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 noodles
Beat the egg well.
Mix in enough flour to form a stiff dough.
Roll the dough as thin as possible and let it dry for 25 minutes.
Cut the dried dough into 1-inch wide strips.
Stack the strips and cut them into small pieces crosswise.
Cook and serve
Stir the noodle pieces into the broth.
Boil for 20 minutes and serve immediately.
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).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 into a dough and adds richness and structure to the noodles.
- Flour
- Forms the stiff dough that gives the noodles their body and chew.
- Beef, veal, or chicken broth
- Provides the liquid and savory flavour in which the noodles cook.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough thin and letting it dry. Thin, partly dried dough holds its shape when cut and cooks through quickly. Dough rolled too thick or cut while still moist can clump or turn gummy in the broth.
“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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