Why it works: Beans and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,266 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the beans
Place the beans in a pot and cover with plenty of water.
Bring to a boil and cook until the beans are very tender.
Finish the soup
Mash the cooked beans.
Season with salt and stir in milk to achieve desired consistency.
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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Beans + milktop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,266 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beans
- Provide the main body and starch that thickens the soup when mashed.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and smooths the texture of the mashed beans.
The step that matters
Cook the beans until very tender. Beans that are not fully softened stay firm and grainy, and mashing them will not give a smooth soup. Cooking until they are very tender lets the starches and cell walls break down so the mashed beans blend into a uniform texture.
“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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