Somen (plain noodles) - Somen

Japanese: そうめん(素麵) - そうめん

A type of noodle. Formerly called sakumen, the phonetic pronunciation is sōmen (somen). Wheat flour is kneaded with salt water and cut into thick strings, which are then evenly coated with cottonseed oil and stretched thin and long, and left to mature until the next morning. These are then stretched thin like silk threads using two sticks, dried in the sun, and then cut. The process takes two full days, and in the case of extremely thin hand-stretched somen noodles, 1 kg of flour can grow to a length of more than 2 km. In areas that produce high-quality wheat and have weather conditions suitable for outdoor drying, somen has been produced as a side job for farmers in the winter.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

めん類の一種。古くは索麵（さくめん）といい，音便で〈さうめん(そうめん)〉。小麦粉を食塩水で練って太めのひも状に切り，その表面にまんべんなく綿実油を塗って細く長くのばし翌朝まで熟成させる。これを2本の棒を用いて絹糸のように細くのばし，天日乾燥したのち切断する。丸2日の工程を要するもので，極細の手延べそうめんの場合，1kgの粉が2km以上の長さになる。良質のコムギを産し，気象条件が戸外乾燥に適する地方では，農家の冬季の副業として生産されてきた。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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