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To Keep String Beans and Green Peas

This recipe preserves string beans and green peas by soaking, boiling, draining, and stewing them with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,733 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Keep String Beans and Green Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. String the beans and cut them into three pieces.

  2. Pack the beans in wide-mouthed stone jars, layering with fine salt.

  3. Soak the beans in cold water for at least 24 hours, changing the water until it no longer tastes salty.

  4. Drain the beans well and boil them until tender.

  5. Drain thoroughly to remove excess water.

Finish the beans

  1. In a saucepan, combine the beans with fresh butter and a little black pepper.

  2. Cover the pan and stew the beans in the butter until almost boiling.

Prepare and finish the peas

  1. For green peas, soak them in cold water for at least 24 hours, changing the water until it no longer tastes salty.

  2. Drain the peas well and boil them until tender.

  3. Drain thoroughly to remove excess water.

  4. In a saucepan, combine the peas with fresh butter and a little black pepper.

  5. Cover the pan and stew the peas in the butter until almost boiling.

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. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

  2. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peppertop 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

String beans
Main vegetable; salting and soaking season and soften them before they are cooked.
Fine salt
Preserves the beans by drawing out water and inhibiting spoilage, then is removed by soaking.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving the stewed vegetables a smooth texture.
Green peas (in the method)
Main vegetable treated the same way as the beans, becoming tender and mild when boiled and stewed.

The step that matters

Soaking to remove the salt. Soaking must continue, with the water changed, until it no longer tastes salty. Salt left in the vegetables will make the finished dish overly salty, while over-soaking can leach flavour and texture away.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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