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Bean Porridge

A simple porridge made from soaked beans, optionally with pork or beef, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans overnight in water.

  2. Drain and place the beans in a pot with fresh water.

  3. Add pork or beef if using, and bring to a boil.

Simmer

  1. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender, about 1-2 hours.

  2. Add salt towards the end of cooking.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold.

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. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 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

Dried beans
Form the body of the porridge, softening and thickening as they cook down in the liquid.
Pork or beef
Adds savory meaty flavor and some fat to the broth as it simmers with the beans.

The step that matters

Simmer until fully tender. Dried beans soften slowly and unevenly. Stopping early leaves them firm and grainy, so cook until they are fully tender before serving.

“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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