Name: French Beans and Tomatoes
Ingredients: French beans; chopped parsley; fresh tomatoes; coarse sea salt; black pepper; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

French Beans and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Boil the French beans until tender.
Place the beans in a salad bowl.

Assemble and serve

Add chopped parsley and fresh tomatoes cut into chunks.
Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, olive oil, and vinegar.
Toss gently to combine.

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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Beans + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,470 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,649 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

French beans: Form the main body of the salad and provide its tender texture after boiling.
Fresh tomatoes: Add juiciness and a fresh, slightly acidic flavor to the salad.
Olive oil: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the dressing.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the oil.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, tomato, pepper, olive, vinegar):

Chickpeafits about as well
Black-eyed peafits about as well
Beansthe original
Lentilsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, tomato, pepper, olive, vinegar. 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.