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Salad

Bean Salad, German

A salad of boiled string beans, onion, and ham or pork drippings dressed with vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,242 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Salad, German

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the string beans in salted water until tender.

  2. Drain the beans and slice the onion finely.

  3. Add the onion to the beans.

Dress and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the vinegar and ham fat to create a dressing.

  2. Pour the dressing over the beans and onion.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix thoroughly.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

String beans
Form the main body of the salad and stay firm when cooked until tender.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the salad its sharp, tangy flavour.
Ham or pork drippings
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the dressing, coating the beans and onion.
Onion
Adds sharp aroma and a pungent bite to the salad.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Lentilsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, ham, vinegar, 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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