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 dough
Beat the eggs and add the water in a bowl.
Gradually mix in flour until the dough is thick and barely rolls.
Roll out the dough as thin as a wafer and lay it on a cloth to dry for 1 hour.
Cut the noodles
Roll the dried dough up like a jelly cake and slice it very thin.
Shake out the strips of noodles.
Cook and serve
Bring the strained and seasoned broth to a boil.
Drop the noodles into the boiling soup and cook for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
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.
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + chickentop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
-
Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the noodles.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together and gives the noodles their body.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its seasoning and flavor.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough very thin before drying. Gluten in flour develops as the dough is worked, so a stiff dough that barely rolls is hard to stretch evenly. Rolling it thin and letting it dry firm up the sheet so it can be sliced cleanly into noodles that cook evenly 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.
You might also like
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipes
Chicken Panada75 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.