PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for drying and hardening a noodle mass formed of easily deformable noodle lines with water content, making a gap between the noodle lines as uniform as possible.SOLUTION: A noodle mass M formed of an aggregate of easily deformable noodle lines with water content is accommodated in a basket 3 having many holes at the top and the bottom. The basket 3 is exposed to air flow from below, so that the noodle lines are floated in the basket 3, with a gap formed between the noodle lines. At the same time, a primary drying of the noodle lines is performed to an extent that the noodle mass M with increased apparent volume as a whole due to the gap formation has hardness not to collapse by inversion of the basket 3. Subsequently the basket 3 is inverted upside down to be exposed to air flow in the state, so that the noodle lines with a gap formed therebetween in the primary drying are floated and finished by secondary drying from the side opposite to that in the primary drying.
