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Haricot Beans

A simple boiled bean dish seasoned with salt, pepper, and optional butter, parsley, or onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Haricot Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the dried haricot beans in cold water for about 12 hours.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine the soaked beans with 2 quarts of cold water and a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Bring to a boil, then remove the cover and simmer slowly until the beans are tender, about 2 to 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with pepper and salt.

  2. Add melted butter and parsley.

  3. Stew with an onion for extra flavor.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. 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

Haricot beans
Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and creamy as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the cooked beans.
Onion
Contributes savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks with the beans.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until tender. Dried beans need a long, gentle simmer so their starches fully soften. Rapid boiling can break the skins and leave the beans unevenly cooked, so keep the pot at a gentle simmer and test for tenderness before seasoning is finalised.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, pepper, butter, onion):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cuminfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, pepper, butter, onion. 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.

More haricot beans recipes

Boiled 16with Bacon 6with Onions 5White 4Boiled White 3Plain 3 See all 42 →

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