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 ↓
Noodles for Soup
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Add salt and enough flour to form a stiff dough.
Shape and cut
Roll the dough into a thin sheet.
Fold the sheet over several times and cut thin slices from the end.
Cook in the soup
Drop the slices into the soup.
Other preparations
To brown flour for soup, place it in the oven at 400°F (200°C) and stir constantly until browned.
If using carrots in the soup, grate them for better texture.
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 adds richness and a tender, chewy structure to the noodles.
- Flour
- Its gluten forms the stiff dough network that holds the noodles together when rolled and cut.
The step that matters
Stir the flour constantly while browning it. Flour scorches quickly once its surface darkens, and stirring spreads heat evenly so it browns uniformly instead of burning in spots, which gives a bitter taste.
“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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