Dinner Tonight: Niku Udon

Name: Dinner Tonight: Niku Udon
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 quart water, at room temperature; 1 large pieces of kombu, approximately 10 by 4-inches, or about 1/2 ounce total, rinsed; 1 1/2 cups packed katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes); 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce; 1/2 cup mirin; 8 ounces beef, very thinly sliced; 1/2 cup firm tofu, cut into 1/4-inch cubes; 2 scallions, ends trimmed, chopped into 1-inch pieces; 1 pound dried udon noodles; 1/2 cup watercress

By seriouseats · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients

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Why it works: Kombu and watercress share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Dinner Tonight: Niku Udon

Serves 4

Prep30 min

Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

383Calories

37 gProtein

20 gFat

13 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 9 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Tofu	100g firm	76
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Watercress	1 cup (34g)	4
Water	not in our table	0
Kombu	not in our table	0
Katsuobushi	not in our table	0
Bonito	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By seriouseats. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

Kombu + watercresstop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Kombu + tofutop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Kombu + bonitotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Tofu + watercresstop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + tofutop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together48 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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