Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fried Noodles
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix the eggs and salt, then add flour until the dough doesn't stick to the board.
Roll the dough very thin and let it dry without becoming crisp.
Cut the dough into strips about 2 inches wide, then cut those strips into ¼ inch wide pieces.
Shake out the pieces and let them dry for about 30 minutes.
Cook and serve
Boil the noodles in water for 5 minutes, then drain in a colander.
Heat the butter and lard in a skillet and fry the noodles for about 20 minutes.
Transfer the noodles to a serving dish and sprinkle with fried bread crumbs.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter 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 flour into a dough that holds its shape when rolled and cut.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the noodles together through boiling and frying.
- Butter
- Adds fat for frying, contributing flavor and encouraging golden browning.
- Lard
- Adds fat for frying, helping the noodles brown and crisp at the edges.
The step that matters
Drying the rolled dough before cutting and frying. The dough must dry enough to stay firm when cut and boiled, but not become brittle. Too wet and the strips stick together; too dry and they crack and break apart.
“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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