The Chinese technique of creating pulled noodles is an ancient art form dating back thousands of years. Making it work at home is not only possible, but not as difficult as you would think. I'm currently refining the technique and practicing it so that it can be made from ingredients in local (or near local) supermarkets.

Basically, the technique involves making a rope of dough of flour and water, getting the glutens to form very long strands, and then repeatedly pulling and folding the dough so that it forms noodles. Each time you pull and fold, you double the number of noodles, and substantially reduce their thickness. So an udon noodle would be one fold less than a ramen noodle even if made with the same technique. There are two key tricks involved in this process:

• Making sure the noodles don't stick together.
• Making sure the noodles don't tear when pulled

Once you've got those two tricks, the rest is artistry and technique. What I'm going to try to do is to help get to the point when pulling noodles works, and you can then play. The similarity of pulling noodles and tossing pizza dough seems, at a chemical level, to be related. As I experiment, I'll relay my experiences.

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