Everyone thinks that cooking instant noodles is the easiest thing in the world, just put the noodles, seasoning pack in boiling water, and in a few minutes you have a meal. Some people even cook it in an even simpler way, by putting everything in a bowl and pouring boiling water over it. But it’s not as simple as you think. Cooking instant noodles may be simple, but you have to know how to do it for the noodles to truly be delicious, without affecting the flavor or texture of the noodles.
If you still cook instant noodles in a pot, think about how you usually do it. Do you put the noodles in the pot first and then add the seasoning or do you put the seasoning first and then the noodles? Don’t think that these two ways are the same. In reality, instant noodles cooked in these two ways will have different flavors and the noodles will be different. Cheong Jung Won Foodcast conducted an experiment and concluded that you should put the noodles or seasoning pack into the boiling water pot first.
First, boil two pots of water with the same amount of water at the same temperature. After the water boils, add the noodles and seasoning into the pot.
Bring the water to a boil first.
In one pot, put the noodles first and then the seasoning, in the other pot, put the seasoning first and then the noodles. When the noodles are cooked, remove both pots from the heat at the same time and transfer the noodles to a bowl.
Then, in one pot put the seasoning first, in the other pot put the noodles first.
Next, the participants will try both bowls of noodles cooked in two different ways. After eating, they concluded that the noodles cooked by putting the noodles into the pot first and then the seasoning pack had a better taste, the noodles were also chewier and absorbed the flavor better compared to the noodles cooked the other way. They noted that the noodles cooked by putting the seasoning pack first had a weaker flavor, the noodles were not as chewy, and the taste was not as good as the other method.
The participants will try both bowls of noodles cooked in two different ways.
The reason for this was determined to be that when you put the seasoning pack into the pot first, the boiling water will naturally cool down, and adding the noodles will take longer to cook. As a result, the noodles will be softer when cooked this way. If at this point you reheat the water to bring it back to a boil, the seasoning in the pot will be cooked longer, causing some of the flavor to evaporate, thus making the noodles not as flavorful as the other method.
The Cheong Jung Won Foodcast website advises that if you cook instant noodles in a pot, it’s best to put the noodles into the pot first and then add the seasoning pack.