Why it works: Flour and egg 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 ↓
Souffle for Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix flour with a little boiling water and a pinch of salt.
Remove from heat.
Add the eggs, mixing well.
Roll the mixture thin.
Shape
Cut into strips.
Cut into small pieces.
Roll the pieces in a sieve to shape them.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot lard until golden brown.
Serve on top of the 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.
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg 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
- Flour
- Forms the base dough that holds the shape of the pieces.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help bind the dough so it sets when fried.
- Hot lard
- Fries the pieces, creating a golden brown crisp outside.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the pieces absorb fat and turn greasy instead of browning quickly and crisping. Hot fat sets the outside fast, keeping the inside light.
“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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.