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, slightly beat the eggs.
Add salt and enough flour to form a stiff dough.
Knead the dough until elastic.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Cut and cook
Cut the dough into ribbons or fancy shapes using a sharp knife or French cutter.
Cook the noodles in boiling salted water for 15 minutes.
Add the cooked noodles to hot soup.
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
- Eggs
- Bind the flour and add richness, structure and moisture to the dough.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
The step that matters
Knead the dough until elastic. Kneading develops the gluten network, which gives the noodles strength and chew. Under-kneaded dough tears when cut and cooks up soft and crumbly.
“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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