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 ↓
Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the noodles
To make noodles, beat the egg in a bowl.
Gradually add sifted flour until it absorbs the egg.
Mix in salt.
Roll the dough out as thin as a wafer.
Lightly dredge with flour.
Roll the dough into a large roll.
Slice from the ends to create strips.
Shake out the strips loosely.
Cook in the soup
Add noodles to strained beef or other soup.
Drop the strips into the soup.
Cook for 15 to 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).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg
- Binds the flour into a dough that holds together when rolled.
- Sifted flour
- Forms the gluten structure of the noodle dough, giving it chew once cooked.
- Beef or other soup
- Provides the liquid and savory flavor in which the noodles cook.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough thin. Thin dough cooks through evenly in the soup within the stated time. Dough rolled thick stays raw in the center and cooks unevenly. Light dredging with flour keeps the layers from sticking together.
“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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