Kansui ✦

Kansui

What it is

The story goes that noodle makers in Inner Mongolia drew their water from alkaline lakes and found the dough turned springy and yellow; kansui means nothing more than alkaline water. The colour is not dye — at around pH 9 the wheat's own flavones turn yellow, the gluten tightens, and the starch surface goes slippery.

In the kitchen

Around one percent of the flour weight, dissolved in the water before it ever touches the flour, or the dough streaks. With no kansui in the house, spread baking soda on a tray and hold it at 120 °C for an hour to drive it to sodium carbonate, which is far stronger — use two-thirds the weight.

Goes with

T55 flour Egg Pork belly Negi Menma Kombu

Same species

Alaea red Hawaiian salt Sodium bicarbonate Fleur de sel de Guérande Himalayan pink salt Kala namak (Indian black salt) Kosher salt

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