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Noodle Soup

A hearty beef broth with egg noodles, simmered for hours and served with diced meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, combine beef, marrow bones, sliced onion, and salt with cold water.

  2. Simmer for 6 hours.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool, then skim off grease.

Make and cook the noodles

  1. Reheat the broth and add noodles made from egg, salt, ice water, and flour.

  2. Cut noodles into ribbons and simmer until cooked.

Serve

  1. Dice some of the soup meat and serve with the soup.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Plate beef
Slow simmering breaks down its connective tissue, giving the broth body and savory meat flavor.
Marrow bones
Release fat and gelatin into the broth, adding richness and a fuller mouthfeel.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness to the broth as it simmers.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the noodle dough for a tender, sturdy noodle.
Flour
Its gluten network gives the noodles their chewy structure once rolled and cooked.

The step that matters

Cool the broth before skimming off grease. As the broth cools, fat rises and solidifies on top, so it can be lifted off cleanly. Skimming while the broth is still hot leaves more grease dispersed in the soup, making it heavier on the palate.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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