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 water, salt, and egg.
Gradually stir in flour until a dough forms.
Shape the noodles
Roll the dough as thin as possible on a floured surface.
Let the rolled dough dry on the mixing board.
Roll the dried dough up like a jelly roll and slice it thinly.
Cook
Cook the noodles in boiling water for 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 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 as thin as possible. Thin dough cooks through evenly in boiling water and stays tender rather than doughy. Gluten that is rolled thin and allowed to dry holds its shape when cooked.
“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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