How much fat can you eliminate from ramen by rinsing it after cooking?

January 7, 2007 4:27 PM

How much fat can you eliminate from ramen by rinsing it after cooking?

I read a comment in a Slashdot article (scroll to "Ode to Ramen") which suggests that some of the palm oil can be eliminated by draining and rinsing the noodles after cooking. Does anybody know how much fat can be eliminated by doing this?

posted by concrete to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

Regardless of the fat amount (and remember, it's not always palm oil, anyway), keep in mind that you'd also be removing some of the flavor and mouth feel.
posted by frogan at 4:38 PM on January 7, 2007

How to find out: when you rinse the noodles, collect the rinse water in a bowl. The fat will float on top of the rinse water, and when it's cool, you can collect and measure it.
posted by wryly at 4:42 PM on January 7, 2007

Fat? What fat? They are noodles. Do they have fat in the noodles, or are you adding fat?
posted by caddis at 6:09 PM on January 7, 2007

Do they have fat in the noodles, or are you adding fat?

It was actually added at the factory, where the noodles are deep-fried before being dried and packaged.
posted by frogan at 6:44 PM on January 7, 2007

Rinsing noodles will only wash away a bit of starch, the fat is either in the fried noodle, or in the packet of stock that comes with it.
posted by furtive at 6:45 PM on January 7, 2007

The oil is absorbed into the noodles, and can't be "washed off". That guy is full of it.

There's no getting around the fact that ramen noodles are terrible for you.
posted by mkultra at 7:27 PM on January 7, 2007

If you're really concerned about the fat content, do some judicious label reading, and trying seeking out a brand that is baked rather than fried. I'm fairly sure that the Campbell's brand meets that criterion.
posted by Dreama at 10:36 PM on January 7, 2007

If you use ramen noodles without any fat in them to begin with, like the ones here, you don't need to do this at all.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 11:40 PM on January 7, 2007

There is fat that floats in the water that you cook ramen noodles in. I have no idea how much it is, but you can see it floating on top of the water.
posted by jefeweiss at 6:48 AM on January 8, 2007

As ATBH said, if you are concerned about the fat, and you should be, then use noodles without. You will never boil away much of the fat from a deep fried noodle. In addition to Ramen which have not been deep fried you might want to consider the joys of Udon, Somen and Soba noodles. Eating deep fried noodles is like eating french fries. In moderation, who cares, but there are people who live on this crap in college. Hardeing of the arteries and plaque buildup starts in your youth, it just usually doesn't present itself as a problem until you are older. Do yourself a favor and restrict deep fried foods, Ramen or whatever, to infrequent splurges. Udon, Somen and Soba noodles are quite delicious and about the same price as Ramen.
posted by caddis at 7:37 AM on January 8, 2007