Name: Bean-n-Sausage Supper
Ingredients: 2 cups navy beans; 1 teaspoon olive oil; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 pound Italian sausage; 1 small carrot, peeled, diced; 1 stalk celery, diced; ¼ teaspoon dried sage; 3 cups beef broth; 1 cup water; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,443 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Navy beans: Provide the main body and starch that thickens the soup as they cook.
Italian sausage: Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the broth.
Onion: Softens and builds a sweet, aromatic base for the soup.
Beef broth: Supplies the liquid that cooks the beans and forms the soup's savory body.
Carrot: Adds subtle sweetness and body as it softens in the soup.

The step that matters

Sauteing the onion, garlic, and sausage. Stirring frequently keeps the onion and garlic from browning too fast and turning bitter, while the sausage renders fat that flavors the base. Cook until the onion is tender before adding liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, olive, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, sage):

Cuminfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, olive, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, sage. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Navy Bean	1/2 cup (91g) cooked	127
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Sage	1 tsp ground (0.7g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Bean-n-Sausage Supper