Store-bought noodles are nonnegotiable in our pantries, but homemade noodles? They are something else—earthy, chewy, and ridiculously fun. So grab an apron and let us show you how to Make Your Own Noodles. We’ve got glorious recipes, expert tips, handy guides, and so much more.
Watch udon makers delicately step on pillowy balls of dough, and all those open tabs in your brain will shut for a bit. It’s a special kind of ASMR that makes you wish you were the dough, being gently massaged into oblivion. The centuries-old technique is also essential for making chewy, restaurant-quality udon noodles at home.
Known in Japanese as ashibumi (足踏み), foot-stepping methods vary but follow a similar flow. Rested dough is usually sealed in a resealable plastic bag and placed on the floor, sometimes between kitchen towels or on a layer of cardboard. Wearing clean socks, the cook takes rhythmic, circular steps to spread the dough into a flat disk. It’s folded over twice, like a piece of paper, and the process is repeated a few more times before it’s rested and cut into plump ribbons that are boiled, rinsed, and submerged in savory-sweet dashi.
There’s no precise timeline for how long foot-stepping has been used to make udon, but the technique is likely as old as the noodles themselves, says Nancy Singleton Hachisu, an American cookbook author who has lived in Japan for more than three decades. Some teachers believe it may have originated in China during the 700s and landed in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture during the 1600s, says Tomohiro Shinoda, the chef at Cambridge, Massachusetts’s udon hot spot, Yume Ga Arukara, which was named one of Bon Appétit’s best new restaurants in 2018. And until recently, “stepping on the udon dough to knead it was just the normal course,” says Hachisu.
As access to electricity increased across Japan in the years after World War II, foot-stepping was outpaced by machines. But dedicated udon makers still agree: “It is the technique for kneading,” says Hachisu. Across Japan, udon shops advertise their foot-stepped noodles as a way to differentiate from more mass-market competitors, explains Namiko Hirasawa Chen, who runs the popular Japanese food blog, Just One Cookbook. It implies “extra care and effort.” Shinoda agrees: Fresh foot-stepped noodles are “drastically superior” to the dry or frozen ones you’d buy at the store.
