The Harold McGee article linked on the right mentions that the alkaline ingredients in ramen noodles are slightly different from baking soda:
>As for the particular alkaline ingredients that are added to noodles, Chinese and Asian alkaline noodles, in general, contain potassium and sodium carbonate, which are not the sort of things that we usually have lying around in our kitchens. They’re carbonate salts of those metals, sodium and potassium. They’re standard ingredients in Asia but not so much in the West.
>However, you can easily make your own version of them by taking baking soda and baking it at a low temperature—200°, 250°F—for about an hour. You take baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and turn it into sodium carbonate just by that gentle heat. Now, that leaves out potassium carbonate, but I’ve found that when I’ve experimented with it, simply using sodium carbonate gives you most of the effect that you’re looking for in an alkaline noodle.
Would it make sense to prebake the baking soda? I'll have to experiment myself.
My local Asian supermarket sells the alkaline McGee is talking about as "lye water". Check if yours does as well. A lot easier to just buy a bottle rather then screwing around with baking soda in the oven.
The stuff sold as "Lye Water" in Asian supermarkets isn't actual lye (NaOH), but rather a dilution of potassium carbonate or a mixture of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate.
>As for the particular alkaline ingredients that are added to noodles, Chinese and Asian alkaline noodles, in general, contain potassium and sodium carbonate, which are not the sort of things that we usually have lying around in our kitchens. They’re carbonate salts of those metals, sodium and potassium. They’re standard ingredients in Asia but not so much in the West.
>However, you can easily make your own version of them by taking baking soda and baking it at a low temperature—200°, 250°F—for about an hour. You take baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, and turn it into sodium carbonate just by that gentle heat. Now, that leaves out potassium carbonate, but I’ve found that when I’ve experimented with it, simply using sodium carbonate gives you most of the effect that you’re looking for in an alkaline noodle.
Would it make sense to prebake the baking soda? I'll have to experiment myself.