Why it works: Flour and egg 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 ↓
Easy Method of Making Macaroni and Vermicelli
Ingredients
Directions
Measure enough fine flour to make a stiff paste with 1 egg and 2 tablespoons of water.
Break the egg into the flour and add the water.
Knead the mixture until it forms a very stiff paste.
Cut the paste into pieces and roll them out with a rolling pin, flouring the surface to prevent sticking.
For vermicelli, roll the paste extremely thin; for macaroni, roll it to the thickness of a coin.
Before the paste dries completely, roll up the flat pieces and shred them into fine strands with a sharp knife.
Shake and separate the pieces with two forks and place them on floured cloths to dry.
If needed immediately, dry them quickly by the fire; otherwise, let them dry gradually for several months.
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 + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg 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
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