Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Noodle Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Sift 1 pint of flour into a bowl and make a cavity in the center.
Break 4 eggs into the cavity, add ¼ teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons water.
Stir the eggs slowly with a knife until combined, then knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.
Divide the dough into 4 parts, roll each out thinly, and let dry.
Cut the dried dough into ½ inch wide strips.
Cook the noodles
Boil water in a kettle, add salt, and cook the noodles for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse with cold water.
Beat 8 to 10 eggs and mix with the drained noodles.
Bake
Grease a flat-bottomed iron kettle with drippings or goose fat.
Layer the noodles in the kettle, sprinkling with sugar, pounded almonds, grated lemon peel, and raisins between layers.
Bake for 2 hours.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the dough structure that holds the noodles together while baking.
- Eggs
- Bind the noodles and set during baking to give the pudding its custard-like body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
- Pounded almonds
- Add richness and a nutty flavor that complements the noodles.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar, almond, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, almond, raisin. 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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