Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Noodles for Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the eggs, butter, sour cream, and a pinch of salt.
Gradually add flour until a stiff dough forms.
Knead the dough and roll it out very thin.
Cut and cook
Cut the rolled dough into narrow strips.
Cook the noodles in boiling water for about 30 minutes or until tender.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,832 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the noodles.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which tenderizes the dough and gives it a richer flavour.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity, helping keep the dough soft and pliable.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the noodles their body.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough cooks through evenly in boiling water and stays tender. Thick pieces stay chewy or raw in the centre, so the sheet needs to be rolled as thin as the record describes before cutting.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, cream, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Macadamia nutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, 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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