The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 1958
Nissin made noodles that keep for months and cook in three minutes by frying them.
Momofuku Ando flash-fried boiled noodles, which dried them for the shelf and left a porous web that hot water rehydrates in minutes.
Nissin Foods
the move
After the war Ando wanted a cheap, shelf-stable, quick meal for a country short on food, and the obvious approaches, freeze-drying, was expensive and slow, while ordinary dried noodles still took time to cook.
Working in a shed behind his house, he launched Chikin Ramen in August 1958: the noodles were boiled, seasoned and then flash-fried.
Frying drove off the remaining water so the noodles kept on a shelf, and left them with a warren of empty space so boiling water rushed in and cooked them in a few minutes.
The move made a perishable noodle into a lightweight, cheap-to-ship staple and let a single step carry the load of both preservation and instant preparation.
why it works
- Frying removes the water that would spoil the noodles, so they can sit on a shelf.
- The air pockets left by frying are what let water rehydrate them in minutes.
- It turned a perishable food into a lightweight, cheap-to-ship staple.
what transfers
Look for one operation that solves two constraints at once, here frying that both preserves the food and creates the porosity that lets it rehydrate, instead of adding a separate step for each.
what came after
Chikin Ramen launched priced above a bowl of fresh noodles, then scaled down in cost, and instant noodles went from a Japanese novelty to tens of billions of packs a year, around 98 billion by 2015. Ando later added Cup Noodles, instant ramen became a global comfort food with an annual day of celebration, and the flash-frying insight still underpins the entire category.
references
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