There are two main processing methods of rice noodles: one is made of fermented rice and ground into powder, commonly known as "sour rice noodles", which has complex technology and long production cycle. Its characteristics are: the rice noodles have good bones and muscles, smooth and sweet, and have a clear fragrance of rice, which is also a traditional production method. The other is that after rice is ground, it is directly put into the machine for extrusion molding, and the rice is gelatinized and molded by the heat of friction, which is called "dried rice noodles". Dry rice noodles are "dry rice noodles" after drying, which is convenient to carry and store. When eating, it will rise after cooking. Dry rice noodles are hard, chewy and long, but lack the fragrance of rice. Nowadays, the first kind of production method is still preserved in Yunnan and other places, while the second kind of production method is gradually popularized because of its simplicity and practicality.
The first step is to wash rice. The rice used to make rice noodles is not ordinary hybrid rice, but special "Guichao rice". Ordinary rice can't meet the characteristics of rice noodles, but Guichao rice can. All the selected rice is poured into the huge rice-washing pool and washed with running water. The washed rice is then transferred to a larger rice washing basket covered with gauze to remove excess water. The washed rice can wait to enter the rice crusher.
The second step is to beat the rice into paste with a rice crusher. In the process of grinding, it is necessary to add a proper amount of water to ensure that the rice paste has enough viscosity.
The third step is the most critical in the whole processing process. The rice paste is directly put into rice noodle machine, and after being heated by the friction extrusion of the machine, the linear rice noodles, like silk, come out from the mouth of the machine continuously. At this time, you can't stand by and watch. You should catch the rice noodles with a flat-bottomed dustpan and slowly rotate it. When the rice noodles are coiled up to a certain size, cut the rice noodles with scissors, put the coiled rice noodles aside and repeat the process just now. The whole process needs an electric fan to dissipate heat, because the rice noodles that have just come out are easy to stick together because of insufficient heat dissipation.
The fourth step is to save. The shelf life of rice noodles is about one day in summer, but it can be stored at low temperature for one month and at normal temperature for several days in winter. But fresh rice noodles are the most delicious, so customers generally ask for fresh goods. Wu Shihua's finished product storage room is equipped with a cabinet air conditioner, mainly to cool rice noodles in summer.
The processing of rice noodles seems simple, but there are many tricks in it. If the details of individual links are not handled properly, qualified products may not be produced, so it is necessary to be particularly careful and sum up experience to make high-quality rice noodles.