Name: Brown Haricot Soup
Ingredients: 1 lb brown haricot beans; 1.5 oz flour; 0.5 lb onions, chopped; 0.5 lb carrots, chopped; Flavouring to taste; Pepper to taste; Salt to taste; 0.5 lb milk powder (from skimmed milk and 4 pints water)

Why it works: Beans and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,443 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Brown Haricot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

Soak the beans overnight, then wash them.
Put the beans in a pan with water and bring to a boil.
If possible, pass the beans through a sieve and return them to the pan.

Cook the soup

Add the chopped carrots and onions, and cook until tender.
Half an hour before serving, add the suet dumplings.
A few minutes before serving, stir in the milk powder.

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.

Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,443 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,242 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown haricot beans: Starch softens during cooking and gives the soup its body and bulk.
Flour: Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the soup a fuller texture.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and body as they soften in the liquid.
Onions: Contribute savoury aroma and a flavour base as they cook down.
Milk powder: Adds richness and a creamy mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk powder a few minutes before serving. Milk solids can scorch or stick to the pan when held at a hard boil for long. Adding the powder near the end and stirring well dissolves it evenly and keeps the flavour fresh and smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, flour, carrot, pepper, milk powder, milk):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Sweet potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, flour, carrot, pepper, milk powder, milk. 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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Brown Haricot Soup