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 ↓
Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine flour, eggs, and salt to form a stiff dough.
Roll out the dough very thin and let it rest for 1 hour.
Cut and dry the noodles
Roll the dough tightly and cut it into very thin strips.
Lay the noodles aside to dry.
Cook and serve
Drop the dried noodles into boiling chicken or beef broth.
Cook for 20 minutes.
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).
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Flour + chickentop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the noodles their structure and chew.
- Eggs
- Add protein and fat that bind the dough and make the noodles richer and more tender.
- Chicken or beef broth
- Forms the liquid the noodles cook in, carrying the flavor of the finished soup.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough cooks through quickly and stays tender, while thick dough stays dense and chewy in the center. Resting the dough relaxes the gluten so it rolls out without snapping back.
“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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