Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
French Beans
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the French beans into strips.
Boil the beans until tender.
Serve with melted butter and chopped parsley.
For Maitre d'hotel, serve with Maitre d'hotel sauce.
For Poulette, serve with Poulette sauce.
For black-butter, serve with black-butter sauce.
For aux fines herbes, serve in a butter sauce with chopped parsley and shallots.
For sautéed, sauté in butter with chopped parsley.
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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Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Beans + shallottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together147 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,376 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, sauce, shallot):
- Chestnutfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Cashew nutfits about as well
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, sauce, shallot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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