now I'm quite good at making fetuccini.
> My question is for noodle makers out there reading this. How does one go
> about drying a noodle so that they remain flat, and most importantly,
> don't stick to one another? My current method is lying them flat on a
> cookie pan and sprinkling flower on top of them so they next layer
> doesn`t stick. When I'm done, I put the pan in an old fashion gas pilot
> oven. The ongoing heat from the lit pilot is warm enough to dry the
> noodles from one day to the next.
>
> I've considered hanging them up to dry separately, allowing a single
> noodle its place on the line but haven't gotten to that point of
> experimentation yet. I'm using the 4 cup recipe and usually divide the
> dough in half for the noodles I dry per pan using the oven. I discovered
> if I try to do the whole mass of dough, sticking is unavoidable. Tell me
> I'm not doing this wrong because I need to dry a single layer at a time
> in the oven.
>

Get yourself an old fashioned wooden clothes rack for drying clothes and dry
your noodles over this. That's what I do. Except I have to put mine on a
table so the dogs don't snack on the pasta as it dries.

Anita

"Anita Amaro" > wrote in message
...

> Get yourself an old fashioned wooden clothes rack for drying clothes and
dry
> your noodles over this. That's what I do. Except I have to put mine on a
> table so the dogs don't snack on the pasta as it dries.

I've done this too. Haven't made any pasta for years though. I don't have
a machine. I used to roll mine out by hand. I've also read stories about
what they used to do in the old days, using the backs of kitchen chairs,
broom handles, and any other place they could find to dry them on.

--
See my webpage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/juliebove/index.htm

"Anita Amaro" > wrote in message
...

> Get yourself an old fashioned wooden clothes rack for drying clothes and
dry
> your noodles over this. That's what I do. Except I have to put mine on a
> table so the dogs don't snack on the pasta as it dries.

I've done this too. Haven't made any pasta for years though. I don't have
a machine. I used to roll mine out by hand. I've also read stories about
what they used to do in the old days, using the backs of kitchen chairs,
broom handles, and any other place they could find to dry them on.

--
See my webpage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/juliebove/index.htm

In article >, Bier de Stone
> wrote:

> I had an experience buying bucatini some time ago at the supermarket.
> These are hollow noodles and when I put them in a pot to boil, I found
> all the little eggs and baby weevil like insects floated at the top.
> That was my motive to make my own noodles.
>
> I purchased a noodle press and now I'm quite good at making fetuccini.
> My question is for noodle makers out there reading this. How does one go
> about drying a noodle so that they remain flat, and most importantly,
> don't stick to one another? My current method is lying them flat on a
> cookie pan and sprinkling flower on top of them so they next layer
> doesn`t stick. When I'm done, I put the pan in an old fashion gas pilot
> oven. The ongoing heat from the lit pilot is warm enough to dry the
> noodles from one day to the next.
>
> I've considered hanging them up to dry separately, allowing a single
> noodle its place on the line but haven't gotten to that point of
> experimentation yet. I'm using the 4 cup recipe and usually divide the
> dough in half for the noodles I dry per pan using the oven. I discovered
> if I try to do the whole mass of dough, sticking is unavoidable. Tell me
> I'm not doing this wrong because I need to dry a single layer at a time
> in the oven.

I don't make the fettucine width, but make the narrower size (for soup)
and cut them about 2 inches long. I use this recipe for making my
dough: 1 cup flour, some salt, 1 egg, about 1 tablespoon water. I make
it in the food processor (that's the important part). Doing it in the
fp lets me make a far stiffer dough than I could manage by hand or with
any other mixer. It is NOT in a ball in the bowl when I remove it from
the workbowl, but it sticks together in a ball when I press it that way.
I knead it a couple times on a board before letting it rest for at least
an hour before rolling (pasta machine) and cutting.

When I've cut the noodles, I put them on a towel-covered wire
cake/cookie-cooling rack and set them atop my heat vents (the
temperature in Minneapolis is -12 deg F right now and the furnace is on
:-) to dry. They dry easily overnight. Sometimes faster than
overnight. The stiffness of the dough is the secret -- as little
moisture as possible while still keeping the dough together.
HTH.

Note: Thirty years ago when my sister and made noodles, we didn't have
a food processor to make the dough. We mixed the dough by hand and hung
those skinny little soup noodles on a wood clothes drying rack sitting
on a bedsheet. I've got pictures. :-) I like my current method far
and away.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> Trip Report and pics added 1-13-05
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and say,
'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner, performance
at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.

il Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:30:19 GMT, Bier de Stone ha scritto:

> I had an experience buying bucatini some time ago at the supermarket.
> These are hollow noodles and when I put them in a pot to boil, I found
> all the little eggs and baby weevil like insects floated at the top.
> That was my motive to make my own noodles.

Oh y
>
> I purchased a noodle press and now I'm quite good at making fetuccini.
> My question is for noodle makers out there reading this. How does one go
> about drying a noodle so that they remain flat, and most importantly,
> don't stick to one another? My current method is lying them flat on a
> cookie pan and sprinkling flower on top of them so they next layer
> doesn`t stick. When I'm done, I put the pan in an old fashion gas pilot
> oven. The ongoing heat from the lit pilot is warm enough to dry the
> noodles from one day to the next.
>
> I've considered hanging them up to dry separately, allowing a single
> noodle its place on the line but haven't gotten to that point of
> experimentation yet. I'm using the 4 cup recipe and usually divide the
> dough in half for the noodles I dry per pan using the oven. I discovered
> if I try to do the whole mass of dough, sticking is unavoidable. Tell me
> I'm not doing this wrong because I need to dry a single layer at a time
> in the oven.

In Italy I saw pasta strips (probably fettucini) drying on a counter
top on a tea towel..
They would be eaten that evening I suspect as 'pasta frescha'

My book :-) says: sheets of pasta rest on a floured pastry board, in
a cool place but out of the draft for 25-30minutes. If left too long
it becomes too dry. Then it is reduced to the final shape you want.
either by machine or knife or wheel.. If by hand the whole process is
more involved but floury cloths figure in it and it rests covered
with one too. Then roll up the sheets and cut the tube into strips -
like a swiss roll. Then you pile the strips artistically loosley on
the board and rest another 30 minutes and then you cook them :-)

Ref: The complete book of pasta. / Enrica and Vernon Jarratt ©1965
translated into English 1975.
--
Cheers,
Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ]

Loki wrote:

> il Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:30:19 GMT, Bier de Stone ha scritto:
> > I had an experience buying bucatini some time ago at the supermarket.
> > These are hollow noodles and when I put them in a pot to boil, I found
> > all the little eggs and baby weevil like insects floated at the top.
> > That was my motive to make my own noodles.
>
> > I've considered hanging them up to dry separately, allowing a single
> > noodle its place on the line but haven't gotten to that point of
> > experimentation yet. I'm using the 4 cup recipe and usually divide the
> > dough in half for the noodles I dry per pan using the oven. I discovered
> > if I try to do the whole mass of dough, sticking is unavoidable. Tell me
> > I'm not doing this wrong because I need to dry a single layer at a time
> > in the oven.
>
> In Italy I saw pasta strips (probably fettucini) drying on a counter
> top on a tea towel..
> They would be eaten that evening I suspect as 'pasta frescha'
>
> My book :-) says: sheets of pasta rest on a floured pastry board, in
> a cool place but out of the draft for 25-30minutes. If left too long
> it becomes too dry. Then it is reduced to the final shape you want.
> either by machine or knife or wheel.. If by hand the whole process is
> more involved but floury cloths figure in it and it rests covered
> with one too. Then roll up the sheets and cut the tube into strips -
> like a swiss roll. Then you pile the strips artistically loosley on
> the board and rest another 30 minutes and then you cook them :-)
> Ref: The complete book of pasta. / Enrica and Vernon Jarratt ©1965
> translated into English 1975.

My new Excalibur dehydrator recommends itself for drying pasta.
Edrena, who likes the rotini shapes especially!

In article >, Bier de Stone
> wrote:

> I had an experience buying bucatini some time ago at the supermarket.
> These are hollow noodles and when I put them in a pot to boil, I found
> all the little eggs and baby weevil like insects floated at the top.
> That was my motive to make my own noodles.
>
> I purchased a noodle press and now I'm quite good at making fetuccini.
> My question is for noodle makers out there reading this. How does one go
> about drying a noodle so that they remain flat, and most importantly,
> don't stick to one another? My current method is lying them flat on a
> cookie pan and sprinkling flower on top of them so they next layer
> doesn`t stick. When I'm done, I put the pan in an old fashion gas pilot
> oven. The ongoing heat from the lit pilot is warm enough to dry the
> noodles from one day to the next.
>
> I've considered hanging them up to dry separately, allowing a single
> noodle its place on the line but haven't gotten to that point of
> experimentation yet. I'm using the 4 cup recipe and usually divide the
> dough in half for the noodles I dry per pan using the oven. I discovered
> if I try to do the whole mass of dough, sticking is unavoidable. Tell me
> I'm not doing this wrong because I need to dry a single layer at a time
> in the oven.

I don't make the fettucine width, but make the narrower size (for soup)
and cut them about 2 inches long. I use this recipe for making my
dough: 1 cup flour, some salt, 1 egg, about 1 tablespoon water. I make
it in the food processor (that's the important part). Doing it in the
fp lets me make a far stiffer dough than I could manage by hand or with
any other mixer. It is NOT in a ball in the bowl when I remove it from
the workbowl, but it sticks together in a ball when I press it that way.
I knead it a couple times on a board before letting it rest for at least
an hour before rolling (pasta machine) and cutting.

When I've cut the noodles, I put them on a towel-covered wire
cake/cookie-cooling rack and set them atop my heat vents (the
temperature in Minneapolis is -12 deg F right now and the furnace is on
:-) to dry. They dry easily overnight. Sometimes faster than
overnight. The stiffness of the dough is the secret -- as little
moisture as possible while still keeping the dough together.
HTH.

Note: Thirty years ago when my sister and made noodles, we didn't have
a food processor to make the dough. We mixed the dough by hand and hung
those skinny little soup noodles on a wood clothes drying rack sitting
on a bedsheet. I've got pictures. :-) I like my current method far
and away.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> Trip Report and pics added 1-13-05
"I read recipes the way I read science fiction: I get to the end and say,
'Well, that's not going to happen.'" - Comedian Rita Rudner, performance
at New York, New York, January 10, 2005.