Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Noodles. Miss Vie Pittinger
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a saucepan, bring the cream and butter to a boil.
Stir in enough flour until the mixture clings to the spoon and leaves the pan.
Let it cool, then stir in the eggs and salt.
Cook the noodles
Drop spoonfuls into the soup.
Cook until the noodles are tender.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cream
- Provides richness and moisture that gives the dough a soft, tender body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
- Flour
- Gives structure to the mixture so it holds together as a dough.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and help it set firm as the noodles cook.
The step that matters
Stirring in the flour. Flour must be cooked into the hot cream and butter until the mixture pulls away from the pan. Stopping early leaves a sticky, starchy dough that can turn gummy when cooked.
“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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