Who invented the noodle, Italy or China?

 Pasta originally invented from China 🇨🇳? 

Who invented the noodle, Italy 🇮🇹 or China 🇨🇳 ?

It's one of food history’s most complicated matters: who invented the noodle – Italy or China? SBS¹ seeks answers from like-minded noodle (and pasta) enthusiasts around the world.

¹Note : SBS Food (Australia) is a 24/7 foodie channel for all , with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. 

Have you ever peered into your pantry and wondered which came first, pasta or noodles? And where? Did the Chinese invent pasta or did the Italians invent noodles? Oh the confusion!

Food mythology has contained many an inaccurate theory about how the two similar foods have made their way across the earth to each zone, with one common tale detailing how the Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, brought pasta from China to Italy after an eastern adventure (that one we can lay to rest – it was just a clever marketing ploy, as John Dickie explains in the new SBS series, Eating History: Italy)

In 2005, the world’s noodle enthusiasts got really excited when Chinese scientists unearthed a 4000-year-old bowl of noodles at an archaeological site at Lajia, China. This discovery appeared to mark the earliest example of the noodle in history: surely it could put the noodle versus pasta debate in your head to bed / sleep? 

Scientists believe the noodles found may have been made from two kinds of millet, which are similar to but not the same as wheat grains (which is what modern Chinese noodles and European pasta is made from). But since the discovery there’s been quite a lot of debate about what it means – for one thing, millet, being gluten-free, isn’t suitable for making noodles as we know them. Respected historian Françoise Sabban has written about the scientific controversy that followed the initial announcement.

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Who invented the noodle, Italy or China?

It's one of food history’s most complicated matters: who invented the noodle – Italy or China? SBS seeks answers from like-minded noodle (and pasta) enthusiasts around the world.

Children eat noodles in Yangzhou, China

China loves a good noodle dish - but did it invent this Asian staple? Source: Getty Images, VCG

Have you ever peered into your pantry and wondered which came first, pasta or noodles? And where? Did the Chinese invent pasta or did the Italians invent noodles? Oh the confusion!

Food mythology has contained many an inaccurate theory about how the two similar foods have made their way across the earth to each zone, with one common tale detailing how the Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, brought pasta from China to Italy after an eastern adventure (that one we can lay to rest – it was just a clever marketing ploy, as John Dickie explains in the new SBS series, Eating History: Italy)

In 2005, the world’s noodle enthusiasts got really excited when Chinese scientists unearthed a 4000-year-old bowl of noodles at an archaeological site at Lajia, China. This discovery appeared to mark the earliest example of the noodle in history: surely it could put the noodle v pasta debate in your head to bed?

Scientists believe the noodles found may have been made from two kinds of millet, which are similar to but not the same as wheat grains (which is what modern Chinese noodles and European pasta is made from). But since the discovery there’s been quite a lot of debate about what it means – for one thing, millet, being gluten-free, isn’t suitable for making noodles as we know them. Respected historian Françoise Sabban has written about the scientific controversy that followed the initial announcement.

SBS got in touch with one of the Chinese scientists at the centre of the discovery, Houyuan Lu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences, to ask if the find was proof that China invented the noodle.

Lu simply replied: “The question as to which people invented noodles is unimportant. Regardless of whether noodles originated in China or elsewhere, their emergence was most probably even earlier than previously thought”. So the short answer is…not sure.

Feeling frustrated (and hungry) yet? You’re not alone. Many people in the USA use the term “noodles” to refer to pasta, adding to the confusion. And in Europe, there are many dishes where it’s hard to tell where the starch ribbons involved fall on the noodle-pasta spectrum.

In a determined attempt to clear up the murky mystery about whether noodles and pasta are actually Italian or Chinese, American food writer Jen Lin-Liu set out on a six-month fact-finding trip from Beijing to Rome throughout 2010 and 2011. The American travelled along the ancient trading route, the Silk Road, to China through Central Asia, Iran, Turkey and Greece before arriving in Italy.

“Through my research and the journey itself, I was able to establish that the earliest documentation of noodles was in China and it probably came around the third century [300-200] BC,” Lin-Liu, author of the book On the Noodle Road tells SBS. Her estimations also tie in with the earliest written record of noodles, included in a book dated back to the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) in China.

Lin-Liu explains that we also know the Chinese were probably the first peoples to eat noodles, given that “on the western side of the world, the earliest documentation of noodles is dated at around 500 and 600 AD”.

However, Lin-Liu stresses that doesn’t mean China “invented” what we now consider to be pasta.

“We aren’t sure if the noodle developed in the west separately, after it appeared in the east or if pasta, as we know it, even relates to the noodles that were first eaten in China. There could have been two different food traditions that developed side-by-side in opposite parts of the world.

“But based on my journey, it seems that Chinese noodles made their way throughout Asia, Korea and Japan, all through Central Asia and then through to Turkey. It makes sense as that was the way migration patterns moved and trading routes went.” 

Lin-Liu explains that as for Italian pasta, “Middle Eastern noodles, which developed after the fifth century, most likely influenced Europe”. 

Food historian from the University of Adelaide, Professor Barbara Santich, confirms the reasoning of Lin-Liu’s historical account, concluding that no one knows who technically ‘owns’ the noodle because there is a lack of definitive evidence specifically showing its origins. 

However, Santich’s historical dates differ somewhat. She says that the earliest accounts of the noodle dates back to China in the fifth century [500-401] BC.

Santich adds that there’s no mention of noodles in the Mediterranean until around five centuries later (she also reminds budding food historians that Italy, as we know it, didn’t evolve into the Kingdom of Italy until the 1860s). 

“Chinese noodles were made with soft wheat as China only had soft wheat back then: they couldn’t have created dried pasta, [which usually requires hard or coarse wheat to make],” says Santich. “So Chinese noodles didn’t evolve into what is now known as Mediterranean pasta. And pasta didn’t make its way from China to Italy.” 

“Foods can arise in different places at different times with no connection to each other”.

Santich explains that the origins of European pasta date back to an early mention of the word ‘itri’ or ‘itria’ (meaning a flour and water dough that’s rolled into thin sheet and cut into strips) in Greek literature. Noting that Syria was once a Greek colony, she explains that these mentions later transformed into Arabic. 

“The Arabs also conquered Sicily and southern Italy, so it’s possible the Arabs took pasta to southern Italy and Sicily and it was exported from there…The Mediterranean is a very mixed up world.”  

Professor Santich concludes that variations of pasta then spread throughout Europe for centuries to come, evolving into the forms we now identify as vermicelli, macaroni, tortellini and ravioli.

So if noodles and pasta are more like friends than family, why do we all think they’re related?

Lin-Liu says it has to do with the term ‘noodle’ itself. “ ’Noodles’ is a tricky term that was contrived by the west and implies a long stringy substance,” Lin-Liu explains. “But in China, a noodle ( 面 ) is not called a ‘noodle’ as it is called in the west. It is called 面 ‘miàn’ or ‘mein’. Miàn is not based on the shape of the food you are eating but on the fact it is made from flour in a liquid. So in this sense a dumpling and the ravioli are both are miàn.” 

● noodles 面条 Miàntiáo.

 ● pasta 面食 miànshí

So the food grouping of noodles and pasta are similar – both miàn – even though they aren’t related. Where does that leave us as we keep staring at our pasta and noodle packets? Santich says time spent wondering who owns the ‘noodle’ would be better spent pondering something else: “We just don’t know it's origin and it’s a pointless argument”.

Lin-Liu however, sleeps at night knowing that Europeans eat pasta that was (more or less) developed on the western side of the globe many years ago and in the east, Asians consume noodles that probably came from China, long before she was born.

“The message I received along with my journey in my quest to discover the identity of the noodle was that no one culture ‘owns’ a particular food, just because its peoples are eating it,” says Lin-Liu.

“The commonalities between distinct cultures lie in the fact that people are brought together by food and hospitality. Among people of all different religions and cultures and nationalities, we all share something.” 

It was all a lie: the scandalous history of pasta

From whimsical marketing ploys to an outrageous carbonara, humble pasta has had a bumpy ride through the ages.

Who knew that pasta could be a topic for an online furore - or even, a wedding theme? Here are some of this humble Italian staple(s) more interesting moments.

● Marco Polo was no pasta pioneer

It may be far-flung legend, but Marco Polo didn’t introduce Italy to Chinese noodles, thus laying the foundations for spaghetti.

Keen for a captivating tale to promote their US-made pastas, in 1929 the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association published a fanciful story that saw ‘Spaghetti’ – a sailor on Marco Polo’s ship – come across dried, string-shaped dough in China. The folklore snowballed, even making it into the 1938 film The Adventures of Marco Polo, where the Venetian explorer dines on a dish of “spa ghet” at a local’s home in China. 

So who can we thank for Italy’s beloved staple? The origins of Italian pasta are tough to trace. The Mediterranean’s busy trade routes most likely introduced North African itriyya – the Arabic word for “long thin strands of dried dough that were cooked by boiling”, writes Eating History: Italy presenter John Dickie in his book, Delizia! – to Norman-ruled Sicily in the mid-12th Century. The island became a major producer of this ancient spaghetti for export, and by the 14th Century, Italians were eating pasta of all shapes and sizes. 

John Dickie does away with the Marco Polo myth, traces the more likely spread of macaroni and spaghetti through Italy, shows how pasta was - and is - used to win votes and influence, and then tries his hand at making pasta (the local nonnas are not that impressed with his technique!) in episode 4 of the show, starting Friday September 15, 4.30pm on SBS - find out more here .

● A failed culinary revolution

It’s the early 1930s, Fascism under Mussolini is well under way, and Futurism has set eyes on a gastronomic goal – down with pasta! The Futurist artistic and social movement sought to do away with all things archaic and propel Italy into a modern era of speed and industrialization, claiming pasta “makes people heavy, brutish, deludes them into thinking it is nutritious, makes them sceptical, slow, pessimistic”. 

A group of Futurists even opened the Taverna del Santopalato (Holy Palate Tavern) in Turin in 1931 with hopes to “kill off the deeply rooted habits of the palate”, Dickie explains in Delizia!. In the aluminium-clad dining room, avant garde creations were served up like "carneplastico", a tube of roast veal meatloaf stuffed with vegetables, topped with honey, wrapped in sausage and fried chicken nuggets. Lucky that one – and their anti-pasta campaign – didn’t catch on.

● Carbonara 2.0

(In Italian) Un minuto di slienzio per il maiale macellato per sto schifo… – “A minute of silence for the pig that died for this crap…” – read one response. “I want to cry” said the next. “It’s the death of pasta” claimed another. “È la morte della pasta”

The impassioned furore from Italian Facebook users came flooding in in response to a video recipe by French site Demotivateur last April. Their culinary crime? A one-pot carbonara that cooked butterfly-shaped farfalle (in place of the traditional spaghetti) in boiling water along with white onion and bacon – who has time to fry them off separately, anyway? – mixing in a dollop of crème fraîche. The plated dish was garnished with an egg yolk, instead of stirring it through to form a rich sauce without any other condiments, as tradition suggests.

Italian national newspaper La Repubblica dedicated an entire spread to covering the outrage and showed how a true spaghetti alla carbonara should be made. Even pasta-producing giant Barilla came to the party on Facebook: “this really goes too far”. Touché.

A classic combination of pork, egg, cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino) and black pepper, spaghetti alla carbonara is thought to have been created by the miners (carbonai) in the Apennine mountains who introduced it to Rome on their visits selling coal.

Get the recipe for this spaghetti alla carbonara here :

Spaghetti alla carbonara

Translating literally as "spaghetti charcoal burners'-style", the connection between this Roman pasta dish and the region’s coal miners has inspired many an Italian tale. A classic combination of pork, egg, cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano or pecorino) and black pepper, spaghetti alla carbonara is thought to have been created by the miners (carbonai) in the Apennine mountains who introduced it to Rome on their visits selling coal. Another theory suggests it actually originated in World War II when American servicemen based in Rome had their rations of eggs and bacon prepared by local cooks.

Serves: 4 persons

Preparation:15 Minutes

Cook: 20 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

● 60 ml (¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil

● 4 garlic cloves, lightly crushed with the back of a knife

● 200 g guanciale (pig’s cheek) (see Note) or pancetta, cut into lardons

● 125 ml (½ cup) dry white wine

● 400 g spaghetti

● 3 eggs, lightly beaten

● 80 g pecorino, grated, plus extra, to serve

● crusty bread, to serve

Instructions

Heat oil in a large deep frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 4 minutes or until starting to change colour. Using a slotted spoon, remove garlic. Set aside.

Add guanciale to pan and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until starting to brown. Add wine and cook for a further 30 seconds, scraping base of pan to remove any browned bits. Remove from heat and set aside in pan.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water for 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain. Reserve 125 ml cooking liquid.

Return pan with guanciale to high heat with 2 tbsp reserved cooking liquid, and cook for 30 seconds or until heated through. Add pasta to pan with remaining 85 ml cooking liquid. Pour over eggs and toss until just combined and eggs have started to set. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide pecorino among bowls. Top with pasta and scatter with extra pecorino. Serve with reserved fried garlic and crusty bread.

Note

• Guanciale, available from selected butchers and delis, is an Italian cured pork. 

● Law and order(ing in Italian)

If Carbonaragate wasn’t enough to strain gastronomic relations between Italy and France, let’s rewind three years to an Italian diner in Quebec, Canada. Nestled within a nation of English speakers, the Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language) is tasked with ensuring language standards are maintained in their francophone province.

They found Buonanotte restaurant’s menu, listing the likes of pasta, bottiglia and pesce – rather than the French equivalents pâtes, bouteille and poisson – to be unlawful. Owner Massimo Lecas was issued a letter demanding the terms be translated into local tongue. Upset, Lecas posted the letter on Facebook, outrage ensued, and the officials eventually backed down a bit. 

Holy macaroni

When you’re a patron of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it’s only natural that your wedding band is a ring of dried pasta. Last April, Marianna Fenn exchanged vows with Toby Ricketts in the world’s first Pastafarian wedding in New Zealand. The religion was founded in the United States as a tongue-in-cheek way to provoke thought around religion. During the ceremony, the groom promised to always add salt to the water for boiling spaghetti, the bride donned a colander on her head, and the pair were clad in head-to-toe pirate get-ups. As you do.

Eat that pasta faster

Turns out, all those years of turning down a steaming bowl of fettucine in an effort to stay slim was altogether wrong. A recent Italian study revealed that pasta is not only not fattening, but it can even help you lose weight. Carb lovers, rejoice!

Get cooking

Bet you’re craving pasta now, right? Whether made fresh with eggs or dried for pantry storage, the many styles of pasta and the recipes to prepare them vary from region to region, village to village,​ and even cook to cook in Italy.

Here are some timeless pasta recipes from a few different regions to try at home – you can even make your dough from scratch.

Italian Pasta dough

Making pasta is one of those things that sounds more complicated than it really is, and makes far more sense once you’ve watched someone do it. Do some research; look online to watch people making dough and practise until it makes sense.

Serves: 4 persons

Preparation: 50 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

●375 g pasta flour

●100 g semolina flour

● 15 g table salt

● 200 g eggs

● 50 g egg yolks

● coarse semolina, for dusting

Resting time 30 minutes 

The dough can also be made the day before; just make sure you pull it out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature before you begin rolling.

Instructions

To make the pasta dough, sift the dry ingredients onto a benchtop, making a well in the centre. Whisk together eggs and yolks, pour into the well and slowly start incorporating the flour into the egg until the dough comes together. Once together, knead for about another 5 minutes or until it starts looking smooth. Cover dough with plastic wrap and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

To roll the pasta sheets you first need to make sure you have a nice amount of bench space and a good spot to attach the pasta machine. Lightly flour your work space and divide dough into 2 portions to make it easier to work with (make sure you re-wrap the waiting portion of dough). Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough so it fits between the widest settings of the pasta machine. Roll it through once, dust off excess flour, give it a book fold, another flattening with the rolling pin, a ninety degree turn, and then feed it through again. Repeat this step a couple of times until the dough has smooth edges and begins to look silky. Once you are satisfied, start rolling the dough through the machine without folding, narrowing the settings by 1 each time you roll it through. Continue until you reach the second-last setting. Cut pasta sheet in half and lay it on a tray sprinkled with coarse semolina. Throw a little more semolina on top and lay down the next sheet. Cover with a tea towel before repeating these steps with the next bit of dough until you have 4 sheets of pasta.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | 

We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | 

All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | 

All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | 

All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

 (Below Article translation from Italian to English) : 

Carbonaragate: the worst was yet to come

 After the video published by the French site Demotivateur which reached peaks of unconditional hatred for that unwatchable version of carbonara, the world continues to talk about the Roman dish, and the more it talks about it the worse it gets

 Disagreement

 Pasta

 The echoes of Carbonaragate do not go away.

 Anyone (in the last few hours alone, Telegraph, Bon Appetit and Munchies) has talked about the video published last week by the French site Demotivateur which has reached peaks of unconditional hatred for that unwatchable version of carbonara, assuming that it can be defined as a recipe that catapults in no particular order pasta, cream, bacon and parmesan, all in the same pot.

 But again this morning Repubblica, with reaction times not exactly like those of a sprinter, dedicated an entire page to the story: reconstruction of Carbonaragate, 10 shades of carbonara (i.e. the signature variations of the popular dish, unfortunately titled), a short interview with Nabil Hadj Hasses, where the former Tunisian dishwasher who became Roscioli's chef, as well as the author of the best carbonara in Rome, explains the secrets of the dish (Dissapore did it with a nice episode of the 5 mistakes).

 Finally, the origins of carbonara, reconstruction entrusted to Corrado Augias, Roman journalist and writer.

 Who, despite being born in the capital, uses the words reserved for things considered unworthy towards Roman cuisine, aligning himself with the common opinion, unfortunately very popular, which considers Rome to be the Italian city where you eat the worst.  A delicious cuisine by people, the Romans, who do not feel the flavors but only the illusory taste of the belief that their cuisine is special.

 They would say to Rome: But how can this be allowed?  But in what part of his brain does he give birth to such gastronomic beliefs?

 As if all this wasn't enough, as if carbonara hadn't been reviled enough in recent days, the Guardian is also thrown in.

 But okay, let's go in order.

 1. Carbonara the signature variations.

 Given the popularity of the dish, there are many others, but these are the signature variations of carbonara designed by 10 top Italian chefs.

 Carbonara dumplings – Heinz Beck |  La Pergola, Rome: the seasoning is inside the dumplings, while the sauce is based on veal stock and courgettes.

 Carbonara negative – Antonello Colonna |  Open Colonna, Rome: also in this case it is the pasta that is filled with carbonara and then covered in crème fraiche.

 Seafood Carbonara – Mauro Uliassi |  Uliassi, Senigallia (AN): creamed with mantis shrimp and mullet roe sauce and sea urchins.  The guanciale is made from cod tripe.

 Mountain carbonara – Norbert Niederkofler |  St. Hubertus, San Cassiano (BZ): only local products for the South Tyrolean chef: spelled pasta, lard, speck powder and mountain cheese.

 Fish carbonara – Aurora Mazzucchelli |  Marconi, Sasso Marconi (BO): prepared using scallops and red mullet.  No eggs, replaced by an emulsion of mollusc corals.

 Carbonara summary – Riccardo Di Giacinto |  All'Oro, Rome: all the elements (eggs, cheese, bacon) are enclosed inside an egg shell.

 Black is black – Davide Scabin |  Combal.Zero, Rivoli (TO): spaghetti with squid ink cooked sous vide, caviar and egg cream whipped with bacon fat and cheese.

 Carbonara ice cream – Iside De Cesare |  La Parolina, Trevinano (Viterbo): eggs and cheese transformed into ice cream, with courgette spaghetti, crispy bacon and black truffle.

 Carbonara pizza – Stefano Callegari |  Pizzeria Tonda, Rome: a marriage between the classic pizza base and the traditional carbonara topping.

 Carbonara risotto – Christian and Manuel Costardi |  Hotel Cinzia, Vercelli: the risotto is seasoned with beaten egg yolk, crispy bacon, pecorino cream and a sprinkling of pepper.

 2. The secrets of Roscioli carbonara

 Never mix the pasta with the egg in the hot pan, you are not making a carbonara but an omelette.  At Roscioli they create a cream of eggs and cheese in a bain-marie, and then, away from the heat, they pour in the pasta.  By doing this there is no need to use water or cream, which, according to Nabil Hadj Hassesnon, a Tunisian chef from Roscioli, are the tricks of those who don't know how to cook it well.

 Finally, and fundamentally, the pepper must be grated at the moment, after having toasted it in a pan to release all its aromas.  Then bacon and a mix of pecorino romano, pecorino di fossa, parmesan.

3. The origins of carbonara, by Corrado Augias

 These are all well-known hypotheses, except perhaps the third, that of the Neapolitan origin.

 But Augias's contempt for Roman cuisine is striking, where pasta, despite global fame as in the case of carbonara, is always conspicuously loaded, but I mean, pregnant with lard. And even a rare example of perfection such as the coda alla vaccinara becomes a "slaughterhouse dish".

 Read for yourself.

 The origin of pasta carbonara is mysterious. There are at least three hypotheses circulating about the creation of this tasty dish.

 One: it is an invention of the Americans after the liberation of Rome (4 June 1944). The troops were supplied with cans of (very delicious) bacon, adding eggs (even powdered ones) and spaghetti, they wrote down a kind of recipe which real chefs then perfected.

 Two: the dish would be an invention of real "carbonari", not the Risorgimento ones from Benineto, but rather those who made charcoal. A long operation, during which they refreshed themselves with easily available ingredients mixed with spaghetti – or rather: macaroni, a word that is obsolete today but was appropriate at the time.

 Three: the origin would be Neapolitan, a hypothesis supported by the fact that similar ingredients appear in various recipes from that region.

 It is likely that it will never be possible to ascertain which of the three hypotheses is the right one.

 One thing is certain, however, carbonara fits perfectly into Roman cuisine which was, and still is today, made up of rustic flavors and ingredients. At its base there are lamb roasted on the fire, spaghetti all'amatriciana full of lard, oxtail alla vaccinara, a slaughterhouse dish, rigatoni with strawata, that is to say a pasta heavily flavored with the intestines of a dairy calf.

 Among the cheeses, pecorino, obtained as the name suggests from sheep's milk, is fatty and spicy. A tasty, rough, poor cuisine like those who invented it.

■ 4,000-Year-Old Noodles Found in China 🇨🇳 

( National Geographic )

A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world's most popular foods, scientists reported today. It also suggests an Asian—not Italian—origin for the staple dish.

The beautifully preserved, long, thin yellow noodles were found inside an overturned sealed bowl at the Lajia archaeological site in northwestern China. The bowl was buried under ten feet (three meters) of sediment.

"This is the earliest empirical evidence of noodles ever found," Houyuan Lu of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at Beijing's Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an e-mail interview.

Lu and colleagues report the find tomorrow in the science journal Nature.

The scientists determined the noodles were made from two kinds of millet, a grain indigenous to China and widely cultivated there 7,000 years ago. Modern North American and European noodles are usually made with wheat.

Archaeochemist Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia said that if the date for the noodles is correct, the find is "quite amazing."

Even today, he said, deft skills are required to make long, thin noodles like those found at Lajia.

"This shows a fairly high level of food processing and culinary sophistication," he said.

Noodle History

Noodles have been a staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2,000 years, though whether the modern version of the stringy pasta was first invented by the Chinese, Italians, or Arabs is debatable.

Prior to the discovery of noodles at the Lajia archaeological site, the earliest record of noodles appears in a book written during China's East Han Dynasty sometime between A.D. 25 and 220, Lu said.

Other theories suggest noodles were first made in the Middle East and introduced to Italy by the Arabs. Italians are widely credited for popularizing the food in Europe and spreading it around the world.

Additional evidence is needed to prove that the noodles found at Lajia are the ancestor of either Asian noodles or Italian pasta. "But in any case, the latter is only documented two millennia later," Lu said.

Gary Crawford, an archaeologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga in Canada, said finding 4,000-year-old noodles in China is not a surprise.

"It fits with what we've generally known—that noodles have a long and important history in China," he said.

Ingredient Sleuthing

To determine what the noodles were made from, Lu and colleagues compared the shape and patterning of the starch grains and seed husks in the noodle bowl with modern crops.

The team concluded the noodles were made from two kinds of millet—broomcorn millet and foxtail millet. The grain was ground into flour to make dough, which was then likely pulled and stretched into shape.

Foxtail millet alone, the researchers say, lacks the stickiness required to allow the dough to be pulled and stretched into strings.

While archaeological evidence suggests wheat was present in China 4,000 years ago, it was not widely cultivated until the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618 to 907), Lu said.

According to Crawford, the fact that the noodles were made of millet is not surprising. His own research at a similarly dated site in northern China shows ample millet and rice but very little wheat.

However, he added, the discovery of well-preserved millet noodles helps explain the lack of grain seeds found at some archaeological sites.

"One suspicion is grain seeds were made into a type of food through boiling and flour production. That would not necessarily leave much in the way of grains to be … recovered," he said. " … and if they were making noodles, that would explain it."

According to Lu, in poor, rural areas of northwestern China, millet is still used to make noodles.

"These modern millet noodles have a harder texture than the wheat noodles, so they are commonly called iron-wire noodles," he said.

See more photos here 

The Oldest Noodles In The World (4,000-Years-Old) Found In China

A 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world's most popular foods, scientists reported today. It also suggests an Asian—not Italian—origin for the staple dish.

　　Since 1999, when Lajia villagers are busy with autumn harvest every autumn, it is also the time for archaeologists to actively carry out their work. For six years, Ye Maolin, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has been working hard at the Lajia site. God rewards hard work. God will also prefer people who work hard. Important research results from the Lajia site follow one after another, many of which are results. Going internationally, it has attracted worldwide attention.

　　On November 22, 2002, archaeologists carried out excavations on the eastern platform of the Lajia site. This platform was very special. The hard soil surface was found in its Qijia cultural strata, which means that there used to be a lot of people collectively. Trample is a square. In the northern part of this platform, traces of settlement sacrificial sites were once found. The work on the 22nd was just north of the platform. Cai Linhai of the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology unearthed an orange-red pottery bowl. 

This kind of pottery bowl can be seen everywhere in the Lajia ruins. It is very common and extraordinary. When the soil in the bowl is poured, it is found to be white noodles. The relics have been weathered, leaving only a thin skin, but the noodle-like shape remains the same, with a length of tens of centimeters. The experienced researcher Ye Maolin quickly put the noodle-like relics back into the bowl, covered the soil intact, did some simple treatments, and brought them back to Beijing. After Ye Maolin asked researcher Lu Houyuan from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to do the ancient work. In botanical identification, researcher Lu Houyuan used a technique called plant silicate to identify this noodle-like relic. It is indeed food noodles, but it is not noodles made with the wheat flour we use today, but with millet and a small amount. It is made of millet, figuratively speaking, it is a bowl of miscellaneous noodles. The so-called plant silicate technology means that the roots of plants absorb silicon during the growth process. They accumulate in the tissue cells of the plant in the form of hydrated silicon and aggregate into various forms of opal minerals. This is plant silicate. It is generally deposited in situ and can be stored for a long time. Different plant types have different plant silicates. Therefore, plant silicates can be used to distinguish plant families, genera and even species.

　　Experts estimate that this bowl of noodles may be used for sacrifices. It was placed at the ceremonial place in the square. When an earthquake occurred, the pottery bowl was inverted in the soil, sealing the pottery bowl and isolating the air, so the noodles were well preserved. . What a blessing! The nightmare earthquake destroyed everything, but saved us a bowl of precious noodles. This is a bowl of noodles 4000 years ago! It is the oldest noodle found in the world so far. In October 2005, the world's authoritative scientific magazine, the British "Nature", published the research results of Ye Maolin and Lu Houyuan. This is an affirmation of their years of hard work and a demonstration of the value of the Lajia site.

Qinghai Lajia National Archaeological Site :

Talking about his work, Ye Maolin was very humble. He said this: "Over the years, there have been some new discoveries and new developments in the excavations of the Lajia site almost every year. Of course, this is mainly because the Lajia site is important. The special burial phenomenon and the special preservation environment of China contain rich connotations and precious remains. As long as the ground is broken, special new discoveries may appear. Our work only conforms to the actual situation."

A scientific controversy in China over the origins of noodles

PAR FRANÇOISE SABBAN · PUBLIÉ 17 OCTOBRE 2012 · MIS À JOUR 15 MARS 2013.

When, in 2005, Nature magazine published¹ “ a brief announcement about the discovery of noodle-like remains at a late Neolithic archeological site in China ”, the news, which was circulated by every press agency, immediately went round the world. The authors claimed that, at last, the question of whether the Italians, Arabs or Chinese were responsible for this marvelous invention called “ noodles ” had been clarified. The burning question of their origin had finally been answered: the Chinese could prove their anteriority in the matter.

These remains were discovered in Lajia, a site that some describe as a “ Chinese Pompeii ”, after the famous ancient city. Amongst the objects found at the dig are several skeletons frozen in positions that would suggest the need for protection from imminent danger. Indeed, it is believed that the place was abandoned after a terrible earthquake, followed by a flood so sudden and violent that it left the inhabitants with no chance of survival. Lajia is located in Qinghai, on the high plateau of the upper Yellow River. The vestiges that have been uncovered there date from 2000 B.C. and are related to the Qijia culture².

The announcement published in Nature magazine and signed by nine Chinese scientists, includes several illustrations³.

One photograph, in particular, depicts a bundle of filaments which, for the authors, are strands of spaghetti-like noodles. According to the Chinese archeologists who wrote the article, these noodles were actually made using the traditional technique of lamian, « noodles that have been pulled and stretched by hand », which is still used in China today. Physical and chemical analyses of the samples of phytoliths and starches taken from the bundle and from the surrounding area, also document the discovery. The results reveal the presence on the site of two types of millet, Setaria italica (foxtail millet) and Panicum miliaceum (broomcom millet), the two ancient cereals of northern China – Setaria being native to this geographical area and Panicum very probably a native as well. The authors conclude that, unlike Italian pasta and Asian wheat-flour noodles, the noodles from the Lajia site were made with millet. They add that it was probably cooked in a meat broth, since animal remains were found near the bundle of filaments.

I was astounded by this news, as it turned all the knowledge we have on this question on its head, and, above all, it pulverized the results of the research I had carried out over many long years on the origins of noodle artifacts⁴.

● The first surprise was that the millet found on this site may have been used in an unusual form, requiring its transformation into flour. Yet, from the very beginning of the Neolithic period, millet, after being hulled with a mortar, and without any further processing, was eaten and appreciated by the peoples who grew it, as a whole grain. In ancient China, this was also how it was consumed in everyday life, but it is very likely that at the Court, as the Record of Rites and other texts of 4th and 3rd century B.C. suggest, these cereals could have been prepared in different ways, most likely as pancakes, which would require grinding the grain. So it would seem that the inhabitants of Lajia, 2000 years before Christ, ground their subsistence cereals into flour in order to make noodles.

● This surprising claim raises several questions. The first concerns tools. Processing grain to make flour requires specific tools; for example, saddle querns with rubbers, instruments commonly found at Neolithic archeological sites and which were used to crush all kinds of grain or even to grind pigments. Were such tools found at Lajia?

● Another question immediately springs to mind. Millet, as well as rice, is a cereal that, unlike wheat, rye or barley, does not contain gluten, and for this very reason is recommended for people who have an intolerance for this complex mixture of proteins. But it is this elastic substance which provides the rheological qualities of dough made with wheat flour and water – which, in other words, makes it suitable for bread making, and most important, for molding into different shapes. The dough one obtains by mixing millet or rice flour with a liquid, on the other hand, is barely malleable, and has no elasticity. It is therefore impossible to make “hand-pulled pasta”, as the authors of the article claim, unless a large dose of wheat flour is added to the mixture to compensate for the absence of gluten. Does the Lajia site show signs of the presence of wheat crops?

I used these objective facts about the biochemistry of cereals and their different uses as my starting point, I examined the work of researchers who had preceded me, especially the Japanese, and after having analysed the early Chinese lexicographical sources from an anthropological perspective, I believed I had demonstrated the essential role of wheat in the production of the first flour based artefacts related to bread and noodles.

Wheat, which took some time to become acclimatised to the central basin of the Yellow River after its migration over thousands of years from the Middle East, was firmly established there only around the 5th to 3rd centuries B.C., as was the case, for that matter, of the instrument that enabled its grain to be processed into fine flour, that is to say, the rotary mill.

My conclusion was that the first noodles could not have seen the light of day before the large-scale distribution of wheat crops, i.e. only a few centuries before Christ. The new chronology suggested by the authors of the announcement published in Nature magazine changed everything.

● The other essential element of my argument was based on the presence of gluten in wheat grain, and, conversely, on its absence in millet. I had even imagined that the ancient Chinese had been seduced by the plasticity of the new substance – dough made with wheat flour and water – which they could play with like clay, another substance upon which they exercised their imagination and their talent with great virtuosity throughout the course of history.

However, the article in Nature magazine makes no mention whatsoever of the presence of wheat on the Lajia site, nor does it mention the presence of suitable tools for grinding grain to make fine flour.

I therefore had very serious doubts about the validity of this discovery and so I consulted Sakamoto Sadao. This emeritus professor from the Germ-plant Institute at the University of Kyoto, a botanist and renowned specialist of the history of cereals in Eurasia – especially millet, the subject of several of his studies – confirmed my doubts. In his opinion, the report in Nature makes no sense.

It should also be pointed out that the news was broadcast in a very strange way, to say the least, as it had its source not in China, but only in the British magazine. All the articles announcing the discovery and published at that moment in Chinese reviews or on various Chinese language internet sites, invariably referred to Nature magazine as the first and only source of the announcement. This only reinforced my suspicions. How was it possible to believe that serious Chinese archeologists could let a “ foreign ” publication grab a scoop on such an important discovery?

Several times I thought about revealing my suspicions or at least expressing my doubts about the claims published in Nature magazine, especially after my meeting in the autumn of 2010 with Wang Renxiang, a member of the Centre for Archeology at the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and one of the team in charge of the dig at Lajia, as well as a respected specialist on questions concerning food, whose texts are generally interesting and well-documented. In his most recent work, Wang has supported the hypothesis of the invention of millet-flour noodles in Qinghai during the late Neolithic period5. In the course of my very brief interview with him, I was not able to convince him of my point of view, but I had the feeling, nevertheless, that he was not naive and that he knew perfectly well that the scientific validity of this discovery was questionable. Indeed, it seems that the “ discovery ” has sparked off a debate within the circle of the archeological community in China, as we shall see.

For example, Ye Maolin, the only archeologist to sign the article in Nature6 has refined and qualified his arguments in a new article about the Lajia dig published in 2008⁷.

Nevertheless, he is on the same side as Wang Renxiang, whom he quotes in support of his thesis, but he no longer claims that the millet-flour noodles could have been « hand pulled » in the same manner as today’s hugely popular lamian. This time he proposes a hypothesis according to which the noodles could have been made by extrusion, using a hand-made wooden press, similar to the process used today in some rural areas of northern China for the hele, noodles made from buckwheat, a member of the polygonaceae family whose grains do not contain gluten. However, Ye Maolin is honest enough to admit that, for the time being, no trace of a press, a saddle quern or even a sieve has been found at the Lajia dig, even though these are all objects that are usually used for grinding grain to make flour. There is no real evidence, either, of any wheat crops. However, Ye Maolin hastens to add that it is not because nothing has been found for the moment that we can be certain there were never any of these things on the site.

The truth is that Ye Maolin and Wang Renxiang have other preoccupations than the history of food in China, even if Wang is one of the top specialists on the subject. What really interests them is the origin and development of Chinese civilisation, as has been the case for many of their fellow archeologists over the last 50 years ⁸, for they are persuaded that « progress » in techniques for food processing within a society is a strong indicator for evaluating its development. And even though it seems difficult to speak of China as a composed entity at this stage, they still refer to « our 4000 year old ancestors ». For Wang, for example, the discovery at Lajia clearly indicates that the Chinese did not have to wait for the diffusion of wheat crops (a foreign grain that came from the West) and the arrival of the rotative mill (which came from we know not where, but most probably from the West as well) in order to enjoy refined food, prepared from flours milled from grain, such as noodles.

In his eyes, the production of flour indicates, without a doubt, a higher degree of refinement in the techniques of food preparation. His arguments about the Lajia noodles have evolved over the years, for that matter. In one of his more recent texts, dated 2010, he seems to agree with his colleague Ye Maolin, who suggests that a press might have been used to make noodles by extrusion. But above all, his purpose is to make it known that, from prehistoric times, the Chinese (or rather, their ancestors) also made « pancakes » from millet flour, which they cooked on a sort of thick terra cotta griddle, examples of which have been found dating from more than 5000 years ago… and therefore, why not noodles ?

In fact, Ye Maolin, and especially Wang Renxiang, are rather dishonest when they target « the researchers who see the Chinese as a people who ate grains whole ». They are fighting windmills, for the discourse of the specialists in question, as was mine in my studies, was to focus on the foundations of the different agricultural and subsistence systems in ancient rural societies. Indeed, no one can argue that the groups of people living in the eastern-most areas of continental Eurasia (the present-day territory of China) were essentially consumers of cereals (millet and rice), normally eaten as whole grains. This does not exclude the possibility that, for particular and specific purposes, they ground small quantities of grain to make pancakes. As far as Ancient China is concerned, the texts confirm this. On the other hand, in the western part of Eurasia, in Europe for example, cereals suitable for bread making, mainly wheat and rye, were transformed into flour in order to make bread from Neolithic times. This does not change the fact that in some areas where so-called “ minor ” cereals were grown, people ate boiled grain that was either whole or roughly crushed. Here, there is an interesting contrast between different techniques, but without any indication that one system is superior to the other. One does not succeed the other in a march of progress that defines “ civilisation ” in one case and “ backwardness ” in the other.

Ye’s and Wang’s reasoning is based on an implicit comparison between « advanced » societies and « primitive » societies, and for them the evolution and progress of a society can only be envisaged by using, as a benchmark, a scale extending from the simple to the complex and from the primitive to the civilised, in short, from grain to flour⁹. It is as if China needed to be defended against suspicions of inferiority that might be attached to the development of its civilisation. There is no need to point out that this evolutionist model is no longer topical, if indeed it ever was.

This whole affair has had a happy ending with the publication of an article on the Lajia discovery in the very serious Oxford University review, Archeometry. It is signed by another group of Chinese archeologists¹⁰ who base their demonstration on an experiment in producing noodles from millet flour, along with a physical and chemical study of the starches thus produced and their transformation during the cooking process. They demonstrate that it is totally impossible to make noodles using only millet flour. Not only do they demolish the arguments set forth by the authors of the announcement in Nature magazine, but they also query the validity of their analyses of the phytoliths. Finally, they call for a re-examination of the remains found at Lajia.

I had two contradictory feelings about this affair:

● The first was one of joy, for I was inclined to feel that the state of archeological research in China today has improved considerably. Seven years after the publication of an article that was questionable, to say the least, serious researchers have refused to join a stupid chauvinist game that attempts to gratify their country with a « discovery » that would force the world to look on with admiration, to the detriment of scientific truth, and even plain evidence.

● The second was sadness over the lack of seriousness on the part of the famous magazine, Nature. Why was the content of this so-called discovery not checked? The authors of the article are by no means food historians, and only one, it seems, is an archeologist. They are blatantly ignorant of the already rich bibliography that exists on the matter, both in the realm of history and of botany. Does this venerable review need to build up its readership with this so-called news, announced amidst much publicity?

● Françoise Sabban, “ A scientific controversy in China over the origins of noodles ” Carnets du Centre Chine. Date posted: October, 15, 2012 URL : http://cecmc.hypotheses.org/?p=7663 translated from « Une controverse scientifique en Chine sur l’origine des pâtes alimentaires », Carnets du Centre Chine. Date posted: July, 27, 2012. URL : http://cecmc.hypotheses.org/7469

Licence Creative Commons

 

¹ Lu Houyuan et al.,“ Millet Noodles in Late Neolithic China”, Nature, 437, 2005, p. 967-968. [↩]

For a brief presentation of the site, see the page devoted to it on the site for the Centre of Archeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences : http://www.kaogu.net.cn/en/detail.asp?ProductID=807 [↩]

They are attached respectively to the Institute of Geology and Geophysics and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences of Beijing ; the Institute of Archeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences of Beijing ; to the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge ; to the College of Environmental Sciences at the University of Beijing ; to the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology at Sining [↩]

Cf. “ China: Pasta’s Other Homeland ” and the bibliography, in Silvano Serventi, Françoise Sabban, Pasta : the Story of a Universal Food, New York, Columbia University Press, 2002. pp. 271-344 [↩]

“ Miantiao de nianling – jian shuo Zhongguo shiqian shidai de mianshi ”, Zhonghua wenhua huabao, 2010, 2, pp. 124-128. [↩]

The others are geophysicists, geologists and geographers. [↩]

“ Lajia yinshi yizhi yu yinshi wenming – Qinghai Lajia yizhi shiqian yinshi wenhua de kaogu faxian [The Lajia Site and Food Culture : Archeological Discoveries Relating to Prehistoric Food Culture at the Lajia Site in Qinghai ] ”, Zhongguo yinshi wenhua [Journal of Chinese Dietary Culture], Foundation of Chinese Dietary Culture, Taiwan, 2008, Vol. 4, N°2, pp. 45-76 [↩]

Debaine-Francfort, Corinne, “ Compte rendu ” du livre édité par Chang Kwang-chih & al., The Formation of Chinese Civilisation : An Archeological Perspective, ( New Haven, London, Yale University Press, Beijing, New World Press, 2005), Études chinoises, Vol. XXV (2006), p. 199-204. [↩]

op. cit. idem p. 203. [↩]

Wei Ge and al., ” Can Noodles Be Made From Millet ? An Experimental Investigation of Noodle Manufacture Together With Starch Grain Analyses “, Archeometry, 53, 1 (2011), p. 194-204. Thanks to Tom Verde for having pointed out this article and having sent it to me. [↩]

by Françoise Sabban