Name: String Beans
Ingredients: half pint milk; two ounces of melted butter; a teaspoonful of salt; one likes vinegar a little of it will improve the dish; six tomatoes; two eggs well beaten; pepper; salt

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

This delicious vegetable is rarely jjroperly cooked- When well prepared it is quite as healthful as peas. Take the pods as fresh and young as possible, and shred them as finely as a small knife will go through them, cutting them lengthwise, and, as it were, shaving them very thin. Put in- to salted boiling water and boil two hours. Then drain in a colander and serve with plenty of sweet butter, and they will be as delicate as peas. If one likes vinegar a little of it will improve the dish.
STEWED TOMATOES. Take six tomatoes, pour boiling water over them so as to remove the skin ; put them in a saucej^an. Add butter, pepper and salt. Let them cook fifteen minutes. Bread crumbs may be added.
Should be boiled nearly or quite an hour in plenty of water. Salt while boiling.
COEN FRITTERS. Put one can of Old Reliable Corn into a bowl with two eggs well beaten, half a teaspoonful of salt, a pinch cayenne pepper, half pint milk, two ounces of melted butter and enough sifted flour to make a stiff batter. Drop spoonfuls of this in smoking hot fat and fry same as doughnuts.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

360Calories

16 gProtein

25 gFat

19 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,226 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Vinegar + tomatotop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,063 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, vinegar, egg, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, vinegar, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.