Tamarind – What to Do if You Buy Puree Instead of Paste

Organic merely tells you that the wheat that was grown, was grown in a more environmentally friendly way, ie. without the aid of pesticides. That on its own will have no effect on noodle stability.

They may be poor quality noodles, have gluten level issues, are they also wholewheat, do your regular udon have some form of strengthening additive like with ramen? Many noodles have kansui added, or whatever passes for that chemically (sodium carbonate) added to strengthen the dough. Of course it may not have been kneaded enough, too old, too dry.

The classic way to compensate for saltiness (especially in Asian cuisine) is to add something sweet (usually sugar), which tricks one's taste-buds into thinking that the food is both less salty and less sweet. (Ever wonder why a can of cola has 45+ mg of sodium? It's there partially to mask all the sweetness which gives you a sugar rush, and simultaneously make you thirstier!) I seem to recall reading a section on this phenomenon in On Food and Cooking, but my copy is back home. I'll try and post an excerpt later today. Update #2: I can't seem to find any mention of saltiness inhibitors in OFaC, however, there is a section on sweetness inhibitors (cf. page 663) so I must have been confusing it with that.

Update #1: I haven't gotten a chance to look at OFaC yet, however, I did find this study:

• An overview of binary taste–taste interactions by Keast and Breslin. Journal of Food Quality and Preference, 14 (2) 111–124. March, 2003. Elsevier.

It is a survey of research on both perceived and chemical reactions between different tastes.

When compounds eliciting tastes are mixed many outcomes are possible, including perceptual enhancement and suppression, unmasking of a taste not initially observed, or possibly chemical synthesis of a new taste.

The survey notes (see Sections 3.2 and 3.3):

At medium and high intensities/concentrations sweetness was generally suppressive of other basic tastes.

and also

Sweetness suppressed salty taste at moderate intensities.

It goes on to note that at even higher concentrations sweetness and other tastes are symmetrically suppressive (i.e., their tastes cancel each other out).