Why it works: Beans and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,347 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
French Bean Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the French beans until tender.
Cut the beans in half.
Allow the beans to cool.
Serve
Serve in a salad bowl with oil and vinegar dressing.
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 + vinegartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,347 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- French beans
- Provide the main body and crisp-tender texture of the salad.
- Oil
- Adds fat and body to the dressing and carries flavour across the beans.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
The step that matters
Boil the French beans until tender. Overcooking makes beans soft and dull in colour, while undercooking leaves them fibrous. Stop cooking once they are just tender so they keep a pleasant bite.
“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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