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
Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Gradually add sifted flour until a dough forms.
Season with salt while mixing the dough.
Roll out the dough until it is as thin as a wafer.
Dust with a little flour, then roll it up tightly.
Cut thin slices from the edge of the roll to create long strips.
Add the strips to the soup and boil for 10 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the noodles.
- Sifted flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and elasticity.
The step that matters
Roll out the dough until it is as thin as a wafer. Gluten in a dough that is rolled thin and kept lightly floured stays manageable and cooks quickly, giving tender noodles. Thick dough cooks unevenly and turns chewy.
“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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