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 ↓
Sponge Noodles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Slowly stir in the egg yolks.
Gently fold in the sifted flour and salt.
Cook and serve
Drop the mixture into boiling soup and cook for a few minutes on both sides.
Cut into pieces and serve with 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.
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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
- Whites whipped to a stiff foam give the batter its airy, light structure.
- Sifted flour
- Provides enough body to hold the batter together as it cooks.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth. Whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks. Under-whipped whites make a dense batter, and over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy and collapse when folded and 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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