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 ↓
German Noodles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix the eggs with enough flour to make a stiff paste.
Knead well, using plenty of flour until all moisture is absorbed.
Shape and cook
Roll the dough as thin as paper and dry it near the fire.
Cut into strips half an inch wide.
Poach the strips in a large pot of boiling salted water for 5 minutes.
Drain and serve in soup or alone with a good sauce.
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
- Bind the flour into a stiff dough and add richness and structure to the noodles.
- Flour
- Forms the dough's structure; kneading it in absorbs moisture so the dough becomes firm enough to roll.
The step that matters
Kneading until all moisture is absorbed. Flour must fully absorb the egg moisture. If the dough stays sticky it will tear when rolled and turn gummy when poached, so keep adding flour and kneading until it feels firm and dry.
“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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