Handmade soba is a time honored craft, in which the techniques were highly developed in the 1800s, the Edo Period of Japan.
How good the soba noodles will taste depends on the quality of buckwheat flour, preparation of the flour, and last but not least the skills of the craftsman who makes the noodles.
In Japan, soba-making by hand is called “te-uchi”, which literally means “beating by hand”, a symbolic word derived from the sound of the rolling pin being pushed into the buckwheat dough and against the rolling board. In the process of mixing, rolling and cutting, traditional tools such as lacquered mixing bowl, three rolling pins, noodle slicing board are used by soba craftsman.
1st step: Mixing the flour
Mix the flour with water into a dough, is considered as the most crucial and difficult part of soba making. The correct amount of water is added to the flour, using both hands to mix the flour together in a circular motion. The moistened and unmoistened flour are mixed together and repeated until small pebbles form. |
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2nd step: Making a Ball
Knead the pebbles together to form one large ball of dough. Lean over and push down on the dough with arms stretched straight. Knead the portion of dough near to your side a few times, rotate 90 degree and knead again. Rotate and knead alternately until the surface of dough turns smooth just like a ball. |
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3rd step: Shaping a circle
Press the ball down, flattening it to form a flat disc of dough with palm. Roll dough out onto a floured tabletop with a long and thin rolling pin, then rolling it into a thin circular sheet of a specific size and even thickness. |
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4th step: Flattening
Roll and shape the sheet into an even rectangle. While flattening the sheet portion by portion with one rolling pin, roll up the flattened part with longer wrapping pins so as to handle the large sheet easier and prevent the dough from getting dry easily. Continue rolling the sheet until it is reduced to 1.2-1.4mm thin. |
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5th step: Stacking and Cutting
Fold and cut the soba sheet into noodles with a soba cutting knife and a slicing board to ensure even cutting. There is a saying of "23 cut" since the Edo Times, which means to make 23 cuts in the width of 3.03cm so that each slice of noodle will be around 1.2-1-4mm thin. |
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6th: Boiling noodle
For cold soba, boil the noodles and cool down with iced water, served with a soya based dipping sauce, wasabi and Japanese leek. The water used to boil the noodles is regarded as full of nutrition such as rutin soluble from soba, therefore often added to the remaining dipping sauce to make a soup as a final touch of the soba meal.
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