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Crispy Noodle Cake

A fried noodle cake made with mung bean sprouts, Chinese egg noodles, and barbecued pork, flavored with soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Sesame and mung bean share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 26 recipes mention both. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

The recipe

Time5–7 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat, peanut, soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine cornstarch and 1 tablespoon cold water in a bowl. Mix in soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil.

  2. Heat mung bean sprouts in boiling hot water for 30 seconds. Drain in a colander.

  3. Add noodles to the boiling water and cook for approximately 5–7 minutes.

Stir-fry the filling

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in a wok. Add ginger, garlic, and minced green onions; cook for about 2 minutes.

  2. Mix in carrots, snow peas, and pork; cook for about 2–3 minutes.

  3. Add the bean sprouts, noodles, and green onion tops; cook for another 2–3 minutes.

  4. Add the cornstarch mixture and cook in the wok until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper to season. Allow noodles to cool.

Form and brown the cake

  1. Add 2 tablespoons peanut oil to a skillet over medium heat. Add the noodles. Cook until the bottom of the cake turns brown and crusty, about 5–7 minutes.

  2. Flip the cake and brown the other side. Slice the cake and serve.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sesame + mung beantop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  2. Sesame + peanut oiltop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together220 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  3. Mung bean + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  4. Mung bean + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  5. Sesame + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Not listed in this recipe.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the noodles and filling.
Dried chinese egg noodles
Form the bulk of the cake and become crisp on the browned base.
Soy sauce
Adds salty, savory flavor to the noodles and filling.
Chinese barbecued pork
Adds savory meaty flavor and texture to the filling.
Mung bean sprouts
Add crunch and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Browning the noodle cake in the skillet. The cake must be pressed and left undisturbed over medium heat so the base browns and crisps. Moving it too early tears the cake apart, and cooking too hot can scorch the outside before the inside is heated through.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sugar, sesame, mung bean, egg, peanut oil, ginger):

  1. Turmericabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Garlicthe original
  3. Corianderabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Cinnamonabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sugar, sesame, mung bean, egg, peanut oil, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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