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Hand-Cut Buckwheat Noodles for Lamb Broth
By The Dough Table1 Sep 2026

Hand-Rolled & Cut · Demanding

Hand-Cut Buckwheat Noodles for Lamb Broth

手切荞麦面：为清炖羊肉汤而切

The machine stops at notch 4 and the knife takes over. A 2.6 mm sheet cut into 4 mm strips by hand gives an uneven edge that holds broth the way a flat-rolled noodle never can.

Flours
Buckwheat flour (grano saraceno)
Egg
Whole eggs and water
Water
55%
Sheet
2.6 mm
Cut
4 mm
Drying
Hung on a dowel · 6h
Work
70 min + 40 min rest
Serves
5

1The ratio

portions
Hand-Cut Buckwheat Noodles for Lamb Broth — 5 portions
Flourgbaker’s %
Buckwheat flour (grano saraceno)16040%
Durum semolina, rimacinata24060%
Egg2 whole eggs55%
water12030%
olive oil103%
salt41%
Dough weight634 g55% Water

Per portion ≈ 127 g. Every ratio on this site is a baker’s percentage against the flour weight.

2The roller

2.6mm
  1. 14.8 mm
  2. 24.2 mm
  3. 33.4 mm
  4. 42.6 mm
  5. 52 mm
  6. 61.6 mm
  7. 71.2 mm
  8. 80.9 mm
  9. 90.6 mm

Notch by notch 1 → 2 → 3 → 4

Cut at 4 (2.6 mm) → 4 mm Cut

Sauce for this

Lamb broth with cumin and coriander

孜然香菜羊肉汤

Lamb broth is clear and lightly seasoned, which is what a buckwheat noodle wants — a thick sauce would bury the grain. The broth is also the seasoning, so salt it after reducing, never before.

Holds 0% broth

Flour

  • 1 kg lamb neck bones
  • 2 litres water, 1 onion, 1 piece ginger, 20 g
  • 1 tsp cumin seed, 1 tsp coriander seed, 2 star anise
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • Spring onion, coriander leaf, chilli oil to finish

Method

  1. Blanch the bones in boiling water for 3 minutes and rinse off the grey scum. This is what makes a clear broth.
  2. Cover with fresh water, add the aromatics, and keep at a bare simmer for 4 hours. Never boil.
  3. Strain, season with soy, and reduce by a third so it coats the noodles.
  4. Ladle over the noodles and finish at the table with spring onion, coriander and chilli oil.

Salting a broth before it is reduced is the most common mistake; reduce first, then season, or it will be twice as salty as you intended.

Why the knife beats the cutter here

A machine cutter shears the sheet into strips with two parallel flat faces. A knife cuts at a slight angle and leaves a compressed, ragged edge that swells in the pot and traps broth against the noodle.

The inconsistency is the point. Strips between 3.5 and 4.5 mm cook at marginally different rates, so a bowlful has both a firm bite and a soft one. That variation is what makes hand-cut noodles read as handmade.

A dough that can be handled without flour

160 g of buckwheat against 240 g of semolina rimacinata, at 55% hydration, gives a dough soft enough to roll by hand but firm enough not to stick to the board. Do not dust during rolling: extra flour on a hand-cut noodle turns into a pasty film in the broth.

Use a long dowel rather than a short pin. A 60 cm dowel lets you roll from the centre outward with both hands and keep the sheet an even thickness across its width, which a short pin cannot do.

Folding and cutting

Dust the sheet lightly with buckwheat flour — not with 00 — then fold it into a 6 cm wide flat roll, three folds, with the dusted side inward.

Cut at 4 mm intervals with a heavy knife in single strokes. Rocking the blade back and forth compresses the fold and the strips stick together at the crease.

Unfold each strip immediately and toss it loosely on the board. Strips left folded for even two minutes weld at the fold line and tear when you separate them.

Cooking to order

Fresh hand-cut noodles cook in 90 seconds in plenty of water; the broth goes in the bowl, not the pot. Cooking them in the broth is the common mistake — they release starch and turn a clear lamb broth cloudy and thick within one batch.

Serve immediately. These noodles keep absorbing liquid for three minutes after they leave the pot, and a bowl left standing becomes a solid mass.

Drying

  1. Hang the strips over a dowel for 6 hours, spaced 1 cm apart.
  2. Buckwheat strips darken as they dry; a grey-brown colour is correct, not a sign of spoilage.
  3. For storage, dry fully to 8 hours and snap into 15 cm lengths.
  4. Never dry hand-cut noodles in a stack; the ragged edges interlock and cannot be separated without breaking.

Keeping Two weeks in paper. Hand-cut strips with ragged edges absorb humidity faster than machine-cut ones, so keep them in a cupboard rather than next to a kettle.

When it goes wrong

Strips stick together at the fold
Because Cut with a rocking motion instead of a single stroke, or left folded after cutting.
Do this One firm stroke per cut, and unfold each strip the moment it is cut.
Broth turns cloudy
Because Noodles cooked in the broth instead of in water.
Do this Cook in water, drain 10 seconds, and add the noodles to the bowl before the broth. Keep the broth clear.
Noodles taste floury
Because Over-dusted before folding.
Do this Dust with buckwheat flour only, and shake the sheet out over the board before folding it.

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