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A Green Bean Pudding

A green bean pudding made with boiled beans, egg yolk, cream, pepper, salt, butter, and served with bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Green Bean Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Boil the green beans until tender, then mash them.

  2. In a bowl, mix the mashed beans with the egg yolk, cream, pepper, and salt.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a basin and boil for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour melted butter over the pudding and serve with bacon.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Green beans + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together369 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Green beans + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together154 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green beans
Provides the bulk and body of the pudding once boiled and mashed.
Egg yolk
Sets when heated, binding the mashed beans into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture for a softer, richer texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carried by the melted topping over the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding gently in the basin. Egg yolk proteins set with heat, but too much heat can make them curdle and turn grainy. Keeping the water at a steady, moderate boil helps the custard set smooth and evenly.

Swap the green beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Green beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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