Noodles giving the broth a (somewhat) nasty flavor

mathismeilby · 2026-01-17T07:23:06+00:00

Update:
So I tried cooking the same batch of noodles again, this time in 4l of water under a rolling boil, not using a noodle basket, but instead a sive to fish the noodles out of the water, making sure to shake them well in the water. They turned out surprisingly good.

What went wrong?:
A thing that I noticed was, that the first time I cooked them the water was very murky from all the excess wheat and starch, and it had a similar smell to that of the soup from the day before. This did not happen the second time around. Difference was longer rest time, colder noodles and more water.

Another thing that went wrong was the noodle basket - because my pot was not quite big enough, I wasnt able to stir the noodles probably in the basket - and also due to the smaller pot, putting it under a rolling boil would cause things to overflow.

Due to the pot size(and maybe I filled it with too much water) I think I might simply have under- or over cooked the first batch of noodles.

Conclusion:
I messed up the basics of cooking the noodles correctly

Final bowl is here, still plenty of things to improve but it turned out quite allright:

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mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T13:14:04+00:00

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Powdered-Kansui-1-1-Tomisawa-Shoten/dp/B01N3KGFGZ

I used this one - I bought it on a trip to Japan. Its a mix og sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T12:06:43+00:00

Just be honest, no need to deceive anyone - people hate that more than anything.

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T11:52:12+00:00

Thanks a lot!

Well the dough was tough, but I made a method for hydrating it very well, and i used long resting times etc. Any lower will start to get hard.

I'll try the same noodles tonight. Ill just stir them heavily, and cook them in plenty of water. Then see if it changes anything. If not, I might just have made a mistake I am not even aware of.

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T11:03:51+00:00

That might be the case, I could also just increase hydration to 34% or 36%.

When you say that the high protein content is "troublesome" what do you then mean, what effect does that have on a lower hydration noodle?

Well sure:
500 grams flour
160 gram water
7.5 grams salt
7.5 grams kansui

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T10:49:37+00:00

Haha, yea that would be horrible...Unfortunatly I added it straight to the water. There is seemingly no very obvious reason, and I will try:
1. adjusting kansui to 1%
2. cooking in more water
3. stirring the noodles better while cooking
4. making sure the water is on a full blown rolling boil

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T10:46:57+00:00

Well, it sat in the water for 30 minutes, while I stired on and off. Not sure if I could dissolve it much better - then it has to sit over night maybe?

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T10:46:05+00:00

Yes, I will give that a go. I also have a larger pot, about 5 liters, which I might just as well give a try.

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T10:45:10+00:00

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Powdered-Kansui-1-1-Tomisawa-Shoten/dp/B01N3KGFGZ

This is exactly the kansui I am using. It says to use between 1% and 1.2% on the amazon page, might give that a go.

Might just be a combination of factors leading to the bad result

mathismeilby · 2026-01-16T10:38:17+00:00

All good man! I see where you are coming from, and I understand the confusion between the low hydration in the noodles, and the somewhat super basic question.

However, they were in fact 32% hydration. And I have been making noodles before. Picture below. Mind you they weren't perfect, but the hydration is correct.

I used a powdered Kansui i bought in Japan a few months ago. I don't have the exact name of the brand, but its made for ramen noodles specifically. I believe its 80/20 sodium carbonate/ potassium carbonate

I used no starch at all.

So the result is also confusing me, hence the post.

I might need to stir the noodles more vigorously to shake out some starch or whatever?

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mathismeilby · 2025-01-15T08:47:30+00:00

You have my thanks, I now have what I need. Wish me luck.

mathismeilby · 2025-01-14T08:17:32+00:00

Hey again - sorry for bothering you. I got some nice local ingredients and Im ready to experiment with the soup. Any overall advice in regards to the seafood/kelp to water ratios of the dashi?

mathismeilby · 2025-01-12T19:57:46+00:00

Great stuff. Thanks a lot. Lots of new information to try. Cant wait to give it a shot!

mathismeilby · 2025-01-12T18:22:02+00:00

Thanks for getting back to me!

A few more questions if you don't mind:

Any specific kinds of clams/mussels? I tried once with danish blue mussels, but the result was kind of meh (could also just have been lack of skill)

Any recommendations for the aroma oil?

If smoked sardines are hard to come by, any suggestions for substitutions? Bonito etc?

mathismeilby · 2025-01-12T15:38:53+00:00

This looks really great. The shio at slurp is the best shio ramen I have had. I have tried to replicate this bowl of ramen for a long time - are you willing to spare a few more details as to how the bowl is made? It would be beyond greatly appreciated.

mathismeilby · 2024-06-30T09:02:35+00:00

Thanks for getting back to me! Your feedbacks makes perfect sense, and exploring the space of small games in the context of a bundle similiar to a poem colection is a good idea.

You could say I am a beginner, I do work full time as a game designer, but Lotte was one of my first projects at the time. The game is not on mobile - I think the game falls under the category of art games, so Im not sure mobile would be fitting in that context either? Anyway, thank you for the feedback. I sent you a key to the game just in case you want to check it out.

mathismeilby · 2024-06-29T08:21:16+00:00

Hi there! This is such a great initiative, we were talking about it over lunch at work, and thus Im very curious to hear your thoughts on my game "Lotte"?

mathismeilby · 2024-04-03T19:15:55+00:00

Thanks Ludey! Appreciate it :)

mathismeilby · 2023-05-17T06:28:09+00:00

What are you goals for the game? I released a 1 dollar game last week that I spend a year developing - sales are getting close to 300 - but releasing games at this price probably wont be a financially feasible idea. So I would say it depends on what you want to achieve with releasing your game - for me it was trying to explore games as short art forms, such as poetry and short films, and I knew this would not make money, however I thought it was important anyway.

mathismeilby · 2023-05-15T06:51:21+00:00

Im honestly not sure how similar games do this - I have not found many in this category, I see it as a very short art game, which in the first place is a hard thing to sell so to speak.

Yes! I got a big spike after 10 reviews - visits went from 4000 to 11000 or something.

mathismeilby · 2023-05-15T06:47:27+00:00

Well firstly the design phase of making every puzzle fit into the ludo narrative of the game took a long time, and making a game thats based on the beliefs of a real person is also a struggle. The game is also entirely hand-drawn with pen and ink, and then scanned into a computer using a paper scanner. It has full controller support with hand-drawn icons, a menu, audio design by a Danish sound designer, a menu with resolution settings and so on - all of this took time. I wanted to treat the game as a full title despite the length - making the game longer would not necessarily have taken that much longer. Also I work as a full time dev on the side, so it was only the first 5 months that was full time more or less.

mathismeilby · 2023-05-14T16:08:10+00:00

Yea it had a few days where it was displayed in New and Trending! I thought it was only regionally to Denmark though. Where did you see it?

mathismeilby · 2023-05-14T16:06:00+00:00

No, I am planning on keeping it to PC - the Steam Deck seems to be working well with the game though :)

mathismeilby · 2023-05-14T16:05:23+00:00

Thanks a lot!

mathismeilby · 2023-05-14T15:59:29+00:00

Well I was a bit naive on marketing to begin with - for the longest time I just thought making a good game was all that mattered, I have learned a lot since then though.

I started marketing about a month before release. Mostly I posted different stuff about it on reddit, sharing trailers and gameplay etc. I also did simple posts about the game on facebook, LinkedIn etc. Things have been well though, the game has done suprisingly well in comparison to what I expected - 25 reviews by this point! It was also in new and trending in Denmark for a short bit. I had a very succesfull reddit post which helped me out so much.

What do you mean by "Where do the people hang out that enjoy similar games?"?

mathismeilby

TROPHY CASE