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 ↓
Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the egg, water, and salt.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff.
Roll the dough very thin and let it dry on a cloth for about 2 hours.
Cut and cook
Fold the dried dough into a roll and cut it into fine strips with a sharp knife.
Slowly drop the noodle strips into the boiling stock, stirring lightly.
Boil briskly for 10 minutes, keeping the pot tightly covered.
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).
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Flour + chickentop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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 dough and adds richness and structure to the noodles.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
- Chicken or beef stock
- Cooks the noodles and flavours the soup as the liquid they simmer in.
The step that matters
Drying the rolled dough. The dough must dry long enough to become firm before cutting. If it is still moist, the strips stick together and turn gummy in the boiling stock.
“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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