Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Noodles for Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the beaten egg and salt.
Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a dough.
Roll out the dough very thin on a well-floured surface.
Cut and dry the noodles
Sprinkle with flour and roll it up tightly.
Using a sharp knife, cut the rolled dough into thin strips.
Shake the strips out to dry.
Cook in soup
Add the noodles to soup and boil for about 20 minutes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the flour into a dough and adds richness and structure to the noodles.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough cooks through quickly and stays tender. Thick pieces remain dense and doughy in the broth. Flouring the surface prevents sticking so the sheet can be rolled evenly.
“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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