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 dough
Beat the egg well in a bowl.
Add the water and mix.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff.
Roll the dough thin and let it dry.
Cut and serve
Dredge with flour and roll into a large roll.
Cut the roll into very thin strips.
Shake out the strips and stir them into hot broth.
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
- Egg
- Binds the flour and water into a firm, elastic dough that holds its shape.
- Flour
- Builds the structure of the dough, and as it is worked in, makes it stiff enough to roll and cut.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff. Flour must be added slowly so the dough absorbs it evenly. Too much flour at once leaves dry patches, while too little leaves a sticky dough that is hard to roll thin and cut cleanly.
“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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